I first saw Hangman Page wrestle in 2018. I’d gotten into Ring of Honor, and New Japan Pro Wrestling was on AXS TV here so I’d gotten fully immersed into wrestling insider and outside of WWE enough to know all of the big groups and big players. And I did not see him as one of the latter either then or in the future. I saw him as a guy who could physically perform all the cool moves but little else. At the time he was the fifth member of the Elite and while he was more than a designated pin taker he wasn’t exactly winning much either. I thought he was a perfectly acceptable pro wrestler – better than most of the indie guys but less than the headliners in the companies he worked for. By estimation he’d do well so long as he was attached to a group like the Elite but on his own he was a guy.
When AEW started I didn’t watch it. To be blunt, I put on my WWE tribalist jersey and refused. I felt insulted by the way many of their wrestlers, their boss, and a lot of their fans talked about those of us who were still watching and enjoying WWE’s product, as if we were brainwashed cattle or something, so I picked a side and stayed there. I did follow what was going on there and when I saw that they were trying to make a thing out of Hangman Page my reaction was ‘man, I guess’. Despite what I heard from people who actually watched the show, I heard the name and I thought of the fifth guy in the Elite who I saw lose at Best in the World back in 2018. But I kept on my merry WWE watching way and didn’t make much fuss about it.
Then 2021 rolled around and for a brief moment it looked like AEW was a lot closer to WWE than a lot of people would have thought or would admit, to the point where I was almost ready to actually watch a bit of their programming. It was around this time that his run to the world title was fully underway, but like a lot of people I was focused on the two men that had recently joined the company – CM Punk and Bryan Danielson. The fantasy booker in me felt that if they truly were getting close to catching WWE in any way, and they’d just brought in two guys who were near and dear to fans both in their world and WWE’s, then you do the obvious thing and put one of them on top. If that meant punting on Hangman Page’s story or just dropping it outright then you do it. But I wasn’t an AEW fan, and from what I saw most of them wanted Page to get a proper conclusion to the run he was on. I was like ‘yeah whatever, they got two real world champions now’. Bryan was fresh off of main eventing WrestleMania and Punk was triumphantly returning from a seven year exile. Next to them, who the hell was Hangman Page?
The 2024 came around. Punk’s run with the company had come and gone down in spectacular flames. Cody Rhodes, one of the founding members of the company, was also gone. But somebody had come around to the AEW World. That somebody? Me. Now what on Earth could have possessed me to come around on them at this late date, after how hard I’d planted my flag on the other side of the street? To be honest it was pretty simple. Samoa Joe won the world title. Toni Storm found her character footing and was off to the races. Willow Nightengale, who I’d seen wrestle Roxanne Perez at Final Battle in 2021, began to really blossom and was getting a push. Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada and Mercedes Mone came aboard and I was curious to see how they would all play out there. A few other people who’d caught my interest either online or in other places – Deonna Purazzo, Mariah May – had come aboard. So basically, they brought in or started pushing people who I wanted to see and that was enough for me to let go of any partisan animus and try them out.
Which brings me to now: while I was watching those people and others like the recently arrive Hurt Syndicate, the ongoing feud between Page and Swerve Strickland got cranked all the way up to 11. I didn’t really care for what they were doing in their matches against each other, it was and is a bit extreme for my tastes, but their segments with each other backstage over the past couple of months where they didn’t squash their beef but instead laid out all of their grievances and voiced their own animus towards each other while each looking for help to take on the Death Riders did reach out and grab me. It’s made for some really good television in that they haven’t jumped from point A to point Z in a few weeks the way that pro wrestling usually handles enemies becoming allies. And now with Page about to challenge for the World Title the men have not become friends but have gotten to the point where they can express regret to each other and show some effort to move on.
So this weekend I find myself doing something that even last year I thought I would have never cared enough to do – I’m rooting for Hangman Page to win the AEW World Heavyweight Title. And not just because the Death Riders things has just been a drag for me and I desperately want to move on from it, but because the story they’ve been telling with Page has made me believe he’s the right man for the job, that he is the right man to vanquish Jon Moxley. There are guys who I previously thought were better choices but through the power of storytelling and great work by Page himself have gotten me to change my mind. I want him to do this, not Ospreay or Kenny or Swerve or anyone else who may emerge. It took actually watching the show to understand (imagine that), but I can see now where he fits into the AEW World as a character. Another thing I’ve come to understand is how the AEW faithful see Page, and why he’s the right choice at this moment for them.
When I think of Hangman Page today I don’t think of the fifth guy in the Elite, I think of two other guys: Sting and Lex Luger. Sting was the WCW lifer who stayed until the end and then went to work for TNA for 10 years instead of coming to WWE; of all the AEW stalwarts Page is the one guy I see staying there throughout the rest of his career. Luger was a guy who WCW fans had a special relationship with and saw much different than anyone who had only seen the Lex Express in WWE. Whatever anyone thought of him in WWE, in WCW he was one of our guys. If you’re a day one AEW fan then there’s a good chance that Hangman Page is one of ‘your guys’: someone who you have bonded with as a fan and have ridden with through his ups and downs as a character and in real life. When he and Punk feuded off of the show, you sided with him even if you thought Punk had a point, because you believe he has earned the right through loyalty to have words with anyone who’d come there as a mercenary. And now he’s at the precipice of winning another World Title, but this time without the looming shadow of men who’d come over from WWE. This is a chance not just to win but to stick the landing without any obstacles hanging around, and without morons who don’t even watch the show saying ‘why him? He’s not that guy!’.
It’s also a much needed happy ending, which have been in short supply on AEW PPV’s lately. Since Moxley won the title last fall only one show hasn’t ended with he and his gang standing tall after eight run ins and maximum shenanigans. While that is customary for a lot of heel title reigns, it’s been a bit of a drag for a company that was built on not doing that kind of thing if it goes on too long. The perception game is everything; AEW’s drop in tv viewership last year and in attendance over the last few years has been linked to Moxley’s title reign even though that’s not true (the big drop happened before he even won the title), but Hangman slaying the dragon while the company seems to have found it’s footing again would do wonders in the world of vibes and narratives.
So let’s go Hangman! For what it’s worth, you’ve won over a skeptic, now go win that title.
Stroke of Genius 