Big Cass Has Been Released

I guess they can't teach staying employed...
Photo Credit: WWE.com

In surprising, but not all that surprising news, William Morrissey, better known as Colin "Big Cass" Cassady, has been let go from his WWE contract. According to Dave Meltzer, Vince McMahon called a meeting with the now former superstar before Smackdown last night and fired him in person. The reasons are related to drinking, but one couldn't be blamed if they thought more was under the skin. The fact that the press release didn't wish him luck in his future endeavors feels ominous. The only other person WWE has fired that it hasn't given such wishes to recently has been his former tag partner, Enzo Amore, who as all knows was fired for not disclosing that he was under investigation for rape. Still, the decision came just two days after he lost to Daniel Bryan in the early going of Money in the Bank.

Morrissey was reported to be not well-liked in the locker room. He was a loud, proselytizing Donald Trump supporter, which even in the conservative WWE locker room won him no real friends. He even allegedly loudly complained backstage about having to put Bryan over for the second pay-per-view in a row. The reason given to Paul Levesque's official mouthpiece at Sports Illustrated, Justin Barrasso, is that his drinking and namely, his attitude while drunk, caused WWE officials to sour on him.

The catalyst for his dismissal, or at least the thing that made people not tolerate his shit as much, was blatantly going off-script before Backlash. In a segment where he brought out a little person dressed as Bryan, he was instructed not to beat the shit out of him after he asked. Morrissey ignored directive and went on with the beatdown anyway. McMahon was reportedly furious at the disobedience. Once Morrissey was shown to be a loose cannon or someone who went into business for himself to officials, the other stuff became less and less tolerable. Personally, I might empathize with him on the little person incident, mainly because McMahon talks about grabbing the brass ring, and something like that might be construed by a hungry young wrestler as doing just that. Additionally, if the drinking was a problem, was rehab ever discussed? For a company that likes to paint itself as compassionate to its independent contractors, you'd think it have at least offered.

Morrissey was a generic big guy in Florida Championship Wrestling and NXT until he was paired with Amore. They formed a highly entertaining tag team that got over on mic work and catchphrasing rather than character growth or wrestling acumen. When they got to the main roster, they were a hot act for a little bit until bad creative put them in some questionable angles (like one where the fans were to expect Amore was a babyface for attempting to fuck Lana, a married woman) and the grind of main roster scheduling exposed their act as being shallow. WWE had the idea to break them up and had Cass turn on Amore in vicious fashion. His initial run was truncated thanks to an ACL tear. When he got back, he was paired with Bryan, but the feud never really evolved past Cass saying "ME BIG, YOU LITTLE."

While Morrissey's talent was nonexistent and the rumored Trump fandom casts him in a dubious light, it's still not cool to dance on someone's unemployment, at least officially. Personally, I won't necessarily miss him, and I'm angry that potentially part of Bryan's last few months in a WWE ring (his contract expires in September) was wasted on him rather than going against someone who could provide a better canvas for him should he end up leaving after SummerSlam. But life is life, I guess.