AEW Dynamite started off with a shocker as Claudio Castagnoli suffered an upset loss against International Champion Orange Cassidy.

Claudio showed off his strength early and got into the groove as he rag-dolled Cassidy around the ring. He then made the champion eat knees to the midsection. The International Champion tried to hit back as he hit Claudio’s face to the turnbuckle 10 times, but instead of damaging the Swiss Superman, that appeared to do nothing.

As Castagnoli inflicted more punishment on Orange, the latter rolled out of the ring to put off his challenger, but that was stopped with a hit to the side of the head. As the match was now outside, Cassidy pushed Claudio into the ring post to gain some momentum.

As all this was happening, Wheeler Yuta tried to interfere, which saw Hook come out to defend his friend. Both of them were promptly thrown out by the AEW referee. Castagnoli hit a massive superplex from the top rope.

However, that was countered by Orange as he pushed Castagnoli into the ring post. That was immediately turned into an uppercut, catching the champion by surprise. Cassidy hit his rival with an Orange punch, but that did not help as Claudio rolled out of the ring, taking a leaf from his rival’s book.

Orange then hit Castagnoli with a DDT, but he kicked out. With everything being tried, Cassidy then hit a hurricanrana and converted that into a pin to successfully defend his AEW International Championship.

Were you impressed with Orange Cassidy’s title defense? Let us know in the comments below.