To many fans, seeing Orange Cassidy come out to help the Best Friends – Chuck Taylor and Trent Baretta – at AEW All Out after getting attacked by the Dark Order‘s minions following their first-round bye match for the upcoming AEW Tag Team tournament, seemed somewhat out of place. To fans of New Japan and Ring of Honor, they were used to this duo of besties hanging out and doing their thing. Orange Cassidy was simply a viral indie star who was known for his lethargic approach to professional wrestling than being involved with anyone in particular.
But to longtime fans of CHIKARA, the indie promotion that fell somewhere between The Muppet Show and Monty Python, it made perfect sense. Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor are both longtime veterans of the Philadelphia promotion – Cassidy debuted with them in 2005, while Chuck Taylor had his own CHIKARA debut a year later in 2006. But in 2012, the two comedic grapplers joined forces in a new stable called The Gentleman’s Club, that not only featured Taylor and Cassidy, but WWE Cruiserweight Champion Drew Gulak, Jake Manning, Dr. Colonel Nolan Angus, and on occasion, Swamp Monster. But the principle trio was Taylor, Cassidy, and Gulak.
The Gentleman’s Club wasn’t exclusive to CHIKARA, however. The group also made their presence known in promotions like EVOLVE Wrestling, Dragon Gate USA, and Beyond Wrestling. Since Gulak signed with WWE in 2016, the Gentleman’s Club was predominantly a tag team unit featuring just Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy, where they fought the likes of LAX (Santana & Ortiz), CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos), Team PAWG (LuFisto & Jordynne Grace), Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven & Tyler Bate), and much more. Their last match together was this past June on an episode of Beyond Wrestling’s Uncharted Territory (Episode 12), where they scored the win over fellow CHIKARA stars Nouveau Aesthetic (BLANK & Still Life With Apricots And Pears).
So Orange Cassidy coming to aid his long-time stablemate was no random coincidence or a random pairing of two unlikely stars – it was a man that rose above his lethargy to help out a man who was not only a friend and longtime ally, but also a Gentleman.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. AEW All Out aired on PPV on B/R Live and Fite.tv.
