WWE superstar Enzo Amore has been accused of rape. Twitter user @missgucciwitch, who goes by the name Philomena, has accused Amore of raping her back on October 19, in Phoenix, Arizona. She made the accusations public on her Twitter page on Monday, January 22.
Her post read: “OKAY..it’s been long enough & I have been so so scared to share this. I was raped in mid-October by the WWE Enzo Amore (also known as Eric Arden) & Tyler Grosso & TOOPOOR let it happen as accomplices. I was in a mental hospital for 45 days after it. They ARE NOT good people.”
The alleged victim states that TooPoor, a style blogger, whose real name is Layla Shapiro, and designer Tyler Grosso were present during the incident and did nothing to stop the assault. @missgucciwitch claims that Shapiro was not only present but was responsible for drugging her and leaving her “for dead.” She has also made the accusation that Tyler Grosso set up other girls to be raped by his WWE pal, Enzo Amore. She also adds that the hotel room contained large amounts of marijuana, meth and cocaine.
Layla Shapiro turned to Twitter to deny her involvement in the situation but quickly removed the tweet. The now deleted tweet read: “people are quick to believe everything they read on the f–king internet. I’ve been framed and accused and I refuse to expose people with my platform. I don’t believe in that. I am innocent and I’m sick of being seen as the bad guy. lying manipulating and deceiving people is sick. Lying gets people put in jail.
Tyler Grosso has remained silent about the allegations. I reached out to both Shapiro and Grosso, but neither responded.
Within hours of the media picking up @missgucciwitch’s tweet, the WWE released the following statement: “WWE has zero tolerance for matters involving sexual harassment or sexual assault. Until this matter is resolved, Eric Arndt (aka Enzo Amore) has been suspended.”
The following day the WWE released a brief statement announcing that Enzo had been released from his contract.
Amore had worked for the WWE since 2012. He began his WWE career in NXT as the tag team partner of Big Cass. The duo moved up to the main roster together. Amore is currently part of the Cruiserweight division where he holds the cruiserweight title. There is no doubt a tournament to crown a new Cruiserweight Champion will be announced soon. It will be interesting to see how the loss of Amore will hurt the already struggling 205 Live.
The Phoenix police have confirmed that @missgucciwitch did go to the hospital and report the alleged rape on the 19th of October. Officials state that the alleged incident took place at the Clarendon Hotel and Spa located on 3rd Avenue and Indian School Road. The police were made aware of the situation when they responded to a local hospital to take a sexual assault complaint. No other information is available at the time because the situation is still under investigation.
With the report being filed with police back in October, it isn’t clear why the story didn’t break before now. It could be because the report was made under Amore’s real name and it slipped through the cracks. Amore, however, was aware of the accusations and did not inform the WWE about the issue, which may have contributed to his release.
Enzo Amore has since publicly denied the allegations in a legal statement. There is also a youtube video available that a former acquaintance of Philomena taped stating his skepticism of the claim. See the video here
Who knows where this all will lead but when more information is available Sports Al Dente will be there to provide the facts.