AEW Tag Team Champion Big Bill has revealed how wrestling saved his life and his career.
Known as Big Cass in WWE, the seven-footer would be released from his contract in 2018. Later that year, Big Bill would suffer a seizure while appearing at a House of Hardcore show. The former Big Cass would recall the events that led to the seizure in a later interview, citing alcohol withdrawal as the cause of the medical emergency.
Taking time away to battle alcohol addiction from late 2019 to early 2021, the AEW Tag Team Champion would return at an independent show sober and in amazing shape. The redemption story would continue as Bill would go on to sign with Impact Wrestling later that year and would debut for AEW in May 2022 as a surprise opponent for Wardlow who was hand-picked by MJF. Finally winning a tag team championship, Big Bill and Ricky Starks would defeat FTR to win the titles on an episode of Collision, effectively squashing the former champions in the process.
AEW Star Big Bill Details Struggles With Alcohol
Following a successful retention of the titles alongside Starks at Full Gear, the champions took part in the press conference after the pay-per-view. It was here that Big Bill revealed how he would be sat at home all day drinking and credits wrestling with helping him to become sober and to reignite his passion:
“In 2018, 2019, I was at the lowest point of my life. My addiction was in full force. I didn’t leave my apartment, I was drinking all day, from sun up to sun down, and I never thought I would be back in professional wrestling. I thought that I would just keeping existing a miserable existence like I was staring out my apartment window every day, as I just drank myself to death. I guess, the lightbulb went off, and I think wrestling was a big part of how I got sober.
My first love in life has always been professional wrestling. From the times I was going to shows at Madison Square Garden as a young kid. There came a moment where I actually believed, if I got back on track, I could make it back to the world of professional wrestling and make it to the top of the world of professional wrestling. I really believed that in my heart. I know a lot of people say things like, ‘I believe I’m going to be the man and the world champion,’ but you can tell when you look in their eyes, they don’t actually believe it. I really believed it.
I thought, if I could get back on track, I’m going to make it back to the top of professional wrestling. Now, I’m AEW World Tag Team Champion, sitting at this table as one of the top guys in AEW and I would say that’s the top of the wrestling world. I did exactly what I said I would do.”
H/t to Fightful.