Hangman Adam Page lost to Maxwell Jacob Friedman in the Texas Death Match at AEW Revolution on March 15. As per their agreement, Page can no longer challenge for the AEW Men’s World Championship.
Dumbass.
I discussed last month why I feel like the stipulation was a bad idea. I still feel it was, and I think a lot of people don’t really understand why.
The AEW Men’s World Championship is the highest honour in AEW for the men’s singles division, which means all wrestlers working said division it’s the most important championship for them to win. You cannot have someone in that division who can’t win it or else it breaks the entire concept of having rankings and championships. You can’t have a team playing in the NFL who can’t win the Superbowl. It makes no sense. You can’t put yourself in a situation where someone is the obvious number one contender but cannot fight for the title.
AEW has a solution for this. AEW President Tony Khan said in his post-Revolution presser that it was a gentleman’s agreement and merely a verbal contract. This means Page can break it any time he wants to, and it’s about whether or not he’s a man of his word.
I am a super smart wrestling fan and I think Hangman should just wear a mask and pretend to be someone else and everyone will believe it because we’re all really smart people
While this does make it a little better in that the company itself isn’t betraying their own concept of being a real sporting competition by having this, it also ruins what I called “Dusty Ass Booking” which was the suggest of Hangman Adam Page showing back up under a mask to “get around” the stipulation. Those were done because the wrestler was suspended and was getting around the suspension.
The Midnight Rider was also a really stupid idea which the heels refused to play along on because it’d make them look like the dumbest people alive so Jim Crockett had to be the dumbest boy alive and say he didn’t know who the Midnight Rider was. When Dusty did it prior in Florida he won the title as Midnight Rider and then had to vacate the title for refusing to unmask.
Again, these are all stupid ideas and DO NOT WORK SINCE THIS IS A GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT AND HANGMAN WOULD ONLY BE HIDING HIS IDENTITY FROM MJF WHO WOULD FIGURE IT OUT IMMEDIATELY. Think for a second folks.
Now just insulting you is beneath me. I need to come up with how you can make it work. And this is the only way.
(Watch it for the pop at the end. Probably my favourite pop in all of wrestling. And hey, Page has now twice had big unmasking’s during Halloween like this so I know where your mind is going.)
The stipulation is that Hangman Adam Page can no longer challenge for the AEW Men’s World Championship. So if the title is in, say, the Casino Gauntlet, Hangman could come out as someone else. And then he can win the match and become AEW Men’s World Champion. And then he unmasks to reveal he’s Hangman Adam Page, and he never challenged as Hangman.
Is it dumb?
Yes.
Is it just a way to get around the language of the stipulation?
Yes.
Is it dishonest and breaks a verbal contract?
Pretty much, since MJF isn’t dumb and knows that’s still Page winning and breaking his promise.
Does it also mean you have the AEW Men’s World Championship changing hands in a gimmick match?
Yes all of that is true.
But at least, AT LEAST, it’s fun, and one moment. One moment in a match where Hangman hides his identity so it isn’t him challenging. It isn’t weeks of trying to convince people that Hangman Page is someone else.
And even then? It’s dumb.
Who is Hangman without the title?
There was a press conference between Hangman Adam Page and MJF the Dynamite before Revolution where Page was asked who he was if he can’t compete for the AEW Men’s World Championship. Friedman loved the question and Page struggled to answer the question with confidence.
There isn’t an answer because we don’t know.
Page lost the title to Samoa Joe in the dumbest way possible, with a Hook heel turn that has yet to be paid off and never will be paid off because Hook’s development stunted years ago and AEW trying him in these big moments has just meant depreciating returns. The pay off was Page temporarily winning the AEW Trios Championship and then losing that before Revolution. Great job.
He then follows it up losing this challenge to MJF in the most humiliating way possible. Not only did he put up his chance to fight for the title ever again, he did it just to get a gimmick match he lost clean to MJF in. Last year he had this match against Jon Moxley and the Death Riders and even though he had help he still had to fight more than one person and got through it. Against MJF? MJF didn’t have a bunch of run-ins. He didn’t have a Hook heel turn that nobody cared about. MJF beat him fair and square in Texas Death.
MJF also celebrated on top of Page’s downed body laying on a gurney with his own blood smeared on the camera lens. It’s one of the greatest finishes I’ve ever seen in a match. It was at the complete expense of Hangman Adam Page. So where does he go from here?
People have pointed out he can work other divisions or other titles, but Hangman Adam Page has been a draw for AEW. This pay per view and every pay per view he headlined in 2025 has helped lead to some of AEW’s biggest numbers in quite some time. He was the man chosen to go after Jon Moxley not just because Will Ospreay needed surgery but because Hangman was the best possible babyface draw the company had.
Making him TNT Champion or International Champion or Continental Champion or Trios Champion or National Champion? You’re deliberately devaluing an asset you have. You are also doing it when there’s matches still on the table. Big matches. How can you ever have Swerve Strickland win the AEW Men’s World Championship without ever doing Page versus Strickland? It’s insanity.
Which tells you this gentleman’s agreement will definitely be broken. Or Page is leaving AEW in 2027 when his contract expires. Let’s go with the better option.
Breaking a promise with the Devil
I’ve seen it countless times already where people say that Hangman Adam Page breaking the promise is an instant heel turn that’s going to rocket him to number one heel status because he finally did what Cody Rhodes would not.
Does everyone forget people booed Cody Rhodes because he wouldn’t break the stipulation and do what they wanted, which was be their hero and become AEW Men’s World Champion? That’s why they booed him. It wasn’t because breaking stipulations are important. It’s for making the stipulation and then not doing the right thing.
The fact everyone wants him to break it tells you that the moment he does? There will not be boos. There will be cheers. Not to mention the fact he isn’t breaking a promise he made to a fan. He isn’t breaking a promise he made to his wife. He isn’t breaking a promise he made to Tony Khan. He’s breaking a promise… to the devil. MJF. Who the hell cares if a babyface keeps their promise with that guy?
Every once in a while wrestling fans get it in their brain that there’s actions you do that only make you a heel. There’s no such thing. Cheating to win doesn’t make you a bad guy. Attacking the fairer sex doesn’t make you a bad guy. Breaking a promise doesn’t make you a bad guy. It depends on the context of all those things. Page himself cheated to beat MJF in their title match at Forbidden Door and got cheered for it. Page himself hit a Buckshot Lariat on Marina Shafir to prove to Jon Moxley how far he was willing to go to win at Y’All In Texas and got cheered for it. Breaking that promise to MJF will be seen as doing the right thing because nobody wants him to keep it.
The argument others have had is that doing this might not be booed but it means AEW is now dishonest and doesn’t keep promises on their stipulations. Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer likes to say this will make AEW, “Just like WWE” to now break their promises. Bryan Alvarez saying this as someone who has spent decades in the wrestling business and knows WWE didn’t invent breaking promises just makes me sigh. Find me an entertainment medium that has never broke their promises for storyline purposes. Have fun. Won’t cost AEW a single fan. It’ll just give podcasters something to whine about.
So if the goal is to turn Hangman heel by breaking the promise, it can’t just be him breaking it to go after a heel. That’s a babyface move. How do you make it a heel move?
Breaking a promise with the One Winged Angel
The best way to go is if Kenny Omega wins the AEW Men’s World Championship.
I said back in January that I saw Kenny Omega versus MJF as the plan for AEW Dynasty in April. If Kenny can beat Swerve Strickland tonight that’s the main event for the pay per view.
I think Kenny Omega could win that match and become AEW Men’s World Champion. I think the eventual goal would be doing something like Kenny Omega versus Will Ospreay at All In London 2026 in the form of a torch passing moment.
There might not be enough time to do this, but I could see Omega winning the title and then Hangman Adam Page returns. Kenny Omega makes a joke about how as much as he’d love to wrestle Page, he’s glad he can’t fight for it and cost him the chance to face Ospreay at All In London. And it gets in Page’s head. Page then wins a Casino Gauntlet which gives him an AEW Men’s World Championship shot anytime. He says he won’t cash it in because of his promise.
And then he does. On Kenny Omega. After turning heel on Kenny and beating him into a bloody pool.
Now you have a match at Double or Nothing or Forbidden Door before All In London that’s going to draw between Omega and Page, where Page hasn’t broken his promise to MJF but instead to Kenny Omega. MJF asked Page who he was without being able to go for the championship. The answer is nobody. And Page isn’t a nobody.
You can have Omega win the match and eventually get his torch pass with Ospreay and set up Page as a top heel for Ospreay when he wins the title (most likely road) or even Page beats Omega and ruins the torch pass moment in Wembley to go heel versus babyface Page versus Ospreay. The rematch from Double or Nothing in the Owen final. Ospreay righting the wrong of him losing. Page throws away with redemption, Ospreay can finally achieve ascension.
This is really the only way I see the stipulation broken and having the gravitas it should. Maybe you wait to do this in 2027 when the scene is a little different, but every other suggested option just means a Hangman Page lost in the midcard shuffle.
Never do this stipulation again
We had the guy keep the promise and get booed out of the company.
We will likely have a guy break the promise and show it’s absolutely worthless to make. Another wrestler would be crazy to agree to the stipulation knowing the guy can just turn his back on it whenever. Why wager anything?
I hope that’s the death of it. Maybe a decade down the road you can have a few people not learning their lesson and trying it again (we know wrestling is cyclical) but hopefully we don’t see it any time soon.
I still feel the best way to do this was just to say Page can’t challenge while MJF is champion and maybe stipulate Page has to leave the arena during MJF’s title matches, and if he costs MJF the title he’s fired.
I know, far wordier, but it would have meant more. And instead of the possibility of a guy 50-0 and can’t get a world title shot ever? It’s only while MJF is champion. It’s still illogical, but far more temporary.
The argument for all of this is that there’s a lot of great ways you can go story wise with Page breaking the promise or trying to keep it. I don’t disagree it creates stories. I just think the amount of good stories that will sell tickets compared to bad stories that just takes a top player off the table is limited compared to just… not doing the stipulation.
I think MJF benefited from the big one but he would have got the win anyway without it. How it benefits Hangman we will have to see.
He should have listened to Okada. Or at least me impersonating Okada:
Congratulations Hangman. You are officially Tetsuya Naito. Take better care of your knees.
