AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy has addressed those who say he’s insulting pro wrestling, pointing to how Japanese legend and current ROH Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata chose to wrestle him last year. The match saw Cassidy defeat Shibata on the November 4 AEW Rampage.
Cassidy spoke with Casual Conversations with The Wrestling Classic and made the comments on critics when asked about the Shibata match.
“There are a lot of people that don’t care for me, that don’t care about what I’m doing,” Cassidy said. “They don’t like what I’m doing, they don’t appreciate it. They think I’m insulting professional wrestling or whatever you want to call it. Then there is a living legend and a phenomenal professional wrestling in Shibata. He said he wanted, on his return, because he actually almost died doing what he does in the ring, and when he came back and was able to wrestle, he mentioned two people. One of them was Bryan Danielson, and the other one was me. I don’t think people understand that, but I never thought that a person of that stature would even consider me for something like that, and it was truly an honor. I barely beat him. I mean, I was terrified because he is Shibata. But because of that, Shibata and I actually played roulette last night, so we’re friends.”
Cassidy retained his title this past Sunday at AEW Double Or Nothing in the 21-man Blackjack Battle Royal. Shibata will defend his title against Alex Coughlin on ROH TV tomorrow (spoilers
), then against Lee Moriarty on AEW Rampage this Friday (spoilers).Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more.
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