Real1 (Enzo Amore) on His Emotional Bray Wyatt Tribute Song: “I Owed It To Him”

We were backstage at ACW Mischief Night in Poughkeepsie, and while we're used to getting the "realest guy in the room," our conversation with Real1 (fka Enzo Amore) quickly became one of the most emotional and revealing interviews we've ever done.

The ACW National Champion considers the MGEN Center his "house," and the building holds a deep, personal meaning for him. Not only is it a place of insane wrestling history, but it's also the last place he ever worked with his close friend, the late Windham Rotunda (Bray Wyatt).

Real1 opened up about his friendship and the powerful tribute song he wrote for Windham on his new album, All Heat No Hope, which drops this Halloween.

An Emotional Tribute Song for Bray Wyatt

Real1 explained that his new song "Family" is a deeply personal track dedicated to Windham. He spoke about the difficulty of writing it and why he felt he was the one who had to do it.

"He died and I'm like, why would I make a song about... but then I thought to myself, who better? Who else?" Real1 said. "Nobody was there. So, if these wrestling fans really want to know what it's like to go through that, what it's like to experience that, listen to the song, and understand where I was mentally..."

He shared some of the powerful lyrics from the track:

"I always thought I'd see them again. They were fathers. They were husbands. They were good men. Dear Lord, why'd you take them? They were my friends... when you walk through the pearly gates, I can't imagine the pop you got."

Real1 continued, "The boys got the boys through life. And he got me through really hard times. He taught me a lot about this business. And I owed it to him to write a song because he believed in me in my music. He pushed me in that direction as a friend."

The Wildest Recycled Angle in WWE History

On the topic of history, Real1 dropped an absolute bombshell about his infamous breakup with Big Cass. As it turns out, the angle was a direct recycle of a Macho Man/Crush turn... and it happened on the exact same date in the exact same building.

"On this very day in 1993, Macho Man was turned on by Crush in a moment that nobody saw coming," Real1 explained. "Unbeknownst to us at the time, he [Vince McMahon] was just recycling an old idea... And they did it on October 18th, 1993. And we did it today, October 18th, 2025... in the same exact arena, Poughkeepsie, New York, what was formerly known as the Mid Hudson Civic Center."

Rapping vs. Wrestling & The Origin of "Canyon Seaman"

Real1 has always blended the worlds of music and wrestling, but he revealed that Triple H once made him choose.

"I was asked the question by Triple H, 'do you want to be a rapper or do you want to be a wrestler?' It wasn't, 'do you want to be both?'" he said. "And I said, 'I want to be a wrestler.' And so I put that... to the back burner and I focused and had tunnel vision and I got to a point in my life where now I can make the music and I'm blessed."

He also told one of the all-time great NXT stories: the hilarious decoy name he pitched to WWE creative.

"I put Canyon Seaman as my decoy name, but that was the head of HR at the time in the WWE and I thought they would think it was funny... Canyon Seaman. Yes, the head of HR. That's a loaded name."

Be sure to check out Real1's new album All Heat No Hope dropping on Halloween, October 31st.

We posted a ton of interviews in the last few days. Catch up on all of them here.