WWE releases Enzo Amore after Phoenix woman accuses him of rape
Jan 23, 2018, 2:06 PM | Updated: 8:14 pm
(Facebook Photo)
PHOENIX — World Wrestling Entertainment said Tuesday that it had reached release terms with wrestler Enzo Amore after a Phoenix woman accused him of rape.
The entertainment company announced the news in an extremely brief statement. Amore — whose real name is Eric Arndt — was suspended Tuesday, the same day his accuser gave her account of the incident on Twitter.
“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,” a statement from WWE read in full.
It was possible that Arndt had hidden the accusations from WWE.
I was told this morning that Enzo Amore was aware of the allegations and didn't clue WWE in.
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) January 23, 2018
In a statement released Tuesday, Arndt’s lawyers said he “fully and unequivocally denies those allegations.”
— Enzo Amore (@real1) January 24, 2018
The woman tweeted that she was contacted by two of Arndt’s friends — rapper and fashion designer Tyler Grosso and Instagram celebrity Too Poor — and invited to a hotel room on Oct. 19 near Third Avenue and Indian School Road in Phoenix.
The woman claimed she was given marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine before Amore allegedly made sexual advances at her.
[Arndt] told Too poor and [Grosso] that he was gonna rape me & at first they were like ‘please don’t like you really shouldn’t’ but then they gave up and were like ‘okay have fun’ Too Poor kissed me on the cheek & they left me there with them. It was such a brutal rape.
The woman also posted a screenshot of a conversation between her and Grosso the day after the alleged rape in which he inquired if she was “good.”
In an interview with TMZ, she claimed that she had told Arndt she did not want to have a sexual encounter before getting to know him and told him “no” and “please stop” multiple times to no avail.
She said she had post-traumatic stress disorder because of the alleged incident.
Arndt posted a photo on Instagram on Oct. 18 that indicated he was in Phoenix.
The Phoenix Police Department said it received a report about the alleged crime on Oct. 23 and was investigating the matter.
KTAR News 92.3 FM has requested police documents in the case.