Tony Khan Reveals How He Responded To Jim Ross Criticising Orange Cassidy Backstage

AEW

Tony Khan has opened up on his response to Jim Ross criticising Orange Cassidy during All Elite Wrestling’s first year.

During today’s media call ahead of AEW Revolution, Tony Khan was asked about complaints about Orange Cassidy and other comedic stars on his roster.

The AEW President talked about how Cassidy has become a ratings draw and then brought up an example of how AEW commentator and wrestling legend Jim Ross criticised Orange during a production meeting.

Khan stated:

“In the production meeting, I don’t think I’ve told this story before, I don’t know if either one of them would mind but I’ll just be honest with you guys in the spirit of doing a lot of interviews on the road to Revolution and you guys are the guys I always talk to. We were in the production meeting the first year and JR not under his breath, said something about how stupid the whole thing was in the first year and in front of everyone because Jim called me out in front of the entire room so I said back to him, ‘Jim, this is getting over and it’s doing ratings every time and we’ve barely scratched the surface on what the guy can do and he’s actually a really good wrestler and I think you should give him a chance and talk to him because he actually is a very intelligent wrestling person once you get to know him and we have barely scratched the surface on what this guy can do, trust me.’”

Tony Khan went on to explain how Orange Cassidy exceeded his expectations of the star prior to his signing, saying:

“A lot of people might not like it but frankly, he has become one of our big stars and that is probably the best example of somebody what I thought they could do coming in because really I thought he was gonna be like a manager mostly coming in. Once I realized how gifted he actually is, I had no idea Orange Cassidy was Fire Ant (in Chikara) when I first met him. When I realized that was the same guy and he is a great pro wrestler, then that’s when I came up with the idea to let’s hide that for 6 to 8 months and not show anyone all the stuff you can do until the first Revolution and that’s when you make your debut in your first real match and that’s when you show people you can really wrestle…”

Jim Ross had previously confirmed his original feelings on Cassidy and how it changed after watching his AEW Revolution 2020 match against PAC on his Grilling JR podcast back in 2020.

As previously mentioned, Tony Khan also brought up why he didn’t pick up the option year on Cody Rhodes’ AEW contract during the call as well.

Quotes via Wrestlingnews.co

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• jim ross
• Orange Cassidy
• tony khan
• AEW

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