AEW Dynamite started with a shock as Claudio Castagnoli suffered an embarrassing defeat to International Champion Orange Cassidy.
Claudio showed his strength early, getting into the groove as he pulled Cassidy around the ring with rags. He then made the champion eat his knees up to his stomach. The international champion tried to hit back as he smashed Claudio’s face against the turnbuckle ten times, but instead of damaging the Swiss Superman, it seemed to accomplish nothing.
As Castagnoli inflicted more punishment on the Orange, the latter rolled out of the ring to deter his challenger but was stopped with a blow to the side of the head. Since the match was now outdoors, Cassidy pushed Claudio into the ring post to gain some momentum.
While all this was happening, Wheeler Yuta tried to intervene, causing Hook to come out to defend his friend. Both were promptly thrown out by the AEW referee. Castagnoli hit a huge superplex from the top rope.
However, this was countered by the Dutch team when he pushed Castagnoli against the ring post. That was immediately converted into an uppercut, surprising the champion. Cassidy hit his rival with an Orange punch, but that didn’t help as Claudio rolled out of the ring and took a leaf out of his rival’s book.
The Dutch team then hit Castagnoli with a DDT, but he kicked out. With everything tried, Cassidy then hit a hurricanrana and turned it into a pin to successfully defend his AEW International Championship.
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