These days, Big Cass goes by "CaZXL" and he's currently trying to make an impact on the independent scene after overcoming his issues with alcoholism. During a recent appearance on
Talk is Jericho, the former WWE Superstar was asked about his departure from WWE and explained that his downward spiral all began when he went off script.
As you may recall, that happened in May 2018 when he attacked a little person who had been dressed up as Daniel Bryan during an episode of
SmackDown Live.
"So I was just out of control, drinking a lot, going off script on live television, which was a very, very big mistake. Yes, yeah, I went out there in Montreal [Canada], a very smart mark crowd, and when I gave the little person the boot, I looked out in the crowd - and this segment was designed to get me mega heat, like mega f--king heat - and after I did that, I looked out in the crowd, and to be honest with you, I thought half the people were laughing. I guess they thought it was funny and in my mind, I was thinking, 'this is not what they want' because this was specifically designed to get me more heat, so I was panicking. Like, this is not the reaction they want, so I did what I felt was right and yeah [continued to beat down the little person] and when I got back through the curtain, it was very, very bad. It was a bad night for me. [Vince McMahon being unhappy] is the understatement of the century. Furious, no, he was furious. That was the first straw and rightly so. I mean, that was such a bad decision, so stupid."
As we heard around the time Big Cass was released from WWE, the final straw came when his behaviour on a European tour went a step too far and it became clear that he had become a liability.
"Tremendous anxiety and out of control, showing up to TV late, like, things I wouldn't do in a million years, like a year prior or two years prior," he recalled. "And then, on the European tour, again, I was out of control, completely just uncontrollable. And, yeah, I think that that was when they saw me as a liability and they were like, 'this is not good.'"
The interview is well worth a listen as Cass talks in detail about the issues he faced after leaving WWE, how he's overcome those, and his hopes for the future...including a possible WWE return.
"In terms of professionally, I got myself in the best shape of my life for a reason. I want to be back in [pro] wrestling. I'm going to take as many bookings as I can, work as many matches as I can, get the experience that I need to be a better performer because the ultimate goal is to be back in WWE or to get signed with another company, a big company, that's my goal."