Orange Cassidy has set a new record in All Elite Wrestling, and it's one he'll continue to build as long as he's International Champion.
By virtue of his win over Lance Archer on Saturday's Battle Of The Belts VII, he set the record for most title defences for any AEW Champion in the company's four-year history. The Archer win was his 26th, surpassing the 25 wins Jade Cargill picked up when she was the inaugural TBS Champion between October 2021 and May 2023.
Advertisement
Cassidy's run has seen him bat back the last remaining critics of his gimmick with a series of unique and dynamic defences that have paradoxically positioned him as the workhorse Champion. It's during this time that most fans have embraced the International belt as the company's true secondary title in place of the TNT Championship established in 2020. Cargill was undefeated from her early-2021 debut until losing that run and her belt to Kris Statlander at this year's Double Or Nothing.
Orange is the second holder of the gold, and has overseen a name-change for the prize since defeating PAC in October for what was then known as the All-Atlantic Championship.
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.
