WWE's Cruiserweight woes could continue, as their champion Enzo Amore has been accused of rape and subsequently suspended, then released by WWE. Fightful.com spoke to the accuser on Monday afternoon.
Twitter user @MissGucciWitch (real name Philomena Sheahan) posted a series of tweets indicating that Amore -- real name Eric Arndt raped her in the early hours of October 19 at the Clarendon Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona with the aid of Tyler Grosso and Twitter user @TooPoor_. Below are Tweets.
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(sic)) & Tyler Grosso & TOOPOOR let it happen as accomplices. I was in a mental hospital for 45 days after it. They ARE NOT good people. Most people only blame Enzo but believe me Tyler & Layla were 100% aware & involved & hopefully if these charges go though & they all get prosecuted I’ll feel so much safer.
Though no charges have been pressed against of yet, the accuser claimed on Twitter that she reported the situation and went to the emergency room in the days following the alleged attack in addition to filing a police report When speaking to Fightful, she clarified that she went to the hospital to get a full rape kit done four days after it happened, and got a swab done at her doctor's the day prior.
WWE issued a statement to Fightful.com Monday at 5 pm EST, stating they'd suspended Amore. I'm told WWE wasn't aware of the accusations prior.
“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 afternoon, WWE announced instead that they'd come to terms on the release of Enzo Amore. Fightful.com was told by multiple sources that WWE were "livid" because they believe Enzo was aware of the allegations, and didn't inform them before it broke Monday, which led to the firing. Fightful can confirm Enzo Amore was backstage at Monday's Raw even after being suspended. PWInsider reported that he was slated to face Goldust, which would have turned into a segment to use The Dudley Boyz. It's worth noting that Enzo Amore was steadfast in saying that he wasn't aware of the investigation until news broke.
Enzo Amore posted a statement from his attorney Timothy Eckstein Tuesday night.
We can confirm Enzo Amore was in Arizona at the time of the accused rape on October 19, attending a concert in Glendale, Arizona the 18th before a day off and traveling to St. Louis for a WWE show the next day.
Following the accusations, Sheahan spoke to Fightful about the situation and her side of things.
"Layla (TooPoor) posted to a couple of her fans and said 'Who's down to suck dick?' I wasn't down to suck dick, but I thought she's probably down to hang out. I had been a fan of hers for a long time because I thought she was a really cool person. She messaged me and we DM'd back and forth -- the police have the DM's, I gave them my phone and they copied everything off of it. She invited me to the hotel all three of them were staying at. I had been a little drunk, but not too drunk to drive. I drove all the way over there -- I was in Tempe and they were staying in Phoenix. She came to my car and walked me into the hotel and said 'are you really down to suck his dick?' I said 'I don't know if I'm really down to suck his dick, but if he's cute and we get along, then maybe. If not I just want to hang out," said Sheahan to Fightful.
According to Sheahan, there were drugs all over the hotel room, which would later play a factor into her becoming incapacitated. Sheahan said that she was 8 months sober from all drugs outside of her prescribed medication before the alleged meeting on October 19.
"I walk into the hotel room and there's cocaine everywhere. They're smoking weed and everything. We just started doing drugs," she said. "Then they pulled out a different bag. I expected it to be a better version of cocaine -- like top shelf that they had. They started giving it to me and I did like three lines in a row. It must have had meth or something I don't even know, because I was literally was sitting there on the couch. I could hear what they were saying, I couldn't speak, I was frozen. I can't say I was unconscious, but I was not there."
Sheahan later told TMZ that Enzo Amore told her that she "should be begging for his dick" because he has a million Instagram followers. She also mentioned that she saw a used condom when she came to.
While incapacitated, Sheahan specified that she could hear a conversation between TooPoor and the WWE Cruiserweight Champion with some disturbing dialogue.
"Enzo Amore goes 'Layla thank you for bringing this girl around. This is the type of girl I've been waiting for... that I can just destroy. She's such a lightweight, she doesn't even know what's going on. I'm going to rape the shit out of her.' At first Layla and her boyfriend are like 'Dude, come on are you for real? That's kind of fucked.' And (Enzo) was like 'No, I'm doing it. I don't care what you say.'"
After reciting the conversation, Sheahan says she couldn't recall the conversation verbatim but was "pretty sure" it concluded with Enzo Amore telling Tyler Grosso and TooPoor to leave after disputing Amore's plans.
"Layla grabbed her bags, and Tyler grabbed his bags, then Layla came up and gave me a kiss on the cheek and said 'have a fun night!," Sheahan told us.
Traditionally in situations where a rape or other sexual assault has been indicated in an emergency room, a SARC exam is conducted to collect DNA from several places and the authorities are contacted. In WWE's instance, there's a Wellness Policy in effect in an attempt to curb the use of drugs among their wrestlers. However, the specifics are often not released to the public.
Sheahan told Fightful that she's had no contact with Enzo Amore or TooPoor since then, but that Tyler Grosso messaged her on Twitter to check on her the following morning between 8 and 9 am local time.
"When I woke up I was in a panic attack shock, I didn't know what to do. Enzo was still sleeping. I looked at my phone and Tyler had texted me saying 'are you good?' I was thinking 'maybe I could still be their friend,' like an annoying fan. I texted him 'yeah,' and the last thing I had ever said to him," Sheahan said.
As far as police involvement, Fightful has contacted Phoenix PD in an effort to gain a copy of the police report. They told us they're currently waiting on lab results from the case, but confirmed Sheahan filed a report on Monday, October 23rd, 2017, at around 2:30 p.m. from a Phoenix hospital.
"I went and they did the whole investigation and took pictures and everything," Sheahan said. "I had bruises and went 100 percent unconscious at one point because he threw me against the bed and I went unconscious. It has really been messing me up since it happened. I almost blame myself. I couldn't get out of bed for weeks."
In regards to the 45 day mental hospital stay she claims to have underwent, Fightful questioned her ability to use Twitter during that time, which Sheahan says a friend helped her with.
"There were phases, and in the second phase you could use your phone," Sheahan told us. My roommate at the facility made it to phase 2 before me, and she would let me use her phone. I left the hospital before my stay was over against medical advice because it was a terrible facility.
The aforementioned "TooPoor" -- real name Layla Shapiro, spoke on the accusations on Twitter shortly after they became public, before later deleting the tweets.
People are quick to believe everything they read on the fucking 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. If I have to I will speak the fuck up when appropriate. I've never done meth in my entire life i don’t even know what it looks like and I wouldn’t associate with anyone who does that either. I RESPECT ANYONE STRONG ENOUGH TO SPEAK UP ABOUT ASSAULT, IF ITS FUCKING TRUE. CLINGING ON TO FAMOUS PEOPLE AND LYING ABOUT A CASE FOR A CHECK IS SICK AND ILLEGAL AND THE TRUTH ALWAYS COME TO THE LIGHT. PUT ME UNDER A LIE DETECTOR RIGHT NOW. IDK if you want a check or publicity but lying puts you in jail.
@MissGucciWitch works as a Snapchat model while Grosso gained a following as an assistant to the rap group A$AP Mob before dating "TooPoor." Shapiro is a fashionista and style blogger.
Enzo is connected to the two accused of aiding him, as he follows both on Twitter, and is featured in photos with Grosso.
Sheahan has stated in a recent video that she's on a variety of medications for depression, and faked a pregnancy after an ex-boyfriend broke up with her -- who she also says practically raped her following a miscarriage she had. The video emerged shortly after the accusations, which caused her to come under fire. She specified to Fightful that using depression medication wasn't a result of the incident, as she's been on it since the age of 14.
"I've been on depression medicine since I was 14," Sheahan said. "I suffer with depression, anxiety and bipolar. After the incident, they diagnosed me with borderline personality disorder. They said that it can develop from traumatic incidents and that it's very possible the incident triggered that."
"When I faked the pregnancy, I was off all my medicine. I've been on all my medicine for six months, and I haven't done anything crazy since probably a year ago," said Sheahan.
In a twist that you truly can't make up, a face and voice that appeared on Sheahan's Youtube videos came forth Tuesday and stated that she made up the entire story. In his own Youtube video, Sam Cook -- identified as a former friend of Sheahan who has ceased communication with her -- ran a video of screenshots, and explained how he was originally told the story by Sheahan.
According to Cook, Sheahan's accusation of rape was a cover up in order to get her out of trouble with her father and roommates. She's allegedly met her roommates at a sobriety meeting, and Cook also claims that she recounted having consensual sex with Amore and that it "was amazing." Cook says that had Sheahan's sober roommates found out that she'd done drugs, they would have informed her father, who pays for her car.
Cook claims that while Sheahan was concerned her father would find out where she was, she actually had her location on the entire time, showing that she was still in Phoenix until the afternoon of October 19. Sheahan's father reportedly told her that she's going to get kicked out of her house if she doesn't go to rehab (which she told Fightful was at Sovereign Health Of Arizona.) It was then that Cook claims that she made up the story about being drugged and raped. Cook noted that wasn't the story that Sheahan was telling her friends at the time.
Cook says that when Sheahan's father took her to Sovereign Health, they told her that she couldn't come to rehab until she'd been medically tested -- which led to the aforementioned doctor and emergency room trips and police reports. Cook alleges that Sheahan exited rehab because watching the "Wizard of Oz" triggered her, and her therapist was Lutheran.
In the text messages that Cook displays on screen, Sheahan allegedly says "Im going to fucking rehab today. I met Too Poor & did coke with her & Tyler and fuck(ed) their friend," later saying "Belive it or not bitch it happened & I'm laying in bed next to a famous wrestler."
Typically these sort of claims aren't given any credibility, but Fightful.com did verify the nature of the Cook's relationship with Sheahan being close, although volatile in recent weeks. Cook has not submitted the evidence he claims to have to Phoenix PD as of yet.
Fightful contacted Sam Cook and inquired as to whether or not he'd contacted Phoenix PD or vice-versa, and he issued us the following statement:
Unfortunately, because the messages did not come from my phone (they came from my friend) there isn't a lot I can do in this situation. The police, hopefully, were able to obtain those texts when she handed over her phone back around the date she filed with the police department. The detectives working on the case went through @toopoor_ to obtain the screenshots (I dm'd them to her when she asked for them) and I told her I would be more than willing to speak with a detective. As for if Philomena "MissGucciWitch" has been in contact with me, she attempted to facetime call me yesterday (before the video) and was "so excited" to tell me she got to be on TMZ and she asked my friend, who was next to me and answered the phone call off of her phone because I have Philomena blocked, "Do I look good? I hope my makeup looked good, how's my hair? I'm going to be on television tomorrow I'm so f****** excited!!!" but she became super aggressive when I was handed the phone and told her what she did was wrong, and she told me I should "go kill myself" for not lying to people, and then hung up. But, she did post on her snapchat story about me- saying that I "leaked her phone number and address in the video" although.. if anyone watched they could clearly see her phone number, and personal information was not mentioned. This entire situation is super messy, and I feel gross for accepting this kind of attention-- but at the end of the day, attention on my video can hopefully garner attention towards Enzo's innocence, as well as @toopoor_ and @tylergrosso. As well as the injustice Philomena has done for sexual assault survivors.
Amore's character has come into question both inside and outside of wrestling which has transcended real life and onto WWE programming. He was infamously rumored to have been kicked out of the WWE locker room by Roman Reigns, which he denied on a recent WWE Network interview with Corey Graves. Those we spoke to in WWE told us that he'd been dressing in a smaller room of his own since it happened. We've been told repeatedly that he buys into the character that he portrays on television and has been warned over and over about the company he kept and the type of situations that he puts himself in.
In the hours after publishing the original story, Sheahan posted links to both Fightful and Forbes on her Snapchat with the quotes "swipe up to see how fucked up my life is," and "look momma I made it to Forbes!!"
Fightful.com has reached out to all parties --including WWE -- involved for comment, although only Sheahan and WWE replied.
Note that we posted both the tweets, and the comments in blockquotes separately (in the event the tweets are deleted) and edited for spelling in the latter. Credit to Cuh Revere on Twitter for helping out with some information.
