Enzo Amore ‘works smarter’, pins Cedric Alexander to get a Cruiserweight title shot at No Mercy

WWE continued their push of Enzo Amore on Sept. 5’s 205 Live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Certified G won a Fatal 5Way elimination match to earn a shot at Cruiserweight champion Neville at Sept. 24’s No Mercy pay-per-view (PPV).

While it’s a move that will certainly upset a lot of people, the storyline makes a lot of sense. Amore started talking about ‘working smarter, not harder’ on Raw last night. Then in a pre-match promo tonight, Amore basically admitted he’s here to use his “gift of gab” to raise the show’s profile, despite not having worked on the indies for a decade like most of his roster-mates.

Zo stayed out of the ring for most of the match, letting Cedric Alexander, Gran Metalik, Tony Nese and The Brian Kendrick deliver the fast-pace and high spots the cruisers are known for.

Although he did take a beating, as you don’t want to let down fans who’ve grown accustomed to seeing him get ragdolled around on Raw...

After a gritty performance by Cedric to eliminate the other three men, the Smacktalker Skywalker slid in and rolled Alexander up - with a handful of tights.

Now, a man who just debuted on 205 Live three weeks ago is 4 - 0 in the division and headed to Los Angeles with a chance to defeat The King who’s ruled it all year and become the champ. He’s doing so with an angle designed to infuriate fans who follow things like rumors of backstage heat, and don’t think a sub-par worker should be featured on what’s supposed to be a showcase for their favorite in-ring technicians.

Meanwhile, crowds who are silent for most other cruiserweight action get loud when Enzo appears, and metrics like YouTube views are higher for clips with him in them than they’ve been for nearly anything else in 205 Live’s history.

Love it or hate it, WWE seems to be on to something.

How far will they take it? We’ll find out at No Mercy.