Hangman Adam Page last night on AEW Dynamite challenged Jon Moxley to Texas Death at Y’All In Texas.
The promo between Jon Moxley and Hangman Adam Page helped explain how much of this program is not only about someone climbing the mountain but about removing every advantage that Jon Moxley’s Death Riders has had against All Elite Wrestling since WrestleDream 2024.
“If you think I’m going to let The Elites, or that I’m going to let the Death Riders involvement cost me this then you’re the biggest dumbass in the world. Because at All In, like all of Jon Moxley’s matches, I know they are coming. So I will welcome them. Give me The Elite. Give me all the Death Riders. Jon Moxley you give me everything or give me death and make this a Texas Death match!”
End Game Sucked
I caused a little stir on Bluesky because I said I didn’t want the main event of All In to be a giant WWE style run-in extravaganza. I got a lot of push back because for a lot of people, this needs to be some Avengers: End Game cast of characters all coming out, getting their theme music pop, run in and do a few moves, then disappear.
I understand completely why AEW fans want this, but I’m still a professional wrestling fan at heart. Also, please, stop saying Avengers. Please don’t insult Timeless Toni Storm doing so much to bring good cinema to AEW only to push it all aside for the big Disney ballyhoo.
As a pro wrestling fan I want the main event of the biggest show to be a great pro wrestling match. I don’t want a cavalcade of run-ins on what is supposed to be a one on one singles match for the AEW Men’s World Championship. I don’t need to see a half dozen referees take bumps to justify why the match isn’t getting thrown out due to a disqualification. That’s why I said to keep it clean as clean can be.
If you tell me this is a singles match I want a singles match.
Texas Death answers that.
If it’s Texas Death then it’s no disqualification. Hangman makes it clear in his quote. He is nullifying the advantage because it’s not some dance of avoiding a referee anymore. Anything goes. It doesn’t matter how you get to the result just so long as you get there.
So now I’m satisfied. There is now a logical reason for the match you want. It won’t be the pure wrestling encounter I prefer for a main event world championship but it now makes sense. It’s why Jon Moxley doesn’t want it.
“You do not have it inside of you what it takes to take the AEW World Championship away from me. You certainly don’t have inside of you what it takes for a Texas Death match with me. You’re not willing to go as far as you would need to go in a Texas Death match is not something you would survive. Texas Death is not something you would walk away from.”
Hangman Page could have responded logically. He could have tried to debate Jon about how he is a former AEW Men’s World Champion. Not only that but Hangman beat Jon Moxley in Texas Death at Revolution 2023 so he absolutely is willing to go as far as he needs to win it. Hangman instead just slapped Moxley in the face.
Moxley is trying to draw Hangman’s insecurities out. It has been his entire drive of the program. Moxley is trying to say that yes, Hangman is a former champion and Hangman has beaten him in the past, but this is new stakes. This is Hangman having to do both at the same time and that’s too much of a responsibility for him.
Page is having none of it. He had none of it with MJF. Instead of going point by point he just told him he’s real.
He had none of it with Will Ospreay. He’s too focused. He let Ospreay make his argument and then he beat him.
Hangman Page’s goal is to nullify every advantage Jon Moxley has had since he murdered Bryan Danielson and won the AEW Men’s World Championship.
Answering The Problem
Texas Death ensures there would be no disqualification or countout finish where the title doesn’t change hands (could you imagine AEW doing a countout finish for the World Championship in the main event of a pay per view?) and ensures he doesn’t have to constantly worry about someone trying to run in without the referee seeing. Everything is legal.
So why would he be confident in the Elite and Death Riders running in like they always do? Because he has backup. Slapping Moxley led to the Death Riders coming in, especially Marina Shafir.
Shafir has been one of Moxley’s smartest weapons. These good guys, these cowboys in white, don’t want to hit a woman. Even a woman who is doing everything they can to physically assault them. Moxley knows this. He’s leveraging the fact they are not him. The only way anyone has been able to neutralize Marina is to have a woman like Willow Nightingale on their side.
Even in this situation, Marina slapped Hangman over and over and stopped him in his tracks. Doing so allowed Yuta to grab an ankle and Claudio Castagnoli to rain punches down on Page. Doing so allowed Moxley to slink back into the darkness.
The Death Riders thought this was another successful beatdown but Adam Page got up and shouted if that’s the best the Death Riders had. Calling Claudio a neutered lap dog instead of Wheeler Yuta was a great touch by Page, because it clearly incensed Claudio. Claudio has always thought of himself as an equal to Moxley, and being treated like Yuta, the runt of the litter? Oh he didn’t like that.
Claudio grabbed a chair in rage which led to him going face to face with Samoa Joe. That was Hangman Page’s plan. He can take a beating. But the second time? That’s when the troops arrive. The Opps have Hangman’s back. First Joe, and then Powerhouse Hobbs and Katsuyori Shibata.
With the distraction, out came Marina Shafir again, this time to try to hit Page with the briefcase that allegedly holds the AEW Men’s World Championship.
When Page said, “Mox, do I got something of yours?” you would think he means the briefcase but he actually meant Marina Shafir. He screamed for Moxley to give him Texas Death.
Mox was ready to walk away, ready to walk away from his loyal soldiers. He knew the moment he gave Adam Page the Texas Death stipulation? He had evened the playing field. He had allowed interference to be legal, which means nobody could worry about costing Page the title if they came in. Weapons were legal, instead of hiding behind the rules. All of his advantages he holds against the babyfaces to play the straight game would be gone.
Hangman smiled when Moxley gave it to him, because it wasn’t just getting the match. It was also about proving to Moxley that in this moment he was about to take away one of his strongest advantages in every Death Riders situation.
“In case you needed a reminder I would do anything it takes.”
Hangman Page then proceeded to Buckshot Marina Shafir’s head off to the roar of the crowd.
Moxley no longer has a woman capable of physically intimidating men and stopping them in their tracks. Page isn’t going to be the white knight anymore. He’s ready to do anything and everything to defeat Jon Moxley.
That’s why when he said I got something of yours he meant Marina. Moxley agreed to Texas Death in hopes she wouldn’t be harmed. And then she was.
Fear The Hangman
AEW is handling this perfectly.
Instead of having to do the usual “beat up a ref for a run in” they have turned this into Texas Death.
Instead of Moxley getting wave after wave of heat, they are taking the heat away from him.
I’m sure next week they have Moxley find his last advantage going into this to create a level of tension, but having Hangman prove he’s got everything it takes to beat Jon Moxley will have people wanting to get into Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas to see a title change in the main event. It’s going to convince people to buy the show on pay per view to see the result they want to see.
2025 started with a lot of uncertainty. The Death Riders story wasn’t working the way Jon Moxley had hoped. Week after week of heel heat drowning the product wasn’t leading to more people watching. It was just causing people to flip off the show. There’s enough wrong in the world. They don’t need to be reminded that the bad guys win week in and week out in their escapist wrestling program.
There was a shift leading to Revolution and Dynasty. Even the TV program with Samoa Joe. It wasn’t about heat unchallenged anymore. The Death Riders were getting challenged, and each time, they’d find a new way to gain an advantage.
Moxley hates the Young Bucks, but he has to work with them until it no longer works. Moxley knows Gabe Kidd has no love for AEW, but he has to bring him in because he lost PAC to injury. His back is against a wall and the walls surrounding are closing in.
I think Jon Moxley still has a bullet in the chamber before Y’All In Texas, one last shot to take down the cowboy and prevent the ascension he’s been worried about. This wasn’t the prince that was promised. It was supposed to be Darby Allin. It can’t end here. He can’t let it happen.
And yet one only has to remember what happened at Revolution 2023. Jon Moxley threw everything at Hangman Adam Page. He stomped Page’s head onto a brick after a Death Rider DDT and Page still got up before the 10 count. He choked him out and Moxley still watched as Hangman got up. Hangman hit two lariats and then, with a chain wrapped around Moxley’s neck, choked him out on the ropes like a noose to tap him out.
The uncertainty that 2025 began with has now been replaced by hope. That uncertainty was why I wrote Another Bummer Hangman Summer and I’ll stand by how I felt at the time. AEW has done a great job erasing my doubts and making me believe in this. It feels certain Hangman Adam Page can win, and Jon Moxley is losing every advantage he had to stop that from happening.
On October 15, 2024, in Fear The Hangman I said, “So long as Jon Moxley’s Crusade is the top of the show? There isn’t a place for Hangman to supplant him” as at the time Hangman and Moxley were both vying for the top heel spot. I theorized Hangman to not be the man who beats Moxley but the man who faces the man who beats Moxley, that believed at the time to be Darby Allin.
I finished it with, “Don’t worry for The Hangman. Fear The Hangman. His time will come.”
Never in my wildest dreams did I think nine months later that Hangman would be the one to supplant him. I was right not to worry about The Hangman, but I thought the monster he was in the summer and autumn was for whoever ended up beating Moxley. I didn’t think he’d be the one to beat Moxley.
Now, Jon Moxley is staring down that monster. The monster he brushed aside at Worlds End 2024. The monster he’s doubted week in and week out, even when Page continues, like a cinematic monster, to get back up from everything done to him.
I said I thought Moxley still might have a bullet in the chamber, one last trick up his sleeve to survive this. He might need more than one, and they better be silver plated. Even then it might not be enough.
Fear The Hangman. His time has come.
