AEW: How can you ask for a better manager than Orange Cassidy?

As Tony Schiavone and Chris Jericho bickered with each other on commentary during AEW Dynamite, I couldn’t help but side with Schiavone. Orange Cassidy is an excellent manager.

Now, before I gush about what Orange Cassidy did on AEW Dynamite this week, I have to begin with a critical caveat. The best manager in the business is Zelina Vega. End of discussion. The title of the article is tongue-in-cheek and a nod to a babyface manager.

Back to Cassidy. He was in Chuck Taylor and Trent’s corner for their tag team match against Jimmy Havoc and Kip Sabian, as the four wrestlers were competing in a No Disqualification match as the possible conclusion to a wild rivalry on weekly television.

While the four men in the ring have been very much involved in this program, the most interesting aspect of the story – and the heart of the rivalry – is the battle between Penelope Ford and Orange Cassidy.

Ford has been one of the best managers in wrestling over the past couple of years, having previously helped Joey Janela before becoming Sabian’s manager in AEW.

She had been a constant thorn in the side of Cassidy and the Best Friends, but she finally met her match on the Apr. 29 episode of Dynamite.

Cassidy was at his suavest on Wednesday night, cooly ducking Ford multiple times. She ended up spearing Sabian into the guardrails/barricade after Cassidy’s second dodge. And when Cassidy thwarted Havoc on the top rope and nonchalantly dropped himself onto Sabian and Ford, the match’s result in favor of the Best Friends was sealed.

Throughout Cassidy’s inspired movement outside the ring, Chris Jericho and Tony Schiavone were debating Cassidy’s skills as a manager on commentary. Naturally, Jericho stood against Cassidy, and he, at one point, attempted to argue that Bobby “The Brain” Heenan could move more nimbly than Cassidy. Schiavone, meanwhile, was mesmerized by the man in the baby blue Canadian tuxedo’s ability to effortlessly weave his way out of trouble.

In the end, Cassidy’s interventions helped the Best Friends scoop up a satisfying win over the annoying trio of Havoc, Sabian, and Ford.

Although Ford saved the match at one point by pulling Sabian’s foot under the rope, her consistently opportunistic brilliance was outdone by Cassidy’s unorthodox managing. Cassidy is something of a Captain Jack Sparrow-esque enigma in AEW. He seems to improvise and proves successful out of what seems like sheer dumb luck, but there’s something charming about the way he manages to reach his desired outcome.