5 WWE Superstars who could replace Big Cass as a main heel on SmackDown Live
WWE announced the surprise news on Tuesday that, just two days after facing Daniel Bryan at Money In The Bank, William Morrissey (aka Big Cass) had been released by the company.
From a storyline perspective, the seven-footer had been positioned as a top heel in non-title storylines on SmackDown Live since his return from injury in April, effectively taking the position that Baron Corbin held for much of his time on the blue brand.
Cass’s shock departure leaves The Miz, Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe as the only three male singles competitors on Tuesday nights who could realistically be slotted straight into the main-event scene or into a major one-on-one storyline as a heel.
So, who will WWE choose to replace Enzo Amore's former tag partner? Will they look to NXT to call up a new name? Will they split up a tag team and have someone break out as a singles star? Or will a babyface turn heel in the next few weeks?
In this article, let’s take a look at five WWE Superstars who could fill the void left by Cass on SmackDown Live.
#5 Andrade “Cien” Almas
Okay, Andrade “Cien” Almas might not have had the best of starts to life on the main roster, but he is ready-made to step up and become a top heel on SmackDown Live.
The former NXT champion defeated local talents Jake Constantinou and Kevin Bennett in consecutive weeks in May and he was then scheduled to go one-on-one with Sin Cara on an episode of SmackDown earlier in June, only for the match to be postponed due to the masked high-flyer picking up an injury.
Almas and his business manager, Zelina Vega, appeared in a video on WWE’s website this week saying that, sooner or later, Sin Cara will have to face “El Idolo” in a match, which suggests that WWE will revive the storyline on television soon.
Once Almas inevitably picks up the victory in the rivalry, expect him to move up the card and take on babyfaces such as Daniel Bryan and Jeff Hardy.