According to Enzo Amore, he was going to be paired with Nia Jax in the WWE Mixed Match Challenge Series for a very specific reason prior to his WWE release.

During a recent appearance on the Store Horsemen podcast, Amore, who goes by the name Real1 both in hip-hop circles and on the independent pro wrestling scene, claimed the pairing with Nia prior to his release in the WWE MMC was done as a way to keep him from being a clear-cut babyface or heel, but instead, lying somewhere in the middle.

“I was getting so much heat it was awesome that people probably won’t appreciate it until five, ten years from now,” Amore said. “Like a babyface transition that I made and on a marketing level too it was crazy and Vince wanted me in that grey area though. He didn’t want me full-blown. He had plans to make me full-blown that nobody else knew about, not even the other people that were involved in it.”

The Real1 continued, “I mean look at that Nia / Alexa Bliss WrestleMania blow-off. What do you think was gonna happen? How else could I get full-blown heat? Enzo Amore with the grey area trying to get full-blown heel real, real f–king heat. How do you do that? I’m using Nia as a heater to keep my title and I get caught hooking up with her best friend backstage. Bang, that’s how you do it. Nia didn’t know that. Alexa didn’t know it. I knew that because Vince told me […] I was just toying along with her I wanted her to win me matches, I wanted her to be like Chyna.”

Check out the complete episode of the Store Horsemen podcast featuring the Enzo Amore (Real1) interview at Soundcloud.com.