Big Kon On His Rat Gimmick In WWE: ‘Fit Finlay Was The Whole Reason Behind That’

Ishaan SharmaJanuary 4, 2026, 10:05 pm

Big Kon says Fit Finley’s comment led to him working a half-human, half-rat character in WWE.

During Season 1 of NXT, Big Kon (who was working as Conor O’Brian at that time) was given a bizarre gimmick where he’d pretend to be a rat and talk in a squeaky voice.

In a recent interview with Rewind Recap Relive, Big Kon revealed the origin of his rat gimmick in WWE.

“Fit Finlay was the whole reason behind that. Fit was an agent with me for a good part of my being on the road in 2007. He told me, ‘You look like a rat.’ I was like, ‘That’s kind of messed up.’ He told Johnny Ace the same thing. Then I had a meeting with Vince. I sat down. It was very intimidating, very uncomfortable. He was like, ‘What kind of music do you like?’ I was like, ‘Heavy metal.’ He goes, ‘Oh, what kind of movies do you like?’ I was like, ‘I like horror.’ He goes, ‘Oh.’ I felt like I was shitting the bed the entire time. Then Johnny Ace speaks up, and he goes, ‘Fit says he looks like a rat.’ Literally, he goes, ‘Ohhhh.’ That was his whole persona. He’s just like, (Kon mimics Vince speaking in a squeaky voice) ‘Can you talk like this?’ I was like, ‘What?’ Then he started doing this nasally conversation with me, and I was like, ‘This is the most awkward thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.’ I remember walking out that night thinking, ‘Well, I’m getting fired because I don’t know what the hell just happened.’ I went to the hotel room that night, and I actually stuffed tissue in my nose and started learning how to talk nasally. So I went back in, knocked on his door, walked in there, and I started talking in that whole dumbass like nasally voice, and he was intrigued, and he loved it. That was how the whole Templeton thing came about. It was it was no one else but Fit Finlay.”