Colin Cassady, aka Big Cass, was interviewed by Brian Fritz of The Sporting News recently during the lead-up to Summerslam. As part of the interview, which you can read in it's entirety here, Cass talked about how he and Enzo got the news that they were coming up to the main roster.
"We were at NXT TakeOver: Dallas and it was a very emotional night. We train with these guys. We weren't even on the show, but we felt like we were part of the show because it's a brotherhood down at the Performance Center. It's all just a big family down there. It was emotional for us to see the show and to watch everybody go out there and light it up.
We were leaving the venue and Triple said he wanted to talk to us. He brings me and Enzo into the room and, I don't know if it's on the video, but he congratulated us and I said, "Thank you very much" and then I realized, wait a second, we didn't even perform tonight. So it was pretty weird to start off the conversation like that. It was a very emotional night and you felt like you were a part of it. I didn't know what he was congratulating us for. Then he says you're coming up to the main roster on Monday and then I realized that's what he said congratulations for.
It was just a very surreal experience. I've been signed here for about five years when that conversation took place, so I've been working for that moment for five years. Me and Enzo, three years together, have been working at it to get to the main roster. So when we had that conversation with Triple H, it was very surreal and a lot of mixed emotions in that moment. But I'd say the most overwhelming emotion was joy. We were just so ecstatic about finally getting to debut on the main roster."
Fritz also asked about how it felt, hearing about the anticipation from the fans and the anxiety of wondering when the call-up would finally happen.
"Me and Enzo, of course, our main goal was to get to the main roster, but we knew it was going to happen eventually somewhere down the road. We were thoroughly enjoying our time in NXT. Like I said, it's a family down at the Performance Center and we were having a great time. We were traveling the world with our best friends and having a great time. So, if the call was going to come, of course, we were going to be extremely ecstatic about it. But if it didn't come, we were also happy because we were having a party down there. We were traveling, performing, lighting it up night after night on those road shows and Florida shows and just having a great time.
We knew it was going to happen. We weren't very anxious about it. We knew it was going to happen eventually but for the time being beforehand we were living in the moment. We were loving every minute of it."
Cass was asked if there was any trepidation about leaving NXT for the main roster. Big fish, small pond becoming small fish, huge ocean, perhaps?
"It is tough to leave NXT, but everybody's goal when they get into this business is to make it to the dance, to be performing at SummerSlam, to be performing at WrestleMania. While it is difficult to leave that family atmosphere and leave NXT and the fun there, the main goal is to get to the main roster and perform. It's where you need to go for your career."
Finally, Fritz asked about the experience on their first Raw, the night after Wrestlemania 32.
"Me and Enzo somewhat expected to get a good reaction. It's the night after WrestleMania, it's the carryover of fans that came to town for WrestleMania. A lot of those fans are from the UK and other countries and a lot of those fans are also the hardcore fans within the United States that go to that "Monday Night Raw." So, a lot of those fans we knew going into it were going to be familiar with the NXT product. We somewhat expected to get a very good reaction. However, we were, I believe, very late in the show. We probably went out there about 10:30 so the whole night we're prepared, we're excited but we're sitting in the locker room. You're anxious to get out there and it was about 2 1/2 hours into the show until we went out.
Behind the scenes, it was us sitting in the locker room watching "Monday Night Raw" and just pacing around and sitting around, lights are moving and you can't wait to get out there. Then with about 20 minutes until we were going to go out, we started heading that direction, toward the curtain. I remember me and Enzo walking down the hallway and we just had a swagger about us. I remember we had a confidence about us walking down that hallway, going to the curtain. We had a feeling we were going to do a great job and get a great reaction. We were walking down that hall with a purpose and with a swagger and with a confidence about us, like we're going to go out there and we're going to crush this. Finally, we get to the curtain, our music hits, we get a good reaction and I'd like to say we crushed it like we expected to."
That they did indeed.
Big Cass & Enzo are facing Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens at Summerslam in Barclays Arena, Brooklyn on Sunday, August 21st. Keep it locked to Fightful.com for all your Summerslam news.
