5 Ups & 5 Downs From Big Cass' WWE Career

1. Big Problems

And just like that, he was gone. A main roster run amounting to less than two years active ring-time following five grueling ones in in the system before that, Big Cass finds himself a failure of both WWE's old and new developmental models. Whatever ring skills he gained from FCW clearly required ample seasoning in NXT, whilst the yellow-roped league perhaps neglected to offer him the emotional skills to survive on the company's biggest stage.

It's here that it is worth sympathetically reviewing the last troubled year. During the aforementioned injury, a split with current SmackDown Live! Women's Champion Carmella was confirmed by the pair after their roles in Total Divas revealed a recent house purchase. Various sources have posited that Cass alienated the locker room with his drinking and recklessness behind the scenes, but these are both traits common in those mourning loss. The seven footer lost his spot, his former best friend and his girlfriend in a six month period - one would require an emotional strength that couldn't be taught to work through such turmoil so quickly.

More callous observers would suggest he was "S.A.W.F.T" in the face of such hard times, but if the cold-water-to-the-face nature of his release will eventually provide either salvation or a solution. Cass might yet look back on this tricky time as a turning point.