In 2008, entering his senior year at New York University, Bill Morrissey pondered his future, just like countless other college students. He seemed to have plenty of good options. Morrissey, a captain on the basketball team, had received a full academic scholarship and had excelled in the classroom. He majored in economics and also took courses in chemistry, organic chemistry, biology and physics. He seriously thought about becoming a doctor.

After spending weeks studying for the MCAT entrance exam to medical schools, though, he changed his mind. His heart wasn’t into medicine. It was around that time that Morrissey realized he should pursue his passion: professional wrestling.

You have to love the game to be in the game. This is not a joke, pro wrestling. It’s a hardship to be a pro wrestler all over the place.

These days, Morrissey is best known as “Big Cass,” his World Wrestling Entertainment moniker. With his athleticism, size, work ethic and ability to connect with the crowd, he is considered one of WWE’s brightest talents. On Sunday night, he and his tag team partner, a longtime friend known as “Enzo Amore,” face Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens at WWE’s SummerSlam event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The match will take place close to Morrissey’s home borough of Queens, and he’ll have plenty of support. In fact, 27 friends rented a suite at the arena to watch him compete.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” Morrissey said. “To get to go home and perform in front of the hometown crowd, I’m jacked up.”

For Morrissey, a lifelong WWE fan, wrestling in front of thousands of fans is a dream come true. As a child, he and his father went to numerous shows at Madison Square Garden, the Izod Center in New Jersey and the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. He was a fan of Bret “The Hitman” Hart until he attended the 1996 Survivor Series at Madison Square Garden and noticed fans cheering for “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in his match against Hart. Morrissey, then a fourth grader, switched his allegiances and started rooting for Austin instead of Hart.

As Morrissey grew older, his love of the WWE never waned. On Christmas Day 2003, when he was a junior in high school, his father bought him one ticket to WrestleMania XX at Madison Square Garden. Morrissey sat by himself for that card and couldn’t have been happier.

“That was a very, very cool night as a wrestling fan,” he said.

By then, though, Morrissey didn’t seem destined to become a WWE performer. A career in business or medicine seemed more likely and lucrative. He was one of the top students at Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens and loved playing basketball, although he got cut from the school’s team his first three years. He finally made the squad as a senior, when he had grown to 6-foot-8, a foot taller than he was as a freshman.

“To be honest with you, it almost never happens where a kid doesn’t play his freshman, sophomore and junior year but then makes the team as a senior,” said Archbishop Molloy basketball coach Michael McCleary, who was an assistant when Morrissey played there. “In fact, in my years that I’ve been here, Billy’s the only one I can remember…He was a great kid. He really always was. He was like a sponge.”

After Morrissey received an academic scholarship to attend New York University, he contacted Joe Nesci, the school’s basketball coach, and asked if he could tryout. Morrissey made the NCAA Division III team, but he didn’t play much. During his career, he averaged 1.6 points and 1.5 rebounds in 50 games. As a senior, though, he was named a co-captain. He kept everyone loose, provided a positive presence and showed off a bit of what was to come.

“After some of our wins, he would imitate Ric Flair in the locker room, being excited that we won and do some imitations,” said former NYU assistant coach John Pelin, who is now the coach at Hunter College in New York. “I do always remember him having an interest in wrestling.”

Morrissey remained a good student in college, too. Although he took the MCATs and had the prerequisites for medical school, he knew he couldn’t commit to the long journey of becoming a doctor.

“I realized that this isn’t my true passion,” Morrissey said. “I can’t do another four to eight years of this.”

Late in his senior year, Morrissey decided to give wrestling a shot. He searched the internet for training centers and found a school in Brooklyn run by Johnny Rodriguez, who wrestled under the name “Johnny Rodz” and made the WWE’s Hall of Fame. Rodriguez, 75, remembers Morrissey showing up and telling him he was heading on a two-week vacation to Florida after graduating from NYU. When he returned, he planned on committing to learning from Rodriguez.

“I said, ‘Do you love the game?’,” Rodriguez said. “He says, ‘Of course, I love it.’ I said, ‘That’s what I want to hear. If you love the game, then I’ll wait for you.’ You have to love the game to be in the game. This is not a joke, pro wrestling. It’s a hardship to be a pro wrestler all over the place.”

Working with Rodriguez didn’t pay the bills, so Morrissey and a few friends started a ticket brokerage company for events at Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, MetLife Stadium and other venues in New York and New Jersey. They were big sports fans and had been season ticket holders with the New York Yankees since 2003 and the New York Knicks since 2008. When he wasn’t hawking tickets, Morrissey was in the gym with Rodriguez, learning the trade. Morrissey had never stepped in the ring until he trained with Rodriguez, but his mentor soon became impressed with his aptitude and attitude.

“Once we started working out, he was gung ho, but I had to keep torturing him so he could learn that this is not a Mickey Mouse game,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a smart kid. He’s not a wise guy. He’s very, very, very humble.”

In 2011, around two years after working with Rodriguez, Morrissey signed a contract with Florida Championship Wrestling, which was then WWE’s developmental territory. He was known as “Colin Cassady” and changed gimmicks a few times. He started drawing attention in 2013 when he began working with Eric Arndt, who was known as “Enzo Amore.” Morrissey and Arndt had met when they played basketball as teenagers at “The Cage”, the nickname for the famed West 4th Street courts in New York’s Greenwich Village near NYU. They lost touch for several years, but the two hit it off when they became tag team partners.

Morrissey credits Dusty Rhodes, a WWE Hall of Famer who died last June, for helping him learn how to speak in front of crowds and entertain the fans. During a class with Rhodes on how to cut promos in front of crowds, Arndt called out his opponents for being soft by screaming “S-A-W-F-T” in his New York accent. Morrissey found the bit funny, as did WWE veteran John Cena. When Morrissey and Arndt made their NXT debut as “Enzo and Cass”, they used the S-A-W-F-T chant to the fan’s delight.

“As we were walking out of the building, people were saying S-A-W-F-T soft,” Morrissey said. “Right then and there, we knew we had something with that catchphrase.”

Earlier this year, Morrissey and Arndt were promoted to the WWE’s main roster. Since appearing on the “Monday Night Raw” television program for the first time in April, their brash, humorous style has appealed to the crowd. They call themselves “the realest guys in the room,” exaggerate their New York accents, chant “how ya doin’?” and talk trash to their opponents, calling them “S-A-W-F-T” among other insults.

Morrissey’s friends and family have supported him throughout his wrestling career. They were in Washington, D.C. on July 24 when Morrissey teamed with Arndt and Cena to win a match at the WWE’s Battleground event. They will be in Brooklyn on Sunday night, too, for SummerSlam.

Morrissey, who turned 30 on Tuesday, attended SummerSlam as a fan in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2007 when it took place in New York and New Jersey. This time, he’ll be one of the show’s headliners, an experience he won’t soon forget.

“Going to events at the Garden and the Izod Center, I would sit there and wonder of I could ever be inside of that ring in front of these crowds,” Morrissey said. “It is crazy that I get to do this week in, week out and live my dream.”