The Misunderstood Genius Of AEW's Orange Cassidy
Orange Cassidy: far better than "better than his critics think".
More than one prominent member of the wrestling media was aghast when Orange Cassidy signed with All Elite Wrestling in 2019; it was feared his act might have collided drastically with the promotion's much-hyped "sports-oriented" ethos.
Cassidy could always go; as CHIKARA's Fire Ant, he had proven that he wasn't one of those wrestlers who had stumbled upon a one-dimensional bit as the irony indie scene became a fad in the late 2010s. Still, Cassidy's act was very irreverent and meta. He had worked a match similar to his awesome singles breakthrough against PAC, the one where he "tried", for Beyond Wrestling in 2018 - but that wasn't good for bad faith engagement. The trolls instead isolated the sort of sequences, in which Cassidy would leap frog and drop down in slow motion in order to send wrestling up, to make the argument that Cassidy was destined to kill the business and that AEW was a joke that nobody could take seriously. Cassidy was never going to "break" kayfabe in AEW, not that that was possible.
AEW handled him perfectly at the beginning.
Cassidy featured in just a handful of trios matches on television before Revolution 2020. He left the fans, enchanted by his impressive ability to wrestle with his hands in his pockets, wanting more. He popped up at random, creating meme fodder as he found himself amid a brawl between the Young Bucks and Santana and Ortiz, as AEW otherwise preserved him as a special attraction. The fans wanted to see him; he couldn't really be arsed. That was until he worked that match with PAC: a bonus bit of PPV fan service signed on the go-home Dynamite, it was an incredible bit of business. When Orange "tried", he was amazing; he outwitted PAC, smiled when he riled up his technically perfect bastard of an opponent, and sold brilliantly when a furious PAC foiled his plan. Orange's comeback was sublime; he elevated the scorching back-and-forth because, a connection made, fans were desperate to see him win. His first AEW singles match was more emotionally resonant than most AEW matches ever.
Even then, the misconception of who Orange was persisted, regurgitated in bad faith by certain podcasters to monetise their brand. His lazy kicks were established as a psychological ploy on commentary years ago. Not a single wrestler in AEW has sold for them, where they might have when doing comedy "bits" on the indie circuit. Still, people didn't get it or, more accurately, refused to get it or pretended not to get it.
CONT'D...(1 of 5)