Orange Cassidy Is Proud Of How the AEW International Title Has Grown

Orange Cassidy was the first official holder of the AEW International Title, and he feels good about where its status is now. Cassidy won the title from PAC in October of 2022, when it was the AEW All-Atlantic Championship. He renamed the title and went on a lengthy run of 326 days with it, helping establish it as a championship.

Cassidy was asked about the title in his interview with Adrian Hernandez for Unlikely at AEW All In media day and reflected on its growth since he held it. He noted that he didn’t like when it was merged with the AEW Continental Championship into the Unified Title, and noted that it’s in a great place where it was defended by Kyle Fletcher against Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita at All In. You can see highlights below:

On His International Championship Reign:

“The International title started as the All-Atlantic championship, right? And PAC won that in a four-way. And we all know PAC is one of the best to ever wrestle. From there, he held that championship through COVID, right? That was tough; he was trying to get out he defended as much as he could. And I feel like he will go down as my greatest rival. I was able to capture that All-Atlantic championship from PAC.

“And when you get a championship, a new championship, right? AEW has a lot of them; we know that. An identity is — when I have this thing, I get like, I was me with it. I did what I thought was right, and it gave it an identity. I, who don’t care about a lot of things, cared when it was merged with the Continental, and they had like that one championship that was the International and the Continental one. I didn’t like that, because I felt that a lot of hard work went into that championship to actually make it something other than a World Championship, a championship that people could go after.

On Where the Title is Now:

“And to look at that lineage of where it started for me, who everybody was like, ‘Oh, joke mascot, dumb, insulting,’ to make this a championship that actually headlined a pay-per-view with John Moxley. And then now you have arguably one of the best wrestlers in the world right now and a future best wrestler forever, Kyle Fletcher holding it, to these incredible matches. It makes it feel good. It also makes me want to get it back. But I have my friends right now, Kyle and Roddy, that we’re going after the Trios Championship.

“But anytime I see that championship in a position like it is this weekend. We’re talking about Okada, Takeshita, and Fletcher in a triple threat match. We’re talking about, the best wrestlers on the planet right now are going to be in one match for that championship. The one that I kept in my backpack. Like, I take a lot of pride in that. It’s a good feeling.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Unlikely with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.