New Yorker to fight for Raw's top title on Monday night
Monday 29 August 2016 13:02, UK
A new WWE Universal Champion will be crowned on Monday's edition of Raw when Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens and Big Cass meet in a Fatal Four-Way.
Much is known about Rollins and Reigns - two and three-time world champions respectively - while Owens has continued to make a splash since beating John Cena in his debut match on the main roster.
But what of Big Cass? Who is this giant New Yorker who could be Raw's top dog? Read on for the lowdown…
Ring name: Big Cass
Birth name: William Morrissey
Twitter handle: @BigCassWWE
Finishing Move: East River Crossing
WWE main roster debut: April 2016
Brand: Monday Night Raw
He's huge
Standing at 7ft tall - give or take - Cass is difficult to overlook. The Queens-born Superstar is larger than Kevin Nash, The Undertaker and Big John Studd, although he has nothing on the 7ft 4in Andre the Giant and 8ft Argentine Giant Gonzalez! Cass' size, perhaps unsurprisingly, led to him playing basketball in his younger days - the 30-year-old serving as a center for New York University between 2005-2006 and 2008-2009.
He's got an entertaining mate
Cass began shooting hoops long before university, meeting his tag-team partner, Enzo Amore, on a court in Manhattan at the age of 15. Big Cass brings the muscle to their pairing, with journalism graduate Amore - the self-proclaimed Smacktalker Skywalker and Michael Jordan of Jargon - providing the gift of the gab, as he proved when he traded barbs with fellow wordsmith Chris Jericho on a recent episode of Monday Night Raw.
He has progressed through NXT Cass and Amore lost contact when they hit college - Amore heading for Salisbury University in Baltimore as Cass remained in The Big Apple. Yet they were reunited after signing for WWE's NXT brand, with decision-makers wasting little time putting them together. The friends never captured NXT's tag titles, losing to Blake and Murphy and current champions The Revival, but their booming fan reaction saw them move to Raw.
He has impressed on Monday Night Raw
Cass and Amore debuted on the red brand the night after WrestleMania earlier this year - and may well have gone on to become WWE Tag Team Champions had Amore not suffered a concussion against The Vaudevillains in a No 1 contender's match at Payback. Amore is fit and healthy again now but Cass has impressed in singles competition, most notably last week when he beat Rusev via count-out to reach Monday's Fatal Four-Way.
He's got cool nicknames
There are plenty of eye-catching nicknames in WWE - we'll be testing you on them later in the week in a skysports.com quiz - and Cass' monikers are no different, the powerhouse known as The Big Bambino and The Babe Ruth of Beatdowns. Cass has also put the word 'Sawft' into wrestling fans' vernacular - he spells it out and shouts it in an East Coast twang to opponents he deems are lacking a little toughness.
He's never forgotten his roots
You can take the man out of New York… Cass now travels all around the world with WWE - he'll be on the UK tour this autumn - but always channels the spirit of The Big Apple with his most notable moves. His spinning side-slam is named the East River Crossing, while his theatrical elbow drop is called the Empire Elbow. Will Cass use either of those weapons to win the WWE Universal Championship on Monday Night Raw?
Find out by watching WWE Raw, from 1am, Monday (Tuesday morning) on Sky Sports 5.
