Kenny Omega and Adam Page tag team has rejuvenated both AEW stalwarts

From falling short in AEW World Championship matches to capturing tag title gold together, “Hangman” Adam Page and Kenny Omega have found new life as teammates in AEW over the last several months.

Before entering the tag team ranks late last year, Kenny Omega and “Hangman” Adam Page didn’t feel remotely as special as they should have been, despite being positioned as two of AEW‘s top talents.

Both Omega and Page arrived in AEW with plenty of fanfare and were expected to be built around as the faces of the upstart promotion. With their reputations from other organizations preceding them, they were destined to be champions from the get-go, until they weren’t.

In the first few months of AEW’s existence, it was clear that they weren’t delivering at the level the masses expected them to. Their work was substandard and their popularity felt as if it were dwindling in favor of Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, and Cody.

Omega was widely regarded as one of the best wrestlers in the world during his time in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. His iconic series of matches with Kazuchika Okada earned him worldwide appeal and led to him holding the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for a substantial period of time.

Although Page wasn’t nearly as revered in Ring of Honor, he shined as a singles star upon joining Bullet Club and came close to capturing the ROH World Television Championship on several occasions. He, too, had a high ceiling for success once AEW came to fruition, especially since he was never pushed toward the main event scene in ROH.

However, both Omega and Page came up short against Jericho in opportunities to become the inaugural AEW World champion in 2019. Their matches failed to meet fans’ lofty expectations and their ill-defined characters didn’t help matters.

At first, AEW putting them together in a tag team seemed like a strange move, but it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to either of them.

Omega and Page were reeling from losses to Pac and Moxley when they decided to form an alliance and enter the tag team division. They first faced the makeshift duo of Shawn Spears and Kip Sabian and immediately proved that they had great chemistry as partners.

From there, they waged war with the likes of The Lucha Brothers, Inner Circle, and Private Party before cementing their status as the number one contenders to the AEW World Tag Team Championship.

Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky were fun champions, but Omega and Paige caught fire quicker than anyone could have ever expected. That made them the strongest candidates to take the tag titles from SCU, and sure enough, they won the belts to a raucous reaction on the Jericho Cruise in mid-January.

Page and Omega being the hottest tandem in AEW’s already stacked tag team division speaks volumes to how well they work together. Not only are their matches are always excellent, they are significantly more popular than they did even six months ago.

Hangman being down on his luck and engaging in more alcoholic activities following his string of losses to Jericho and Pac actually endeared him to the audience and made him a more relatable and likable character. Omega also started to find his groove again and showed shades of the Omega of old during his incredible Iron Man match with Pac days before Revolution.

Their AEW World Tag Team Championship clash with The Young Bucks at Revolution, which received rave reviews from fans, served as an excellent example of how both Page and Omega have managed to rejuvenate their careers through teaming. They’re exactly where they should be in their respective careers.

Omega and Page retaining their tag titles was the right call, but how long they’ll remain champions is unknown. While The Young Bucks beating them for the belts is only inevitable, AEW would be wise to stretch out this storyline with Omega and Page until fans are ready to see them branch back off into singles competition.

Page teased turning on Omega following their instant classic with The Young Bucks at Revolution. It could be safely assumed that has been the endgame to this angle the entire time, but AEW breaking them up any time soon would be premature.

Of all the awesome content AEW has produced so far this year, Page and Omega has featured some of the most exciting storytelling yet. If one thing is certain, it’s that they’ll be the company’s biggest stalwarts going forward regardless of whether they’re aligned or not.