See It: Toms River Boy Is Pro Wrestling's Newest Star

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Toms River 11-year-old got a huge birthday surprise when he got pulled into the wrestling ring with some of his idols and got to pin one on Wednesday night.

Nate Richardson, 11, and his dad, Derek, had front-row seats at the All Elite Wrestling event in Philadelphia for Nate's birthday. The duo are huge fans of professional wrestling, even dressing up as some of their favorite pro wrestling characters.

Nate's favorite is Orange Cassidy, who dresses in denim and dons dark sunglasses. Two weeks ago, Nate dressed like Cassidy when they went to All Elite Wrestling's first televised show in Washington, DC. All Elite Wrestling's "Dynamite" airs on TNT.

"It's a fun father-son bonding thing," said Derek, who has been a professional wrestling fan since he was a kid. Nick takes the dressing up to a whole new level, however, mimicking Cassidy's behavior, with a thumbs-up and casually tucking his hands in his pockets.

At the Washington event, "He stayed in character the entire time," Richardson said, and it earned Nate a fist-bump with Orange Cassidy, a moment caught in a photo by another fan.

After the Washington match, "people kept stopping us asking to take photos," Richardson said, with Nate never breaking from the hands-in-pockets, quiet persona that Cassidy portrays. "I was dying laughing. I can't believe how committed to staying in character he was."

The fist-bump in itself was cool, Derek Richardson said, but what happened on Wednesday was multiple levels higher in the cool factor.

When Nate found out that All Elite Wrestling had a live show scheduled in Philadephia, he asked if they could go again. "I opened my wallet again and got us front-row tickets," he said. Nate dressed up as Orange Cassidy again, and they watched AEW "Dynamite" filming.

After the live show, wrestlers Cody Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes, Brandi Rhodes, The Young Bucks, and MJF invited Nate to join them, and Cody came over to the barricade, picked up Nate and helped him into the ring, Richardson said.

With Nate still staying in character, Cody Rhodes fell to the mat, and Nate covered him for a pin.

Richardson posted the video on Twitter, and between it and the All Elite Wrestling cameras, it took off.

"We had no idea what was going to happen," Derek Richardson said. "It was just the icing on the cake" on Nate's birthday.

The video and Nate's commitment to the Orange Cassidy get-up has earned him the nickname "Clementine Cassidy."

"AEW got me back into (following professional wrestling)," said Derek, 40. "It's live theater. It's drama. It's like the TV show you watch weekly. They're doing drama action theater and they're doing it live."

"It's campy, it's over the top, but it's fun," he said. And the more you follow it, "you start to appreciate it for the stories they are telling in the ring."

Though they have gone as far as Chicago to see AEW events, Richardson said they'll wait for the group to come back to the East Coast to see them next. For now, he's still trying to comprehend what happened.

"Safe to say this is his best birthday ever," he tweeted Wednesday. "I have no words."

On Friday he tweeted a link with the link to the YouTube video posted by AEW of Nate pinning Cody.

"My son is apparently way cooler than I’ve ever been," he notes in his Twitter bio.

Here's the video from Derek Richardson's perspective:

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