W Morrissey, formerly Big Cass, has opened up about comparisons to Kevin Nash that have arisen after his return to action – and revealed how he actually took inspiration from Nash and long-term tag team partner Scott Hall upon his return to the ring.
Speaking with Inside The Ropes‘ Lead Writer Gary Cassidy, the seven-footer detailed how he’s “watched a lot” of Kevin Nash and has moulded himself adjacent to the WWE Hall of Famer.
“Yeah, that’s someone that I definitely watched a lot of and I’ve talked to and taken a lot of advice from, so Kevin Nash being a comparison is fantastic. I take that as a huge compliment. Yeah, it’s not a coincidence. It’s definitely someone I mould my game after quite a bit. So, for me being compared to Kevin Nash, that’s a huge compliment and it’s kind of what I would have hoped.”
Meanwhile, when discussing his name change, the former WWE Superstar noted that everything had to change to give him a fresh start – especially his name.
“Because it’s a fresh start in a new company and, you know, this is day one of a new journey for me. It’s day one of me making it to the top of professional wrestling on my own with a healthy mindset, being sober and happy and healthy – and it was a brand new start.”
Interestingly, Morrissey detailed that he only confirmed the name change on the day of IMPACT Rebellion, his debut with the company – taking inspiration from the man formerly known as Diesel.
“I didn’t want anything associated with what I used to do or who I used to be getting in the way of this new journey, so anything that I used to do went out the window, including gear, the look, everything. I wanted a fresh start, and I thought coming back as a heel… When Scott Hall and Kevin Nash showed up at WCW, I thought that was really cool using their real names but, for a heel, just having me abbreviate my first name instead of saying it – I thought that that was pretty, pretty arrogant.
So the day of is when I decided, or we decided, that we were going to be W Morrissey instead.”
You can read the entire interview here.
Thanks so much to W Morrissey for taking the time, and to IMPACT UK & Ireland for facilitating the interview. Fans in the UK & Ireland can catch IMPACT! every Wednesday on IMPACT Plus and on Facebook & YouTube, with the show repeated on 5Star on Friday evenings, and catch all IMPACT PPVs via IMPACT Plus and Fite TV worldwide.