AEW’s signing of Orange Cassidy has drawn some criticism, most notably from F4WOnline.com’s Dave Meltzer. A sample of what Cassidy’s gimmick is can be seen in the video below:
Here is what Meltzer said about the signing via RingsideNews.com:
“I’m not sure if that’s what the promotion should be at first. I think silly and ironic at certain points are good, but I really think for the first ten weeks of the company or whatever it is they just need to establish a base and roots and things like that.”
“I’m not sure Orange Cassidy is the guy right away. Even if when he goes out there he’ll get a huge reaction, for sure from the audience, but the live audience is in the arena and the audience watching on TV doesn’t know who he is and many of them will be entertaining a lot by him at first, but I also know there will be many that will — I also think there might be people at first, but I also know there will be many that will [dislike him].”
“You know they just signed him, but if he’s on week 1, 2, or 3 and there are people who are like ‘Let’s sample this new wrestling. I know who Chris Jericho is and I know who the Young Bucks are, but I don’t know who Orange Cassidy is and I wanna see if this wrestling is going to be fun because I didn’t like the other wrestling or maybe I wanna see more wrestling’ or whatever the reason you’re watching it and some of them will see Orange Cassidy and like it and some of them won’t and I just know if right away week 1, 2, or 3 that is not what I would want on the show.”
“Sparingly, I think he has some real potential on television. Once the company’s over if it is. If the company’s already over then you can bring a guy like that in for cameos and it’ll work because the company’s already over, but when you’ve got an audience where they haven’t decided whether they like you or not he could be, I don’t wanna say a deal breaker, but he could be a deal breaker with some people.”
Cody Rhodes responded to a fan of Twitter that asked about the signing:
Easily. He’s a great & fun pro wrestler.
The show is 100% sports based, but the competitors are vastly different in style and delivery. https://t.co/xw5IYBYjEQ
— Cody Rhodes (@CodyRhodes) August 15, 2019
