Gangrel Recalls Working With Orange Cassidy, Conversation He Had With Him About His Character

In August 2019, Orange Cassidy shared the ring with Gangrel at BLP/GCW 2 Cups Stuffed. 

The bout took place before AEW started weekly on television, which happened in October 2019. It also took place before Orange Cassidy, who was largely viewed as a comedy wrestler, was more accepted as the workhorse wrestler that he is now. 

Speaking to Jeremy Lambert & Joel Pearl on In The Weeds, Gangrel was asked about working with Orange Cassidy. 

“Some of the older guys, I’m not going to mention any names, they were shitting on him. ‘He’s taking a piss on wrestling.’ They started telling me this, I don’t think they stopped to think about the characters I’ve done. I was the Blackheart, the bastard son of Stu Hart with the black mask, and I wrestled as a vampire. I’m sure those guys, when I was coming in, they were like, ‘what is this kid doing?’ Same thing they are saying about Orange Cassidy, they’re saying about me wrestling with fangs. I started watching the show, it might have been G-Raver, fell from the ceiling and about ripped his arm off, is bleeding all over the place. Blood everywhere, glass. I come back, and I could tell Orange Cassidy was really nervous to kind of explain his character to me, but I knew it already. I have been on shows with him before he was doing the Orange Cassidy thing, so I knew he was a hell of a worker.

“He was nervous and was like, ‘What do you want to do?’ ‘I want to do exactly the stuff you do because there is nothing else we can do after everything that has happened out there. Blood, guts, dives, they’ve seen everything but comedy.’ That was the only approach to go that made sense. I’m not against trying new things. Turned out, it worked. It was for that crowd and it worked for that set. He’s a great cat. I talked to him, and my biggest concern when I was talking to him after the match as he’s going to AEW, how long could he do that character or make that type of character work, how much longevity is there in being the slob where you’re wearing backpacks and kicking people, how long did he think he could do that before it gets old? He’s doing it a lot longer than I thought he could. He said he was going to hopefully transition out of it, but I don’t think he’s had to. He’s still getting over and people are buying it. I’m happy for him.”

Gangrel was victorious in the bout against Orange Cassidy. 

Cassidy is now one of the touted champions in wrestling, making 23 successful defenses of the AEW International Championship. 

Elsewhere during the interview, Gangrel commented on Paige VanZant’s current status in wrestling. You can find her full comments by clicking here. 

Fans can watch the full interview with Gangrel in the video above.