AEW Booms and Duds: ‘Blood’ Orange Cassidy, beaten to a pulp!

Boom: a fun match with an even better post-match segment

Boom: Chris Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy is going to be a FUN feud, huh?

Although the sack of blood oranges chilling beneath the ring rang a little too WWE for me, I give it a pass because Ross did what commentators in WWE seldom do: he explained just how those oranges could possibly be beneath the ring in the first place.

Basically, Inner Circle had this all planned out and set up Best Friends, specifically Orange Cassidy, to make a statement through physical violence and (attempted) witty wordplay. That subtle detail would usually go overlooked in WWE.

The match itself was what you expect from a trios match in AEW: an entertaining match. It was fairly even, which is to be expected from wrestlers who have been in their own teams/factions for a long time, years when considering the history of Trent?/Chuck Taylor and Santana/Ortiz. Hager and Cassidy added their own elements to the mix, mainly brutality for Hager and effortless charisma for Cassidy.

The ending of the match saw a Street Sweeper interrupted, allowing Cassidy to leverage pin Ortiz for the win. This was a short-lived victory as Best Friends were immediately attacked by their foes. Jericho, who had been commentating the show through that point, angrily left after the defeat and entered the ring with Floyd, his bat. He proceeded to strike Trent? and Chuck Taylor with Floyd, rendering them useless.

He focused on Cassidy, who Jericho remarked on commentary had the audacity to walk through their segment, and struck him in the face with the handle of the bat (a place that tends to be pretty scratched up). This caused Cassidy to bleed (though he most likely bladed while attention was focused ringside).

Jericho then proceeded to grab the sack of blood oranges (I only know they’re blood oranges because commentary said so) along with another bag of blood oranges from under the ring. As if there weren’t already enough blood oranges in the sack, Jericho poured in the other bag (about seven or so) to give the sack just that much more weight.

That made me chuckle.

What do you do with a sack full of blood oranges? You proceed to beat your adversaries with it, of course! Then you pull out a somewhat witty line by saying, “‘Blood’ Orange Cassidy has just been juiced!”

“‘Blood Orange Cassidy has just been beaten to a pulp” was right there!

Jericho then proceeded to bite into a blood orange and, like Stone Cold drinking beer on the middle turnbuckle, had most of it all over himself instead of in his belly.

This was entertaining while still sending a strong message. Because of “the message,” Best Friends are putting their Tag Team Championship match at Fyter Fest on the line next week as they face Le Sex Gods in Jericho and Guevara. After all that hard work to finally earn a Tag Team Championship match, Best Friends might not even challenge Omega and Page at this rate.

Losing next week could be devastating for Best Friends. What’s worse is that two other teams received title matches before their scheduled challenge in The SuperBad Squad last week and The Natural Nightmares (Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall) next week.

It also looks like we’re going to have a Jericho-Cassidy feud, and I can’t wait. The humor level might be off the charts in a good way, though maybe hampered by the lack of an actual crowd. Imagine the vignettes between the two as they “train” for their eventual match; think of it as a cross between the Moxley-Hager videos and the recent Baker videos. Dope, right?

There are two weeks left until night one of Fyter Fest, and next week’s show is another stacked one. Who will Cody face? Do Omega and Page retain, or do The Natural Nightmares pull off a miracle? Will Best Friends retain their championship opportunity? Do Young Bucks return with a victory over The SuperBad Squad? Does MJF stay ranked #1, and how does he deal with Billy?

Let’s find out together next week. Until then, stay safe everybody!