{"id":128474,"date":"2024-11-23T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2024-11-23T14:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=128474"},"modified":"2025-07-09T14:22:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T18:22:52","slug":"orange-cassidy-aew-cowboy-bebop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2024\/11\/23\/orange-cassidy-aew-cowboy-bebop\/","title":{"rendered":"Whatever Happens, Happens: Orange Cassidy and Cowboy Bebop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I like Orange Cassidy and Cowboy Bebop. Lately, I&#8217;ve noticed how the two have intersected. They both play freely without fear of risky things. They create new dreams and stories by breaking traditional styles.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stories often begin at the start of a protagonist\u2019s journey. If told well, audiences grow with them, connect with them, and don\u2019t want to leave them. The anime series <a  href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/tv\/how-cowboy-bebop-became-an-anime-landmark\/?srsltid=AfmBOopgZ9Fyy4XDJxArWyCApMXywx1FC-QAAuQlbwbyLXdVcTcMewlb\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cowboy Bebop<\/a> is such a story. Reminiscing on Orange Cassidy\u2019s journey in AEW, his story beats thump the same way for me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Something to know about me as a writer is that tales like Cowboy Bebop run through my veins. The episodes, the music, the voice acting, and the art style occupy my creative thoughts. As I watch it yearly, this year\u2019s rewatch showed me something peculiar. Orange Cassidy\u2019s trajectory as a character follows some of Bebop\u2019s themes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s not a coming-of-age story. Nor is it an origin. This is an arc of broken glass, walking through fire and shouldering a responsibility born of destiny.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Easy Come, Easy Go<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/igazwkQe0Ag?si=BLYSthMzPAGlr2JN\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upon his arrival at AEW, critics classified Cassidy as a novelty act. A denim-clad fool, so aloof to the point of comedy. He endeared himself to the fanbase, for sure. Yet, no one thought he\u2019d rise above the mid-card or even the lower card. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, talent buzzed inside him like an angry nest of hornets. But where sat his sting? Among the Jon Moxleys, Kenny Omegas, and Chris Jerichos, who was he? A little fish swimming in an ocean filled with sea monsters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regardless, fans connected with him; that heart grew with his alignment with the Best Friends tag team. Standing in the middle, thumb half-raised in the middle of Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta\u2019s hug. Kris Statlander and Wheeler Yuta soon joined, as did Rocky Romero and Tomohiro Ishii on occasion. Found family may not be thicker than blood, but it runs deep.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once it came time to silence doubters, Cassidy delivered. At Revolution 2020, he had his first big pay-per-view match against PAC. In the squared circle, they performed acrobatics and combat that left viewers stunned. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Expectations were high for PAC, but the uninitiated had yet to experience Cassidy with the pedal firmly planted down. He turned the force of his opponents into fluid motion. He calmly wrestled, becoming like clear water.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do You Have a Comrade?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tzpiqsExJRs?si=aYe5ei8Em0iFH9kQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everything has a beginning and an end. Life is just a cycle of starts and stops. There are ends we don&#8217;t desire, but they&#8217;re inevitable; we have to face them. It&#8217;s what being human is all about. It&#8217;s what the characters of Cowboy Bebop face, and it&#8217;s what Orange Cassidy has realized.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cassidy won the International Championship with an incredible reign of 326 days, ended by Jon Moxley at 2023\u2019s All Out. He soon won it back 37 days later in Independence, Missouri. Holding the title for the second time at 145 days, he pushed himself with hunger. And hunger is the best spice, they say.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sadly, injuries marred this time. Taylor, Beretta, and Statlander often took turns being absent for periods. After Beretta\u2019s bullying got the best of him, Yuta had enough. The youth then joined The Blackpool Combat Club to ascend in his career. Romero and Ishii, however, spend more of their time in Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/12\/08\/trent-beretta-returns-to-aew\/\" target=\"_self\">Then, Beretta attacked the group<\/a>. Taylor fought against this, leading to an injury that retired him. Statlander rejected her former friends outright.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is where Cassidy\u2019s story becomes Bebop.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He joined a band of misfits in the Conglomeration. Alongside Mark Briscoe, Kyle O\u2019Reilly, Romero, and occasionally Ishii, he wasn\u2019t alone. He had a modicum of family. Yet, there\u2019s something dispassionate there. Beneath the obsidian of his shades, one eye saw the current, while the other saw only the past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stuck in the middle. No place else to go.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are You Living in the Real World?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The core of Cowboy Bebop and Orange Cassidy&#8217;s intersection, with its healthy mishmash of styles and genres, rests on existentialism. Facing down the barrel of fate. Accepting the past is gone. The future is now. Time never stands still.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over time, Cassidy didn\u2019t seem sad or broken up\u2014things didn&#8217;t seem real. But it was real; everyone was gone. And little by little, something inside of him went numb. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, I could be looking too deeply into his body language. However, something waited beneath the surface to come out. Wondering if he\u2019s alive or thoughts that drift away. Living awake but half-asleep.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From All Out to WrestleDream 2024, a series of friendly encounters began a slow, hesitant shift. Wrestlers approached him, telling him that he was the face of the company. He should be in the main events. Big match graphics. For years, he drew children, families, and fans, blending comedy with incredible yet quiet athleticism while having an aura unique to him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He rejected these notions. When AEW\u2014no, wrestling\u2019s face, Bryan Danielson endured betrayal from the Blackpool Combat Club, what did he do? He rejected it. When the BCC brutalized Danielson, what did he do? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He rejected it. They clutched the AEW World Championship from his worn hands and retired him from full-time action. What did Cassidy do? He still rejected it. He dismissed his rightful place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s time for him to try.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019re Going to Carry that Weight<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PVpd1X8zfVA?si=49Eak25u_shEcATS\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Men only think about their past right before death, as if searching for proof they were alive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The attacks became more personal.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enough was enough. From then on, Cassidy wore black, consequently swearing war upon Jon Moxley and his malicious band of Death Riders.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Full Gear 2024 approaches, he\u2019s bled the blood of blue denim away. The only blood that flows in him now is the blood of a beast that wanders. Hunting for the blood of others.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jon Moxley stands before him, vicious. Ready to freshly squeeze that blood away. Drip it on the canvas like a water painting from a skilled artist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This isn\u2019t just a match for the AEW World Championship. This isn\u2019t just a match for the soul of AEW.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No. This is where Cassidy\u2019s journey has all been leading. Finally waking up. Taking up the torch which presently beckons for him. Lighting the way. Whether or not he stands tall over Jon Moxley, he must do one thing. He will have to accept this responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He\u2019s going to carry that weight.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/h3>\n<p><em>Header photo \u2013\u00a0AEW\u00a0\u2013 Stay tun<\/em><em>ed to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\" data-linkindex=\"1\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for 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.\u00a0 You can catch AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights at 8 PM ET on TBS. AEW Rampage airs on TNT at 10 PM EST every Friday night. AEW Collision airs Saturday at 8pm Eastern on TNT. More AEW content available on their\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@AEW\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I like Orange Cassidy and Cowboy Bebop. Lately, I&#8217;ve noticed how the two have intersected. They both play freely without fear of risky things. They create new dreams and stories by breaking traditional styles. Stories often begin at the start of a protagonist\u2019s journey. If told well, audiences grow with them, connect with them, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5361,"featured_media":128485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4677,2192],"tags":[1683,71,9061,9063,9064,4395,2423,9062,1180],"class_list":["post-128474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aew","category-wrestling","tag-best-friends","tag-chuck-taylor","tag-cowboy-bebop","tag-faye-valentine","tag-jet-black","tag-jon-moxley","tag-orange-cassidy","tag-spike-spiegel","tag-trent-beretta"],"modified_by":"Marilee Gallagher, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5361"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137790,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128474\/revisions\/137790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}