“For a year and a half, every day that I would come to work I felt that there was a little black cloud over my head that I could never get rid of.”
Words spoken from Hangman Adam Page that could truly have a variety of meanings, but the main purpose here is the message on the surface. Since losing the AEW World Championship to CM Punk at Double or Nothing 2022, Hangman has fallen ever so far from his perch atop the mountain of All Elite Wrestling. Failed title opportunities, a brutal concussion, and a… man entering his house… Hangman has not had the best of times since losing the World Championship. In this piece, I want to take a look back at the precarious path Hangman Adam Page has had in the 18 months since losing the AEW World Championship.
Breathe With the Switchblade
Ten days after dropping the AEW World Championship, Adam Page would return to Dynamite on June 8th and compete in a match against NJPW’s David Finlay. AEW was finally in the full swing of preparing for the upcoming crossover pay-per-view, Forbidden Door, with New Japan Pro Wrestling. After the match, Page would call out the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion (at the time), Kazuchika Okada. However, being on commentary for the preceding match, Adam Cole would stand up and shout his disapproval of Hangman calling out Okada. Cole and Page had feuded over the AEW title for quite some time not long before Page would drop the title to CM Punk. Add to that the fact that Adam Cole had recently won the Owen Hart Cup, he felt like if anyone deserved to get a title shot then it was him. Furthermore, Okada had a title match with Jay White coming up just four days later at NJPW’s Dominion show in Osaka-jo Hall. The title was nowhere near short of challengers, and it looked like Hangman would be the last to receive a chance.
Four days after the previously mentioned episode of Dynamite, Jay White would beat Kazuchika Okada at Dominion and win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. After his match, Jay White would throw shots at Hangman Adam Page saying, “you dumb cowboy bitch”. If you want to hear everything that Jay White had to say, then I suggest you watch this video from about the 5:10 mark. But, to sum up his thoughts, Jay White slandered Hangman for thinking he’s “the shit” because he ran off from NJPW with his friends and was finally able to become a world champion somewhere. White believes he couldn’t hack it with the big boys in New Japan, but going back to the States in a new promotion allowed him to shine with the support of his friends. Jay White also congratulates Adam Cole on winning the Owen Hart Cup, but still says there is no one on his level nor truly deserving of a title shot.
Just three days later on Dynamite, Jay White would show up and attack Hangman during a promo segment. Once again, he would take shots at Hangman and tell him that he was not worthy of a title shot. But, he would also tell Adam Cole that a title shot was not coming his way either. This would cause some friction between White and Cole, but they were still common enemies against Adam Page. The following week on Dynamite, Hangman would get jumped by Jay White and Adam Cole after a match against Silas Young. This would lead to Okada finally making his AEW debut appearance to save Hangman and set up a four way match at Forbidden Door for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. In a match that was unfortunately blemished by the injury of Adam Cole, Jay White would pick up the victory to retain the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
(Re) Join the Dark Order
So, where did this leave our favorite anxious millennial cowboy you might ask? Well um… he kind of didn’t do much for a while. After competing in the Royal Rampage battle royal for a future AEW title shot and losing, he wouldn’t wrestle again until the end of July at Fyter Fest in a tag match with John Silver. Seven days after this match, it would be announced that AEW would be introducing brand new Trios Titles. However, this led to a conflict: who would Hangman side with? On the one side, you have the Young Bucks who have been with Hangman since some of his earliest days in wrestling; but, they left him in the dust with Kenny Omega as The Elite ran wild as top heels in AEW in 2021. On the other side, there was the Dark Order who attempted for many weeks to bring Hangman into their faction and supported him on his way to finally becoming AEW World Champion. The choice seems pretty clear, right?
The Young Bucks initially asked Adam Page to be their partner for the upcoming tournament, but he would ultimately choose the people who stuck by him in his darkest times: the Dark Order. With Kenny Omega returning from injury to re-form The Elite, both trios were on opposite sides of the Trios Championship tournament bracket. This would make it quite apparent from the outset that these two teams were on a collision (heh…) course in the finals of the tournament. This would come to pass as The Elite would beat La Faccion Ingobernable and the United Empire en route to the final (setting up a story of its own), while the Dark Order would beat the House of Black and Best Friends.
This set the stage for a fantastic trios match between The Elite and the Dark Order at All Out 2022. This match would see The Elite come out on top to be crowned the inaugural AEW Trios Champions (before a certain backstage brawl ended that). The main focus here, though, is that once again Hangman was left alone with another big loss under his belt. The man who was essentially the face of AEW for a brief period of time and is often dubbed the “main character” of the company continued to fall from grace.
Unscripted Violence
Just three days after losing to The Elite at All Out 2022, Hangman looked to get back on track as he competed in the first round of the AEW Grand Slam Tournament of Champions. This tournament was set up to crown a new AEW World Champion after CM Punk had gotten injured (and suspended) at All Out. However, Adam Page would get bounced from the tournament in the first round in the final match of the trilogy against Bryan Danielson. Yet another title opportunity Hangman let slip through his grasp. But, all was not lost for the cowboy as two weeks later he would win the Grand Slam Golden Ticket battle royal to earn a title shot against newly crowned AEW World Champ, Jon Moxley.
“Three years of watching you, three years of studying you because I knew this was coming” is what Jon Moxley would say to Hangman after Page defeated RUSH on the October 5th, 2022 edition of Dynamite. This feud that would ultimately be stained with the blood and hatred of both competitors started off as one fueled by mutual respect. Mox and Page respected each other for what they had accomplished in the company and the wrestling industry as a whole, but the other man was the only one stopping them from being the true top dog in AEW. They had beaten just about every other “top competitor” in the company, now only they remained in each other’s way. Unfortunately, this respect would soon be tainted by hatred.
On the October 18, 2022, episode of Dynamite, Jon Moxley and Hangman Adam Page would compete in a match for the AEW World Championship. However, this match would be ended by referee stoppage after Hangman suffered a concussion after taking a lariat from Moxley. Hangman would be stretchered off as fans looked on, petrified by the thought of what could be wrong with their favorite cowboy. In the month and a half following Hangman’s disappearance from television, Moxley would defend the title a handful of times before being defeated by MJF at Full Gear 2022.
During a promo on the November 30th episode of Dynamite, Hangman would finally return to AEW to confront Jon Moxley. Before Moxley could get more than two sentences off, asking if Hangman could even remember what happened last time they fought, Hangman throws a right to Moxley’s jaw as they began to brawl around the ring. The two would fight all the way into the backstage area before finally being separated. In spite of this, Adam Page still was not cleared to compete in the ring, and it would be nearly two months before these two would finally get their rematch. In the final confrontation the pair would have before their rematch, they would come face to face in a meeting where the tension was felt through the screen. There’s almost too much to talk about, so for the sake of time I suggest you watch the promo yourself.
But now, it was time for redemption. For the man who knocked him unconscious, for the man who left him out of in-ring competition for nearly three months, for the man who made him forget his own kid’s name, it was time for Hangman to repay Mox what he was owed. And he did just that, defeating Moxley on the January 11, 2023, episode of Dynamite. This would also be Moxley’s first singles competition loss on Dynamite in nearly a year and a half. The end of this match would also see AEW continue to play with the idea of concussions, as Mox would be (kayfabe) knocked out by Adam Page after eating a Buckshot Lariat that would see Hangman win the match. This would add more fuel to the massive forest wildfire that this was becoming.
In the coming weeks, both competitors were not quite satisfied as they now sat at one win a piece. On top of that, Mox was feeling the heat as Hangman had paid him back by knocking him out with the Buckshot. Things obviously couldn’t end here, which set up the “rubber match” for the February 1 episode of Dynamite. This match would once again see the competitors go to war with one another in the opening 16 minutes of Dynamite. But, after all these two had done to each other, after the weeks of verbal warfare, a knockout for each competitor, and a win a piece, this match ended in a… roll up.
Yup, after being locked in a bulldog choke, Moxley would reverse it into a pinfall to steal a victory from Hangman. But once again, neither competitor was satisfied. Page thought it was a fluke victory on Moxley’s part and Mox was not satisfied that this was his “conclusive” victory over Hangman. So, if you know Adam Page then you know that there is only one way to end things: a Texas Deathmatch.
At AEW Revolution 2023, Jon Moxley and Adam Page would compete in a brutal Texas Deathmatch to settle things once and for all (well… kinda). I won’t go into great detail on the match (you should really go watch it), but this was a fantastic match that allowed the building tension between these two to be released in the most violent, chaotic way possible. Personally, I wouldn’t say I’m the biggest fan of death matches, but this was done to perfection and truly delivered far better than I would have imagined at the first bell. Hangman Adam Page would come out on top after… hanging him… but, as we would come to find out, this would not be the end of these two in the ring together. However, on this night they would collide in arguably AEW’s best deathmatch yet.
Elite Once Again
Ok, I’m going to try to keep this section very brief because there is one more section I want to cover. After sending the Young Bucks and Don Callis to the hospital and brutalizing Michael Nakazawa and Brandon Cutler, the Blackpool Combat Club was now on a collision course with the Elite. There was a problem though: The Elite only had three members while the BCC had four. As tensions continued to flare between the BCC and The Elite, it would be a returning Hangman Adam Page that would even out the playing field between the two groups. The factions would face off in an Anarchy in the Arena match at Double or Nothing that would see the Blackpool Combat Club pick up the victory.
The feud, however, was still not over as many betrayals amongst the Omega and Callis family would prolong this feud for the summer. (I would quickly like to mention that there was some tension and conflict between Hangman/The Elite and the Dark Order prior to the B&G match as they felt betrayed by Hangman choosing to side with The Elite, anyway…) At Blood and Guts on July 19, The Golden Elite would defeat the BCC, Konosuke Takeshita, and PAC in a Blood and Guts match to finally end this conflict. Finally, Hangman has built up some momentum with a huge win over Moxley a few months prior and now a victory over the BCC to conclude this bloodbath of a feud. All of this while being reunited with the people he helped establish not only this company with, but his career with. Things could only get better, right?
Who’s House?
Hangman and the Golden Lovers would compete against Bullet Club Gold and Konosuke Takeshita at AEW’s record-breaking pay-per-view, All In, in a match that would see Takeshita get a surprise roll up pin on Kenny Omega. Despite Page taking part in a match at the biggest wrestling event in history, he was pretty much a background character to the story between Don Callis and Kenny Omega that was playing out prior to the show. This would open the door for Hangman to re-enter singles action after All In. On the All Out: Zero Hour, Hangman Adam Page would win the Over Budget Charity Battle Royal that would allow him to donate money to a charity of his choice. Hangman would choose the Chicago Public Education Fund, likely because he was a teacher prior to wrestling full-time. On the following episode of Dynamite, Hangman would be in the ring cutting a promo with Tony Schiavone before Swerve Strickland interrupted them.
Swerve would come at Hangman for uh… donating to charity… and proceeding to mention the fall off that Hangman has been suffering (I’d say he’s essentially the reason for this piece even being written). Swerve would say what many fans had been thinking for quite some time regarding Hangman, why is Hangman competing on the pre-show? Why is Hangman in yet another battle royal? Why does Hangman feel like he is fading into the background? Well, to quote Swerve, it looked like “[he] didn’t even want it anymore”. It looked like Adam Page had begun to get comfy sitting in the background, far away from the title picture. Like it was just enough to show up and have a good match, but he had no ambition anymore. Hangman lacked drive and determination like Swerve had. After getting verbally shit on by Swerve, Hangman would get attacked by Brian Cage setting up a match for the following week that Hangman would win. After that match, Swerve Strickland vs Hangman Adam Page would be set for the first edition of AEW WrestleDream.
This is where Swerve would pick up a true statement win for himself in AEW as he would beat Hangman at WrestleDream in a phenomenal match. Though, Swerve would get some help from Prince Nana on the way to securing his victory. Swerve would bask in the glory (no pun intended) of his victory in his hometown of Seattle, while Hangman was upset that this was how Swerve decided to carve his way to the top. Hangman didn’t feel like Swerve wanted to earn his spot, but he wanted to take it and by any means necessary. Weeks would go by seeing Swerve and Hangman break off and compete in matches of their own. Swerve would have a #1 contender’s match for the TNT Title against Bryan Danielson, which he would have won (with the help of Prince Nana again) if Hangman hadn’t stopped the interference. This would cause tensions to rise further, leading something major to occur on the October 25th episode of Dynamite.
After The Elite faced off against Isiah Kassidy and The Hardys, a video played showing Swerve Strickland entering Adam Page’s house. Swerve and Prince Nana would walk around the house for a bit before Swerve ENTERED HANGMAN’S KID’S ROOM *ahem* then proceeding to talk to Hangman Jr. before throwing a shirt on the baby. Over the coming weeks, Hangman would try to attack Swerve at any given chance. This would set the scene for the pair’s confrontation on the November 15th episode of Dynamite where Adam Page would go back to the well one more time, demanding a Texas Deathmatch at Full Gear against Swerve. Hangman would assert that Swerve is not the man he thinks he is and claims to be. Swerve made such bold declarations just over a month prior, but all he has done is cheat his way up the ladder of AEW.
Now he’s made things personal and has lit a fire in Hangman, slowly bringing back out the cowboy we once knew. Hangman is no longer pretending to be some perfect face of the company; in the last 18 months, he has slowly accepted his faults, he has forgiven his friends, and he has continued to make peace with himself. But, at Full Gear, it seems that the kill shot was able to put down the cowboy for good. Where Hangman proceeds to go from here is only known to him, but if he wants to make it back to the top, it is likely he will have to saddle up and go on another journey of reflection and self realization.
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