Hangman Adam Page defeated Will Ospreay at Double or Nothing 2025 in the Men’s Final of the 2025 Owen Hart Foundation Tournament to become the number one contender for the AEW Men’s World Championship and face Jon Moxley at Y’All In Texas.
I said we needed to be prepared for Another Bummer Hangman Summer.
It was hard for me to believe that there could ever be a change, or shift, in the way AEW looked at Hangman Adam Page. The dye had been set. Whatever truly happened between Hangman and CM Punk back in 2022 has been haunting both AEW, Hangman Page, and Tony Khan since then. A poison that weakened the company and they would never truly recover from.
Maybe it took CM Punk going back to the WWE and caring most about a buy one get one free WrestleMania main event for Tony Khan to see that he made the wrong decision. He blamed the wrong person and the wrong people. The company has taken a lot of criticism since 2022 for trying to be too much like their competition. Losing their identity to create a new identity that was supposed to bring new fans and new eyes to the product. The best course of action was always for All Elite Wrestling to be All Elite Wrestling.
Pivoting to CM Punk, pivoting to comedy babyface antics of MJF in 2023, spending so much of 2024 paying tribute to old stars on their way out instead of the stars in their prime today, giving the biggest story of 2024 the All Out main event without the title on the line instead of the All In main event in front of the most fans? All of these decisions felt like AEW just repeating the sins of 2022.
You hear it from a lot of AEW fans now. Hangman should have beaten CM Punk at Double or Nothing. Even if his future was dropping to Maxwell Jacob Friedman, that was a future worth fighting for. Having Hangman defeat all of the “new toys” like Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, and CM Punk, would have established that his title reign was for AEW. The home grown guys matter. The product they built in 2019 mattered. Going from Hangman to MJF would have completed the story being told since 2019, when the title was revealed by Bret “The Hitman” Hart at Double or Nothing 2019 with Hangman and MJF nearby.
You can’t change the past. You can only move forward. Double or Nothing 2025 felt like moving forward. It felt like change.
“I watched you change into a fly”
I think it’s important after that show to understand what Will Ospreay just did for All Elite Wrestling.
Ospreay has had some criticism for being the golden boy of the company. It’s an inside joke to call him a golden retriever, because his personality is a lot like a puppy dog just trying to make everyone happy and like him. It’s no secret that’s his character in the company. He even spelled it out in the promo against Hangman. He’s always trying to do the right thing, and he’s always trying to win the right way.
Ospreay has considerable power in AEW. Maybe it sometimes doesn’t feel like it but you peel the layers and it’s clear he gets some of the best TV quarters, his programs are always well promoted, sometimes even better than the World Championship, and essentially what he wants to do he gets to do. In a lot of ways I see him as a replacement for Cody Rhodes in the company. He’s doing the media, he’s the people’s champion.
That’s why the criticisms of his clothing rang so empty, and it felt like someone (Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer) trying to tell Will Ospreay if he’s going to play the part of Cody Rhodes he needs to dress the part.
Cody, and later CM Punk, tried to play the role of the ambassador of the company, the face of the company, and in doing so they had to get their way. Their promo time. Their ring time. Hand picked opponents. While Cody was absolutely a team player at one point, he eventually developed his CodyVerse which didn’t benefit AEW. CM Punk had his Collision run where he essentially booked the show with the guys he felt were in his support.
Will Ospreay could have been just like this, and in a lot of ways he’s had the same power and had similar positions. The difference is that Ospreay really does hold AEW in a higher esteem than himself. He knows he could forced his way into an AEW World Championship run immediately but it would have hurt Swerve Strickland. People kept thinking he was going to steamroll Swerve’s championship so he could get the belt at Wembley. Ospreay instead lost to Swerve at Forbidden Door, his first major loss in the company, specifically to end that conversation. It wasn’t just because Swerve was his friend. It was the right thing to do for AEW.
When Cody Rhodes was able to handpick his opponent he didn’t pick someone who could be the future of the company, a young star that needed the rub. He picked Anthony Ogogo, a barely trained former boxer, and QT Marshall, an aging 30 something job guy best utilized by getting some heat in dark matches. When CM Punk decided to feud with Ricky Starks to make him a guy, he lost to him in cheap fashion in the Owen, only to immediately beat him again for a fake title and was bound to face him at All Out in Chicago to beat him again in a strap match.
Ospreay, in that same position, picked Kyle Fletcher. Fletcher, while Ospreay’s friend, was a guy only in his mid 20s working his ass off to look better and get better, and just didn’t have the heat yet. Doing that program put Fletcher on a higher trajectory, and honestly has the ability to one day be just as good or better than Ospreay or any of AEW’s current main event talent. Ospreay may have won the feud, but he left Fletcher in a much higher spot, and opened the eyes of the company to how good Fletcher could become, and currently is.
Then you have Double or Nothing 2025. Ospreay put his entire reputation and career on the line in this match. He positioned himself as the selfish athlete who cares only about their career trajectory. He didn’t have to do that. He could have made this whole program a promise to Darby Allin, and forced Hangman to look like the selfish one motivated by his own redemption instead of the better of the company. Will got the final say in promos. He did more publicity. He was absolutely positioned in a way to feel like not only was he going to win, but he was also laying out for the audience the path going forward when he does win.
Ospreay didn’t do that for himself. He doesn’t gain in this scenario on screen. He did it for Hangman Adam Page. He did it to make Hangman Adam Page the protagonist, the main focus, the best man in the company to defeat Jon Moxley. He’s not going to have a major role at Y’All In Texas because he knew that the right thing for All Elite Wrestling was a Hangman Adam Page back at the top. In 2026, Ospreay will likely main event All In London 2026, but he’s going to do it baptized by fire as a true part of the AEW fabric instead of the young guy AEW got from New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Ospreay has done what Cody Rhodes couldn’t do. Ospreay has done what CM Punk couldn’t do. He has been given considerable opportunity and space and isn’t using it to make himself look good. He’s using it to make AEW better. We don’t get to this point without Will Ospreay, and as a viewer of the product I can’t help but feel like Will Ospreay is why this felt like a step forward for the company.
“I looked away. You were on fire”
I’m not forgetting that none of this happens for Hangman Adam Page if Darby Allin climbed Mt. Everest just a little earlier.
The storyline that been set in the autumn was clear. I thought it was ending at Revolution but it was actually supposed to end at Y’All In Texas. Darby Allin, after being murdered by the Death Riders and thrown down stairs at the final Rampage, would return like Sting once returned to World Championship Wrestling, the great hero to finally topple the Death Riders. From the moment Moxley took his title shot and used it to defeat Danielson, this has been a story about Moxley and Allin.
It may still be. We’re so high on the moment we haven’t considered that Hangman may fail at Y’All In Texas just so Darby can make his triumphant return. It would be a terrible choice to make, but there’s also a path where Darby still one day has his world championship run. It just won’t be until 2026. A lot of his rivalry with Death Riders was having to topple Claudio Castagnoli, and that could still be his goal. He’d be the perfect feud for Jon Moxley after Mox loses the AEW Men’s World Championship.
The title could change hands from Hangman to either Moxley or Maxwell Jacob Friedman, giving Darby Allin someone to defeat that means something for him. And then it’s about building a great heel to one day beat Allin (and I’ve already nominated Will Ospreay for that job) and you still have that suitable length of Hangman Adam Page title reign that feels right.
Hangman Adam Page is stepping into the role not as the hand picked star of the company but as the hero that stepped up when we all needed a hero the most. He started this year as a heel, a rampaging monster who lost his purpose due to the Death Riders being more evil than him. He ended the career of Christopher Daniels and that ended up turning him into something he thought he could never be again: someone the fans could love.
Hangman follows in the footsteps of the likes of Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Toshiaki Kawada as the guy the booker doesn’t consider to be his defacto top star, but goes to him when he needs to. Bret had several short runs as champ, and every run was either because the guy the booker wanted wasn’t able to do it, or he needed Bret to pass the title to the next guy. Kawada spent time in the doghouse of All Japan Pro Wrestling, watching his childhood friend Mitsuharu Misawa be treated as the ace, watching as Kenta Kobashi was soon to pass him, and after several short runs, it wasn’t until Giant Baba passed away that Kawada got his proper run as the Triple Crown Champion.
Is it enough if Hangman is just champion long enough to go back to the planned storylines?
“Now you feel so alive. I’ve watched you change”
Even now, we’ve yet to see them pull the trigger truly on Hangman. He could lose at Y’All In Texas. And if he wins, Tony Khan still has other plans to put forth going forward. Is Kazuchika Okada ever going to be fighting for the AEW Men’s World Championship? Will Kenny Omega get one last run? Will Swerve Strickland get his revenge on Adam Page for costing him the title? Does Will Ospreay ascend for All In 2026? When does MJF get back into the title scene? When will Darby Allin climb the top of the AEW mountain?
There’s so many others who will eventually be in that mix, and that doesn’t consider someone getting hot like Kyle Fletcher or Bandido or Ricochet and making their argument to be the top guy. Who knows who AEW might acquire in the future to move into the main event as well. If someone like Drew McIntyre or Kaito Kiyomiya found themselves on free agency, would All Elite Wrestling make room at the top for them?
If the plan is just for Hangman Adam Page to save AEW from the Death Riders, only to four to six months down the road drop the title to the heel that Darby Allin eventually beats? It’s worth it. All of this was worth it. Because it’s not just about Hangman Adam Page’s redemption, it’s about AEW completing a story and moving to the next without it being the ruin of the former champion.
Redemption, as the title says, is ascension. Putting Hangman Adam Page back at the top of AEW is for everyone who has watched since Hangman lost, tumbled down the card, feuded with Jon Moxley (which was credit to Moxley), winning a meaningless battle royal on the pre-show, feuding with Swerve Strickland to make him a star and champion, turning heel only to win nothing, getting embarrassed across multiple pay per views against Jay White, an undeserving fourth man in a four way title main event, and then having to turn babyface again because the fans didn’t buy the heel persona anymore.
Page has always stayed in the upper midcard, but since he lost that championship, the idea of Hangman ever being champion again was ridiculous. It was ridiculous for years. It was ridiculous in April. We all know the same old song and dance of the Hangman. We now for the first time since 2021 have that hope of a brighter future for AEW. The sins of the past for Hangman are analogous to the sins of the past for All Elite Wrestling. The fans forgave Hangman. Now it’s time for AEW to book a story here that can allow the fans to forgive AEW and move forward.
This is not just Hangman Adam Page’s redemption. It is also the redemption of All Elite Wrestling.
