On a recent episode of his weekly ‘The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy’ podcast, WWF Veteran Matt Hardy compared AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy to WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker, in terms of how Tony Khan and Vince McMahon depend / depended on Cassidy and Taker respectively.
Here’s what Matt had to say:
“Orange Cassidy is tremendous. He’s at the top of the list when it comes to performers in AEW.
He’s out there playing a character that is not easy to do, but he’s very committed to the gig.
I can tell you how much I respect someone who does that because I did that as Broken Matt Hardy.
The thing that attracts him to so many fans is the persona. It’s the whole Orange Cassidy shtick.
He’s one of the best wrestlers in the industry right now. He has great confidence in knowing what he needs to do — to make the character excel, grow, and connect with people.
On top of that, man, I’m going to make a very strange connection, but I do think there’s some truth to this. In some ways, right now, if you notice this, Orange Cassidy opens up Dynamite all the time.
I feel like Orange Cassidy to Tony, at this stage, right now, where they’re currently at, these last few months, in some ways reminds me of the relationship between Vince McMahon and The Undertaker. He was his go-to guy, a guy that he knew could go out and get the job he wanted done, done.
On top of that, those guys were both really good wrestlers, but they played these outlandish and outrageous over-the-top gimmicks. So there’s a crazy similarity there. Imagine that, hearing Orange Cassidy compared to The Undertaker.
Just think about this. Tony put him in that Battle Royale where he was going to go in as the champion and retain the title. That speaks volumes right there. Then how many times on Dynamite do you see him kick off the show, to have a great match? That shows Tony has great faith in him.
Not only does he enjoy and like him as a person, but he is a big fan of his wrestling style, and he also feels like he does numbers. He feels like he retains an audience. So he’s a young guy, it’s his first ever being a national, global star. Tony’s running with him, and I respect him for that.”
Matt got some heat from fans about comparing Cassidy to The Undertaker. Matt then replied:
“You should listen to what I actually say before taking things outta context. The comparison is how Tony Khan depends on OC like VKM depended on Taker out of Day 1 loyalty. But hey, Wrestling Twitter is always gonna Wrestling Twitter…”
Orange Cassidy was a New Jersey based independent wrestler, before joining Tony Khan’s All Elite Wrestling in May 2019 for their first official event, called Double Or Nothing.
He has since won the AEW All-Atlantic (now known as AEW International Championship) from Pac (fka NXT’s Adrian Neville) on the October 12th 2022 episode of AEW Dynamite.
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