Yes, is the answer. Oh, you want an actual reason? Fine.
Orange Cassidy is over as Rover and he doesn’t say a word, just looks like a cross between The Stig and any rock star from the 1980s – and puts his hands in his pockets.
The man can literally do no wrong.
It’s very rare to find a gimmick or person whose act will always be a fan favourite. I personally can’t see the fans turning on him, ever, especially if he is still associated with the Best Friends tag team.
Chuck & Trent really do help get his gimmick over. They play on certain things, and are basically his mouth pieces in backstage segments. Over the last few weeks within AEW, we’ve seen more from Freshly Squeezed in multiple aspects.
He’s shown more emotion and fire in his feud with Chris Jericho, as well as even more of a comedy aspect in various other spots. If Cassidy comes out on top against ‘Le Champion’ in their match at the second Fyter Fest show on this week, that surely would bump him up the card towards the World Title picture.
Jericho is the most recent champion, prior to Jon Moxley, and one of the most respected wrestlers in the industry.
That win would be massive – and I truly believe that it’s going to happen.
There will be a lot of sceptical fans, like me in the past, who wouldn’t think Orange Cassidy would be taken seriously as World Champion. However, he has shown a more serious side over the last few weeks, and I believe he would build that intensity and become like a split personality.
Similar to Festus in mid 2000s WWE, he would be docile and quiet, but when the bell rang, all hell would break loose. Not saying that will be Cassidy, but something similar where he bangs out more and more big moves on the regular.
There is a possibility AEW could split him away from Best Friends to focus on his reign, but we would need to see more character development from Cassidy for that to happen.
Since Cassidy arrived in AEW, his stock has risen leaps and bounds.
He was known by the independent fans he competed in front of, but wasn’t known on a wider level. He’s managed to convert fans, like me, who were a bit sour (get it?) on him when he first emerged. He’s been competing on a semi-regular basis, having his official in ring debut against PAC at Revolution, the man has just constantly impressed with every match.
The downside to AEW’s way of running things is to keep on top of every single storyline, you need to watch AEW Dynamite, AEW Dark and Being the Elite.
Cassidy features on all three and has begun to show even more personality on the two lesser viewed, Dark and BTE, so hopefully that comes into his personality on Dynamite and PPV shows.
The slow introduction does work; his ascent to the top and capturing of the AEW World Championship will be a long grind. Despite the fact he is the most over person in the company, AEW don’t want to shoe horn him in too quickly and turn the fans against him. Let the build keep at a steady pace, get even more backing behind him, and then wait for live crowds to be back because that pop will be absolutely explosive.
Looking at the current main event scene in AEW, it does look unrealistic for someone with Orange Cassidy’s gimmick to defeat a Jon Moxley or Brian Cage.
If AEW decide to put the World Title on Brian Cage, then there is no chance Cassidy is going to win it in 2020, but he’ll be in that scene and he’ll prove he deserves to be there.
Cassidy winning over someone like Cage would put even more backing behind him as a ‘giant killer’ and an unlikely underdog. It will be a long journey, but the journey will absolutely fantastic, somewhat comparable to Jinder Mahal’s journey to the top in WWE. He went from a comedy act, as part of Three-Man Band, to WWE Champion.
Yes, that was because WWE wanted to conquer the Indian market but alas, he still went from comedy to champion.
It’ll be a success story, and one for the fans in attendance to get behind. I don’t think we’ll see Orange Cassidy with the title in 2020 but never doubt the ability of Freshly Squeezed heading into 2021.