Even a slacker knows when to be Defiant to the End
- Orange Cassidy was always popular for his comedic spots, but he truly earned his stripes as a athletic performer for most of the public in an incredible, high-adrenaline match with PAC in AEW's Revolution 2020 PPV where he showed himself to be much more than a simple comedy wrestler with a "lazy" gimmick.
- His participation in the AEW World Championship match at Double or Nothing 2021, a triple threat against both PAC and champion Kenny Omega where Cassidy, despite his slacker reputation, went balls to the wall trying to win and almost managed it at several points! The match was hailed as one of the best matches of the show as well as one of the best triple threats of 2021, proving again that Cassidy is a legit main eventer.
- After weeks of Adam Cole cheating in their matches, Orange and Cole compete in an Unsanctioned Lights Out match at Beach Break 2022. Immediately starting off the match by breaking his sunglasses, Cassidy puts Cole in his place several times throughout the match. When Cole attempted to low blow Cassidy, like he did so many times in the past few weeks, Cassidy revealed he come prepared, by wearing a thumb-tacked-laced cup. After low-blowing Cole while they are at the top of the entrance stage, Cassidy gives Cole a hug, Best Friends style, before looking at the bottom. Cole immediately realizes what Cassidy is attempting to do and tries to escape the hug but to no avail, as Cassidy drags the both of them crashing into the stage, with Cassidy landing on top of Cole and scoring the win.
- His match against Will Ospreay for the IWGP United States Championship at Forbidden Door 2022 was hailed by some as the match of the night on a stacked card! Pitted against the Commonwealth Kingpin, Cassidy reminded anyone who may have forgotten that the whole "sloth style" thing is just his way of playing mind games with his opponents and that when the chips are down he is an awesome wrestler who can stand toe-to-toe with the best in the world. While Ospreay eventually triumphed, Cassidy blew the roof off the United Center when he kicked out of not only the OsCutter, but the Hidden Blade, leaving Ospreay flabbergasted, before finally succumbing to the Stormbreaker.
- Finally getting one over his rival PAC in the main event of the 12th of October 2022 episode of Dynamite, beating him for the International Championship, Cassidy's first taste of gold in AEW. The number of finger-biting false finishes in the final stretch was insane, with Cassidy just barely beating the 10 count after a Tombstone Piledriver on the stage, reaching the ropes to escape a fully-locked-in Brutalizer twice, PAC kicking out of a clean Orange Punch, and Danhausen showing up to prevent PAC from hitting Cassidy with the ring bell hammer, before Cassidy finally downed PAC with one final Orange Punch for the clean pin that sent the crowd mental!
- His International title defence against Katsuyori Shibata, commentated by Mike Tyson, no less: Orange stood toe-to-toe against "The Wrestler" and took his best shots before eventually evading the PK and countering with the Orange Punch to retain.
- Hell, just his International title run in general. He’s had banger match after banger match, week in and week out against many opponents for the title that could’ve gone either way. Defeating Bandido in yet another killer match on the 26th of April 2023 episode saw him reach 20 successful defences in only half a year, which commentary pointed out was more than any other champion in the company's history other than TBS Champion Jade Cargill.
- For Double or Nothing 2023, Cassidy announced that he would voluntarily put his International Championship on the line in a Blackjack Battle Royale- himself and twenty other men, with the last man left in the ring being the winner. As the champion, he spent most of the match on the receiving end of a lot of unwelcome attention, constantly on the verge of elimination and clinging on for dear life as everyone else hurled themselves out of the ring around him, until the field was eventually whittled down to just himself and a still relatively fresh Swerve Strickland, and the two put on an exciting match-within-a-match as Cassidy fought back. Eventually Strickland tipped Cassidy over the ropes and tried to stomp him off the apron onto the floor, only for Cassidy to put his feet up into Swerve's face, leaving him teetering on the verge of falling off himself, desperately clinging to the ring ropes with one hand. Cassidy seemed to be winding up to finish Swerve off with one last Orange Punch... only to instead saunter over and idly kick Swerve's hand off the rope, making him the winner and still the International Champion.
- After defending the International Championship against Penta El Zero Miedo on Dynamite before AEW All Out 2023, Cassidy now holds the record for the most successful title defenses in AEW at 31.
- After holding the All-Atlantic/International Championship for nearly a year, Cassidy finally loses his belt to Jon Moxley at All-Out 2023. Having already defended the title 31 times, including in a 20-man battle royal at Double or Nothing, it took one of AEW's very top wrestlers to take it away from Cassidy, which speaks volumes to his caliber as a champion, especially given the condition he'd been reduced to by then. Despite this, Cassidy never pull any punches against Mox and on multiple occasions, nearly pinned him. Notably this is the first time in AEW history that any championship other than the AEW World Championship has been defended in the main event of a PPV, but Cassidy's epic run made it feel entirely deserved. Near the climax of the match, Cassidy went for his signature lazy kicks, until his passion to defend the title that meant everything to him to finally boiled over and he started just kicking the shit out of Moxley instead! An absolutely legendary end to possibly the greatest title run in AEW history and all the fans knew it, giving Orange Cassidy a much well-deserved standing ovation after the match.
