Orange Cassidy is in the midst of one of the best title reigns in AEW history, and now the champ is reflecting on the journey.
Cassidy spoke with Denise Salcedo about his run that started back in the fall of 2022 and has seen him successfully defend the gold on 29 occasions. He tells Salcedo that he never expected to have a run this miraculous as his main goal was just dethroning PAC.
When I won the All-Atlantic Championship, it was called that before the International Championship, I really think the goal was just to beat PAC and take that title from him. It didn’t have an identity. It was a new championship, and I didn’t know what to do with it. So I just did what I thought I needed to do, and that was defend it as much as possible. There are championships in this company that are able to be defended against a certain group of people, like let’s call them the top five of the roster, those upper echelon people. The idea of having a championship that I could fight against the people that aren’t on television all the time, to not have a spotlight on them all the time, and that they are able to show what they can do. Because as we all know, AEW’s roster is very large, and there are tons of people that are just waiting for that opportunity to show what they can do because they’re all very talented. I was able to do that with this championship. I feel that this should be that. I think it should be something that we can show, ‘Hey, we all can do it.’ That’s what I’m most happy, that I was able to make this championship identify as.
Salcedo would then ask Cassidy what his favorite defense of the International title has been since he won it from PAC. He admits that he doesn’t remember the matches all that well, but he does remember the pain he sustained in each one.
I never like getting beat up, so I know none of them are my favorite. But it is interesting that the championship was, it started on Rampage. I defended it a lot on Rampage against a lot of those guys that we were just taking about. Everyone gave me a tough time, and then it slowly crept its way onto Dynamite. Then I started wrestling the Big Bills and the Jake Hagers, and then I started getting in more pain. I don’t remember the matches. I remember the pain that I felt through each one. So my back hurt tremendously because of Jake Hager, Big Bill, Danny Garcia. My hand is still throbbing because of Buddy Matthews. Zack Sabre Jr., he messed it up. I wrestled against Katsuyori Shibata. That’s crazy, right? I shouldn’t be doing that. But I am.
Cassidy will be competing in Stadium Stampede at this Sunday’s AEW All In pay-per-view. You can check out the latest card here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)