Merely light refreshment on a fairly stodgy edition of Dynamite, a brief exchange between Orange Cassidy, Renee Paquette and Hook was nonetheless the highlight of the night.
'The Cold-Hearted Handsome Devil' hadn't yet got a word out following his regaining of the FTW Championship at All In before Cassidy limped into shot to remind him of how good his life was. Hook called Cassidy a "great champion", Cassidy responded in kind, and Hook slinked off to allow Paquette to charmingly check in with the former International Champion. "I'm still so tired" drew laughter in the building, and the humour was the perfect payoff to this much needed bit of levity from the company that used to be the masters of it.
'Freshly Squeezed' played with every emotion here. He was the veteran putting the young guy over, he was the battle-worn warrior trying to pick himself up again, he was the sympathetic figure everybody wanted to help get back on his feet. The response to "I used to have a Championship" drew the sort of noises a Saturday morning studio show would bottle for scenes where characters were in need of consolation or comfort.
Something very special appears to be brewing here, and if anybody can pull off an extremely slow stroll to the main event picture, it's Orange Cassidy.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years.
As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say.
With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling.
Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.
