It’s easy to watch an episode of “Raw” and feel disappointed about the overall direction of the WWE. For starters, we are hearing about a “New Era,” and meanwhile, the roster is still full of talent that has been there for a long time (e.g. Chris Jericho, Brock Lesnar, Kane, Big Show, Sheamus, Mark Henry). Furthermore, a lot of the recent NXT call-ups have been busts in spite of the talent involved (e.g. Bo Dallas, Tyler Breeze, Adam Rose, Baron Corbin, The Ascension, The Vaudevillains). However, there are a number of NXT alumni that one can look at as having been successful, and Enzo Amore and Colin “Big Cass” Cassady are among that small category.
Why Enzo and Big Cass are successful has nothing to do with them being among the best or most experienced workers. It has nothing to do with them being relatable; most people from New York, like yours truly, and New Jersey dislike people who act like them. It has nothing to do with their theme song, which lacks melody. It has nothing to do with the duo’s believability, in terms of believing that they could beat up whoever is in front of them. And it also has nothing to do with originality, as they’re not the first “street” characters, nor the first “Italian” characters.
So what do I think their popularity has to do with? In my opinion, it’s their overall charisma. The charisma comes through in their ring entrance. The charisma comes through within the pre-match promo. Similar to how a good classroom teacher holds the attention of their students by knowing how to make everyone feel engaged, the two of them are able to hold onto the crowd without most of the tools that other WWE talent generally needs to get the crowd’s attention (e.g. pyrotechnics, dimmed lighting, a specialized costume on top of their ring gear, a ring announcer’s introduction). Their act has something for everyone in it, as the promos often involve double entendres.
But perhaps as important as that charisma is that Enzo and Cass are playing to Paul Heyman’s known ECW formula of maximizing one’s strengths and minimizing one’s weaknesses. There has been a promo cut by the tag team before every televised match of theirs. Their matches so far have been classic tag team fare, where the smaller guy needs to hot-tag the bigger guy after taking a beating. Their main catch phrase is on the brightest-colored shirts sold by WWE and is only four syllables; three syllables if you have a terrible Jersey accent. The promos tend to be a mix of pop culture references, insults, rhymes, and catch phrases. Enzo and Cass have their handful of specialities and they deliver them.
In addition to the charisma and the emphasis of strengths, Enzo and Cass were not overexposed or forced down the throats of the WWE Universe. They got over in NXT against all odds — sure, they were given promo time, but their matches were never the main event of NXT programming. In turn, the diehard fans latched onto them. Then comes a major live event like NXT Takeover, full of diehards from all over the place endlessly cheering the duo in a lower-card spot, which gets other people excited organically. Then comes a main roster at a time when the WWE main roster needs a tag team division boost, in front of a diehard post-pay-per-view crowd with a monster reaction. When the WWE Universe is told to like someone, the reverse usually happens. Thus, why Roman Reigns is not going to be “the guy” as long as the booking keeps telling us that he should be.
Applying these lessons to Roman Reigns…Let’s say that — hypothetically — he is believable as a worker and has a great look, but he is terrible on the mic. Well, rather than forcing him to cut awful promos, why not play up his strengths and minimize his weaknesses by pairing him up with a good talker? Or if he must speak, why not minimize the amount he speaks, cutting it to down to just a few catch phrases?
Overall, there are a mix of things that WWE ought to take away from the popularity of Enzo and Big Cass:
– As Enzo does most of the talking and working for the two, a lot of fans don’t necessarily gravitate towards the larger-sized talent.
– Characters ought to be an extension or exaggeration of who the talent normally is.
– Sometimes your heels become your babyfaces by accident, and vice versa.
– Catch-phrases work when they are paired with good acting.
– Humor does work in wrestling, and doesn’t have to consist of John Cena-esque insults.
– Everything’s been done before, but if you’re the only person doing something at a given time, it still stands out.
Alas, three cheers for Enzo and Big Cass — a tag team that doesn’t need titles or main event status to get some of the loudest cheers every night. They break the rules every way possible, and we can always count on them for bringing “Raw” out of the duldrums.
