During his weekly appearance on Busted Open Radio, AEW president Tony Khan made the example of Orange Cassidy when talking about people who exceeded his expectations.
Khan admitted that he initially viewed Cassidy as a manager and had no idea about his in ring talent due to not knowing he was the one wrestling as Fire Ant in Chikara: “In the production meeting, the first year, and JR, not under his breath said something about how stupid the whole thing was in the first year. I said, in front of everyone because Jim called me out in front of the whole room, ‘Jim, this is getting over and doing ratings every single time. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what the guy can do and he’s actually a really good wrestler. Give him a chance and talk to him because he’s a very intelligent wrestling person once you get to know him. We’ve barely scratched the surface, trust me.’ A lot of people might not like it, but frankly, he’s become one of our big stars. That’s the best example of someone exceeding what I thought they could do coming in. I thought he would be a manager, mostly, coming in. Once I realized how gifted he actually is, I had no idea Orange Cassidy was actually Fire Ant when I first met him. Once I realized that was the same guy and he actually is a great pro wrestler, I came up with the idea, ‘let’s hide that for six to eight months and not show anyone all the stuff you can do until the first Revolution and that’s where you make your big debut in your first real match and where you show people you can really wrestle. Don’t do anything until then.’ It worked really well and we have a lot of big stars, but that’s one person that always moves the needle for us.”
He understands that not everyone will like Cassidy, but he became one of the main attractions for AEW and a ratings mover: “They matter. I get that some people don’t like it, but it’s net positive. It’s like making a profit. Sometimes you spend money, but you have to bring in more than you spend. He is a big-net positive. There might be people that don’t like him, but more people turn the TV on and click on his videos because of him. With every wrestler, there are pros and cons, but it’s about what they do on the net for the company. This guy is a huge net asset and brings in a lot of people. Same as you, I didn’t get it, what really clicked to me the first time was when he talked to me about the kicks. I asked him, ‘what is the deal with that? It’s the weakest offense.’ He said, ‘It’s not an offense’ and he explained what it is and I realized, ‘it’s like a taunt?’ ‘Yeah, exactly.’ That explained the psychology of everything. Then he told me that there is only one person dumb enough to ever sell the kicks. I kept telling them not to. You’re not supposed to. It’s not offense. When you realize nobody ever sold it in the history of AEW because it’s not meant to be sold, it opens up the mind.”
Orange Cassidy started as a comical relief character but soon improved his positioning in the card. So far in AEW he has won a feud with Chris Jericho and became a threat for both the World and TNT Championships.
H/T to Fightful for the transcription.