AEW: Analyzing Hangman Page’s slow turn to the dark side
By Sonal Lad
Move to All Elite Wrestling (Josiah)
Upon the announcement of the formation of All Elite Wrestling, Hangman Page was announced as one of the first major signees to the promotion. Page then went on, in the press conference about the launch of AEW, to promise that he would be the first AEW World Champion. This was a natural choice for a signing given Hangman’s performance in the G1 and his victory over Joey Janela.
Upon the first AEW PPV, Double or Nothing, Hangman Page won the first Casino Battle Royale. He was originally supposed to face PAC, but PAC was removed from the show due to circumstances with Dragon Gate. Instead, they had a match in the UK, and it involved PAC injuring the knee of Page. Page came out limping as the final entrant and managed to win the match, showing tenacity.
However, there was something that upstaged Hangman in the first few months of AEW. First, the signing of Chris Jericho, and then the subsequent signing of Kenny Omega both left Page looking like a secondary act to the bigger stars of The Elite. Page would understandably have a sense of frustration concerning this.
Eventually, the title match was announced. Chris Jericho vs. Hangman Adam Page to crown the first every AEW World title match. Hangman earned his shot through the Battle Royale, and Jericho did as well through defeating Kenny Omega. The date was also set: AEW All Out. In the time leading up to the match, Hangman and Jericho both spoke about how important it was for both men to to win the AEW World Championship.
For both, it was a career defining moment. For Jericho, it was about his legacy, and for Hangman, it was about making his mark on the business by defeating a legend. After a hard fought match, Hangman ultimately lost to the Judas Effect by Chris Jericho, and failed to win the AEW World Championship. On the surface, this shouldn’t have hurt him as he lost a well fought match to one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. However, Page did not take the loss well.
In the lead up to the match, we saw Page on BTE requesting the Young Bucks corner him like they have done for Kenny Omega many times, but they refused, talking about their responsibility as EVP’s of the brand new company. After the match, Page was seen as distancing himself a bit from his friends, and not dealing with the loss well. Page went on to lose several other matches, leading to him saying he was leaving the Elite.
After doing this, Page still remained friends with them, though the relationship was obviously strained.
Page did manage to defeat PAC at Full Gear, achieving a small measure of redemption that started his turn around from where he was. Page started teaming with Omega more frequently around this time, and the two began to see success as a tag team, though Page and Omega had crossed wires several times and ended up accidentally causing friendly fire with some of their moves.
However, they were able to overcome this in all their matches, even defeating SCU at the Jericho Cruise and becoming the AEW World Tag Team Champions.