7 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Dynamite (12 Oct)

1. Big Thumbs Up

AEW hadn't explicitly labelled Orange Cassidy's All-Atlantic Championship scrap with PAC as a last chance title shot, but it felt universally agreed-upon that he was as good as done as a competitive concern if he lost here.

It's dangerous to lavish praise on doing bad things simply to further raise the highs of good ones, but Cassidy's defeats in multiple big matches in the last few years absolutely maximised the magic here. Champion and Challenger have tried and failed twice to summon the magic of their minor classic at Revolution 2020, but this was death or glory for the character and Toronto felt every potential beat of that all the way to Orange Cassidy's glorious triumph.

PAC's a super-athlete and Orange Cassidy is still funny, but this didn't reinvent the wheel and nor did it need to. After a killer war, actual justice was done - 'The BASTARD' went for his hammer, then a spare, and was rumbled and robbed of his weapons respectively. Cassidy has always been more of a traditional character than bad faith actors have ever given him credit for, and that should have been clear as the streamers popped for his celebrations. He may only hold the title half way up, but Steve Austin dragged it across the floor and nobody cried disrespect. Characters have characteristics, and thank goodness Orange Cassidy did have to add "loser" to his LinkedIn after all.