Orange Cassidy is pretty busy these days with his incredible pace of title defenses of his AEW International Championship. But despite his slacker ethos, he’s apparently found a way to contribute to the company even more behind the scenes.
According to Fightful Select (subscription required), Cassidy has “picked up work as a producer/agent in All Elite Wrestling.” Recent matches he’s helped produce include Big Bill and and Brian Cage vs. Matt Sydal and Trent, as well as Infantry vs. Kingdom.
(As an aside, it’s also worth reading Fightful’s description of what exactly a producer does, or agent or coach, depending on the terminology of the specific wrestling promotion.)
It’s a little amusing to think of Cassidy, the character, giving unenthusiastic instructions to people in the ring, as several of Fightful’s commenters pointed out. But in reality, he’s one of AEW’s more creative minds, as evidenced by the way he’s been able to take his gimmick and elevate it way beyond what would simply be comedic fare in less talented hands.
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AEW CEO, GM and Head of Creative Tony Khan has said on numerous occasions that he seeks input from the best minds available to him to help craft storylines and put shows together, and that the need for a larger support team would intensify now that AEW Collision has added 40% more programming to each week.
Khan has spoken about how grateful he is to be able to pick the minds of Bryan Danielson and Chris Jericho, among others. Cassidy might not quite be in that tier yet, but it’s clear AEW trusts him to provide valuable instruction and feedback to others to make their matches the best they can be.
Just, uh, someone please give him a day off sometime soon. He looks like he’s desperately in need of one.