Debuting in 2010, Orange Cassidy was around for over a decade before AEW, but Cagematch.net says the first appearance of Cassidy took place during a six-man tag team elimination match in 2007. He has always had to work to win people over, and Chuck Taylor said, "crowds hate him and be very confused by him ... and not in a good way."

The Orange Cassidy gimmick seems to have come from the 2001 cult classic film "Wet Hot American Summer," in which Paul Rudd plays Andy, a lazy camp counselor. In an episode of "Dynamite," a fan held a sign that read, "Wet Hot American Summer 0:24:34" — a scene showing Andy in cutoff jean shorts sitting on a lake dock saying, "Ah, whatever."

Cassidy told ESPN.com that The Young Bucks were the ones to help get him on Tony Khan's radar as he was assembling the promotion's roster. After getting to know him, Khan told ESPN.com, "I had no idea what an intelligent person Orange Cassidy is, and he is very, very smart. And really, I had no idea how well-thought-out this all was."

Orange Cassidy earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2007 and is still in Princeton Design Guild's brochure on their website. ZoomInfo also lists him — as James Cipperly — working as a project coordinator for the home design website Houzz.

Before AEW, Orange Cassidy was best known for his nearly decade-and-a-half of work with CHIKARA, where he'd eventually serve as a trainer for the promotion's school, the Wrestle Factory. Cassidy has rarely, if ever, publicly talked about his many years there as Fire Ant or how he was the only wrestler to be part of two winning King of Trios teams.