Orange Cassidy says he didn’t like AEW merging International & Continental titles

AEW’s Orange Cassidy was not a fan of the International and Continental titles merging.

Last year at AEW Revolution 2025, Kenny Omega defeated Konosuke Takeshita to win the International title. He later lost the championship to Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada at AEW All In 2025. Okada won the title and merged it with his Continental Championship to create the Unified title.

Recently, speaking to Adrian Hernandez at the AEW All In Media Day, Cassidy expressed his thoughts on the promotion merging the two titles at last year’s All In. The former Trios Champion began by talking about the titles’ history.

“The International title started as the All-Atlantic Championship, right? And PAC won that in a four-way. And we all know PAC is one of the best to ever wrestle. From there, he held that championship and through COVID, right? That was tough. He was trying to get out and do, he defended as much as he could. And he, I feel like he will go down as my greatest rival.

“I was able to capture that championship from PAC. And when you get a championship, a new championship, right? Like, and AEW has a lot of them. We know that. An identity is… when I had this thing, I was me with it. Like, I did what I thought was right and it gave it an identity,” Cassidy shared.

“I, who don’t care about a lot of things, cared when it was merged with the Continental and they had that one championship that was the International and the Continental one. I didn’t like that because I felt that a lot of hard work went into that championship to actually make it something other than a World Championship, you know, a championship that people could go after.

“And to look at that lineage of where it started, for me, who everybody was like, ‘Oh, joke, mascot, dumb,’ like insulting, like, to make this a championship to actually headline a pay-per-view with Jon Moxley. And then now you have arguably one of the best wrestlers in the world right now and a future best wrestler forever, Kyle Fletcher, holding it, to these incredible matches. Like, it makes it feel good.“

At AEW All In 2026, Fletcher is scheduled to defend his International title against Okada, and Takeshita in a triple threat match. While, Jon Moxley will face Nigel McGuinness in the Continental Challenge Cup final for the AEW Continental Championship.

“But anytime I see that championship in a position like it is this weekend, we’re talking about Okada, Takeshita and Fletcher in a triple threat match. We’re talking about the best wrestlers on the planet right now are going to be in one match for that championship. The one that I kept in my backpack. Like, I take a lot of pride in that. And I’ve never given that answer anywhere else except for you because I thought a little bit about it, especially this morning. Literally, we walked in, I saw Kyle Fletcher holding it. He’s taking such good care of it… it’s a good feeling,” Cassidy finished.

The 42-year-old Orange Cassidy is a two-time AEW International Champion. His first reign was in 2022, which lasted around 326 days. His second reign was in 2023, which lasted 145 days.