All throughout The Attitude Era, The New Age Outlaws were one of the hottest acts in wrestling and not just the tag team division either, the entire WWE. The instant “Oh, you didn’t know?!” rang throughout the arena, the fans were “singing along” every step of the way. There’s only one comparison to the Outlaws and that’s The Realest Guys In The Room - nZo and CaZXL.In NXT and the main roster, Enzo and Cass had that same kind of energy. Even the team dynamic was the same, Enzo had the gift of gab and was slightly less athletic than Big Cass, who was a seven-foot ("and you can't teach that") monster that was rapidly getting better in the ring. So of course, in spite of getting over, the team was broken up, and shortly after, both guys were gone.
Enzo And Cass Were Friends Before WWE
The two native tri-staters actually knew one another years ago; both future WWE stars became friends in Manhattan’s famous street basketball court, The Cage. Years later each man found their way to NXT and once again became fast friends. As a team, they were perennial babyfaces that the crowd had consistently hoped would one day be able to capture the NXT tag team championships. But instead of that happening, they got drafted to the main roster and debuted the Raw after WrestleMania 32 to a thunderous ovation and the entire arena went banana with a chorus of “How you doin'?!” While they were together for almost two years, they didn’t have a huge run on the main roster, seemingly thanks to Enzo’s mouth.
The Two Were Split Up Prematurely
While splitting up a tag team isn’t always a bad thing, when there is seemingly no reason for it and the storyline is questionably lame, it’s very hard for the fans to buy into it. Especially since they weren’t ready to boo either just yet and at least on-screen, Enzo was supposed to be the babyface! But he certainly wasn’t acting like one — trying to hit on another man’s wife (Lana) and expecting Cass to clean up the mess.
Big Cass wasn’t doing much better, and he orchestrated Enzo getting attacked in the parking lot instead of being a man and just ending the partnership. Their brief feud ended at SummerSlam 2017 with Big Show taking on Big Cass on Enzo’s behalf with the big mouth locked in a shark cage so that he couldn’t interfere. Unfortunately, the one-time friends were also at odds backstage too, when Cass’ knee was injured in a match with Enzo and Amore criticized Big Cass for not finishing the match.
Both Enzo And Cass Had Heat Backstage
Besides the fans not being into the storyline split and their eventual backstage drama tearing them apart, the team wasn’t into what they were given. With Cass’ knee injury, Enzo and his mouth made him a heel, and he became the Cruiserweight champion as well — headlining the third hour of Raw and 205 Live at the same time, much to the consternation of some people in the locker room (Pac refused to come back to work and plenty of people believe this was the reason). Enzo found his way to supposedly being a locker room cancer that Roman Reigns tossed him off the tour bus. However, the nuclear heat Amore obtained he held onto it and turned himself into a smack-talking heel that actually had people watching 205 Live. But on the eve of Raw 25, which was a crowning achievement for the company, Enzo made salacious news. This cost him his growing spot in the company. Cass returned to the main roster on Smackdown and started a feud with Daniel Bryan but after going off script and attacking a little person, he too found himself on the bread line.
In the years since their WWE run, Cass has worked for Impact mostly while Enzo has started a music career and crashed the 2018 Survivor Series to get some more heat for himself. The two guys patched up their differences as well and reformed their team on the Independent circuit.
It seems like what went wrong for the Realest Guys In The Room is that WWE wasn’t ready to push them to where the fans got them to and decided to break them up if we’re playing armchair booker. The moment they broke up was the beginning of the end for these two. Thankfully they’re both still hustling and getting better. Perhaps sooner than later, there will be another reunion for the FreeAgentZ.