Can you feel the warm breeze?
Can you feel the humidity?
Can you feel the days getting longer, the nights getting warmer, the sun shining brighter?
Spring is certainly in full bloom and will be until the beginning of summer, which isn’t until June 21 in my part of the world. But now in late April, we look to be having an early summer. How do we know it’s an early summer?
Hangman Adam Page fans are being set up for disappointment.
Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Rey
Last year, the Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament didn’t begin until July, with the winner receiving an AEW Men’s World Championship shot. The summer had already started and Hangman Adam Page made his return as a Wild Card to defeat Jeff Jarrett. Despite an incredible promo after the match and the beginning of what felt was a rise of Hangman as a heel challenger to Swerve Strickland at All In 2024 in Wembley Stadium, Hangman would lose the final only seven days after his return to Bryan Danielson.
Danielson did go on to win at Wembley, have a short title reign that was essentially a gold watch run, before having his full-time career snuffed out at the hands of Jon Moxley. That suffocation with a plastic bag led to the current Death Riders run we’re currently in. Hangman instead flirted with a program against Jeff Jarrett, got his big match with Swerve Strickland for All Out instead of All In, burned Swerve’s house down in the biggest moment in AEW in 2024 that didn’t involve an old wrestler winning a belt or retiring, won the match against the former AEW Men’s World Champion (who he sort of cost the championship by just appearing in the main event), before heading into autumn as a lameduck number two heel in the company before his eventual turn back to babyface.
This year the Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament started in April one month after Revolution, which Page beat Maxwell Jacob Friedman in a program both men sorely needed. MJF has already wasted any wakeup call he gained from the program, and AEW still focusing on MJF at the 9PM slot made it feel like he didn’t lose the match at all when you get into the finer details (and the finer detail analysis is not wrong) but on paper it’s clear that MJF got punched in the mouth by someone he can’t beat and is once again going back to trying to get someone else to do his dirty work so he can back door his way to the Men’s World Championship.
Hangman doesn’t really do the back door. Contain yourselves. Stop it. Stop giggling. Let me finish. STOP GIGGLING.
SUMMER DRESS by JULY TALK
Hangman works for everything and that work ethic is both why we love him and often why he falls short. Here he is entering the Owen again, and this time he’s run afoul with the Don Callis Family. This time he was on the other side of the ring dealing with a Wild Card, that Wild Card being a debuting Josh Alexander. The Walking Weapon, fresh off of being the Ace of TNA Wrestling for many years, couldn’t ask for a better opponent in his debut to show AEW fans what he’s capable of.
The match they had was an absolutely fantastic singles match on Dynamite, with Hangman needing a roll up to win. Alexander lost his debut, but that put him right in position to join the Don Callis Family and beat down Page, whose next opponent is tomorrow night in Kyle Fletcher. Page must essentially beat two members of the Don Callis Family if he wants to get to the final.
Waiting for him in the final is Will Ospreay, who beat Kevin Knight at Dynasty for his first win and Konosuke Takeshita, also of the Don Callis Family, for the second. Both Page and Ospreay have had to get through members of the Don Callis Family, and Page has to get through a second. You would think Page would have been right there with Will Ospreay to take on the Don Callis Family between the tournament, but last week when Ospreay challenged Josh Alexander and Konosuke Takeshita? It wasn’t Page teaming up with Will. It was Brody King to eat a loss.
So anyone watching on TV can see that Will Ospreay is getting his Owen quarter final on pay per view. They can see that the company is treating this feud with the Don Callis Family for Ospreay to be the focal target. It doesn’t really signal to the viewer that Hangman Adam Page is the focus on the Owen tournament or the top antagonists of it in the DCF. That would instead be Will Ospreay.
AEW has gone to the well one too many times now with Kyle Fletcher and Will Ospreay, having the two face each other in a match at Full Gear, a Continental Classic semi final at Worlds End, a tag team match at Grand Slam: Australia, and a cage match at Revolution. Are they really setting up Ospreay and Fletcher to face off in the final of the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament?
Summer Love by Trevor Something
I don’t think so. I think they go with a babyface versus babyface final here. I do believe Hangman in Virginia is going to beat Kyle Fletcher. AEW knows the Ospreay/Fletcher feud is exhausted. We also know that Will Ospreay absolutely wants to face Hangman Adam Page.
“So I feel like that’s the main character,” Ospreay said, in reference to Page. “That’s the guy. That’s AEW right there.”
Page versus Ospreay would be a seriously big match to book for Double or Nothing and make it for the number one contender to Jon Moxley and his AEW Men’s World Championship. You place two babyfaces in the final to ensure the result isn’t easy to call. They went heel/face with Danielson and Hangman last year because Danielson was doing his final run story while Hangman had history with Swerve. Eventually both got their match at a show starting with “All” but one got the title and the other did not. This is also two of what I called the Prime Seven of the AEW Men’s division.
By late May for Double or Nothing we will be close enough to summertime for it to be time for Hangman Adam Page to inevitably break our hearts once again. Or more specifically, All Elite Wrestling to book him to fail when we want him to succeed. Setting it up against Ospreay makes one say, “Hey, he isn’t losing to just anybody” but one must wonder how Maxwell Jacob Friedman feels giving up a rare victory on pay per view to Adam Page only for it to be erased by Will Ospreay before Y’All In Texas.
There’s other arguments to why Page shouldn’t win. He was in the disappointing four way for the title against Jon Moxley at Worlds End. Even if his time in the ring with Moxley felt like the only time in the past six months that Mox felt like the Ace he used to be? Adam Page had his shot. Will Ospreay is a focal point on TV every time he’s out there, and he’s put out in big moments like the Trios Championship celebration win by The Opps against the Death Riders.
Ospreay told Darby once the C2 was over he’d help him go after the Death Riders.
Ospreay said, “After this is done? Knock on my door. If you need someone in the foxhole with you lad? I’m going in there with you.” Done being the Continental Classic. Darby told Ospreay if they didn’t do something about Death Riders now something was going to happen. Darby was right. The Death Riders took him out and he hasn’t been seen since the final episode of Rampage.
So it would make sense if Will Ospreay is replacing the spot we all thought Darby Allin would be in since his Mount Everest climb got delayed and he wasn’t ready for Y’All In Texas, that it’s Ospreay who replaces Darby in the foxhole in the war against Death Riders. It would also make sense that Hangman Adam Page essentially replaces Ospreay in his previous fight against the Don Callis Family for TV matches.
That isn’t to say that Hangman Adam Page going up against Jon Moxley doesn’t make sense or wouldn’t be a logical conclusion. Moxley started this all complaining about the originals not doing enough and not moving up in the company. Page, a former AEW Men’s World Champion, has failed time and time again to try to regain that championship. As I said, the only time that main event of Worlds End really had fire was when Page and Moxley were going toe to toe in the ring.
It shouldn’t go unnoticed that Norfolk, Virginia for Dynamite is looking to surpass what it drew in 2024 (as of this publishing they’ve sold 3,199 seats, 981 since last week, with the show on August 14, 2024 drawing 3,232 with two more days to sell tickets) to be their best drawing show in Norfolk since 2022. Adam Page is a draw in his home state, and with successful shirt sales and other metrics, he’s definitely one of AEW’s draws. As Ospreay said, he’s the main character of AEW.
So why wouldn’t the main character of AEW be on their biggest show of the year?
People have pointed out how prominent Adam Page is featured on the Y’All In Texas promos and advertising, to the point where people feel the belt buckle on the poster is basically Adam Page’s belt buckle.
Stop.
You’re doing it again.
Summertime in the Void by I Mother Earth
You’re giving yourself hope for something that likely isn’t going to happen. AEW wouldn’t be doing so much work in setting up Swerve Strickland against the Young Bucks, and Young Bucks acting like they are still helping out their little buddy Adam Page, if the purpose wasn’t to eventually put the two hated rivals together in a common goal to take down the Young Bucks. Swerve wouldn’t finally be admitting to Page about how he deserved his wrath, all of that character work isn’t just window dressing.
If the Bucks can’t be beating the Hurt Syndicate to be AEW World Tag Team Champions, they will certainly still be wanting to work the biggest tag match on the biggest show of the year. Kenny Omega’s temporary alliance with Swerve is just to fill time before Omega and Kazuchika Okada begin their proper run towards Y’All In Texas together. Once we get beyond Double or Nothing? The plan seems pretty clear:
Okada versus Omega title for title
Ospreay versus Moxley for the AEW Men’s World Championship
Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland versus The Young Bucks
I’m sure in the meantime of building up to that we will see Hangman go up against the Don Callis Family as there’s plenty of babyfaces around to take them on in matches until we get to building the PPV programs.
And heck, even if, EVEN IF, Hangman beat Ospreay to win the Owen? Right the wrong of 2024, face Jon Moxley in the main event? Do you think he’d win? Or do you think he’d lose to set up Darby Allin’s return?
The only way I don’t see Ospreay winning is if they wanted Ospreay to get his title shot instead at Forbidden Door in London, England.
The only way I see Hangman Adam Page doing the unthinkable, having a good summer for once in AEW, and beating Jon Moxley in the main event of Y’All In Texas? Is if he’s soon to be dropping that same AEW Men’s World Championship to Maxwell Jacob Friedman soon after, so MJF can eventually be the heel to drop it to Darby Allin for his first AEW title run.
Bummer Summer by Fake Shark
There’s a bunch of paths of hopes and fairy dust and there’s the reality. AEW didn’t put Swerve and Hangman at the end of that Y’All In Texas promo to make you think of them facing each other for the AEW Men’s World Championship. They did to make you think about them together. No matter what metrics of drawing you find for Hangman, he just isn’t seen as one of the top guys in the company by the person that matters most. Everyone can call him the main character but it’s the main character of a story that’s already been told, as Kyle Fletcher put it best:
“And Hangman? You might be a cornerstone of this company, but the company you pioneered? Is dead.”
Maybe I’m wrong. I find no fun in being a pessimist. I often roll my eyes at people saying Tony Khan hates Hangman Page. If he hated him he wouldn’t book him. There’s a big difference between hating someone and just not loving them as much as you love them. I don’t think there could be a better vibe check for AEW than having Adam Page break the cycle of cruel summers, end the Death Rider storyline with an AEW Original defeating Moxley, and give people something to cheer for all summer. Not exactly like Hirooki Goto, but absolutely a vibe check like Goto as IWGP World Champion has been.
Darby Allin can still get his run later, and you can even have MJF be the man who beats Hangman for the title to get his win back. Just give us this one ride of the Cowboy. Who knows if he’s still going to be around in a few years so you might as well get every drop of Cowboy Shit if he rides off in the sunset once this current contract ends.
It’s a nice thought. It just isn’t what has been set up.
It’s going to be an early summer for All Elite Wrestling, and that’s never a good thing for the Cowboy.
