On AEW Dynamite Wednesday night we got a promo from Maxwell Jacob Friedman trying to explain himself on trying to help Jeff Jarrett. MJF wore rose coloured glasses and when he took them off he looked a little tired. Hungover maybe? I don’t want to speculate. But he looked worse for wear. His theme song got cut off by the music of Hangman Adam Page.
The idea was MJF wasn’t planned to have mic time and it was supposed to be Page’s match. Page told MJF to leave with the crowd chanting COWBOY SHIT emphatically. It was an interesting moment between the two men, who have been circling each other since 2019, and have more in common than you might think in 2025.
Copy Of A
I first want to finish up discussing MJF’s promo. The passion was absolutely nowhere to be found in his voice. Maxwell is one of the most natural talkers in the business and here he just felt forced. You could tell he doesn’t care about this program with Jeff Jarrett and while one would hope he could be the consummate professional and show spirit in it? You also don’t blame him.
Max is now stuck trying to “make” Jeff Jarrett a viable babyface in his final year while he makes his run for an AEW Men’s World Championship bid. The bid is so unpopular it had to get leaked that Jarrett wasn’t planned to win the title. AEW fans are so fractured at this point that anyone claiming to wanting to become World Champion feels like a “plan” and not just a wish or statement.
Not to make this about Jarrett, but it’s pretty clear he has been campaigning to get the same royal treatment Bryan Danielson got for the end of his full-time career. You have Jarrett running around trying to be a discount Danielson and you have Adam Copeland running around playing a discount CM Punk. Rated FTR? Old man proving he can still go? Promises to be about the young guys then never puts them over? You know what I’m talking about.
While it remains to be seen if these photocopy runs are enough to persuade AEW Owner Tony Khan into giving them title runs, it certainly has them slotted higher than the two men in the aforementioned promo.
MJF isn’t in this program to further his chances at title contention. He’s just trying to use Jeff Jarrett while also not believing he can beat anyone. It doesn’t make much sense. That’s why MJF doesn’t really care about it. He’s not getting what Adam Page got.
Igniting The Fire
You see, I was also down on Page getting punched by Christopher Daniels, because it was just another old guy getting the best of a younger guy, and another old guy getting into a rivalry with a guy who should be doing bigger things in the company. In isolation? There’s nothing wrong with the program. With everything going on in AEW in early 2025 it just felt like another problem on the pile.
Daniels and Page however wrapped up their story quick. This wasn’t building to a pay per view match. Christopher Daniels ended his wrestling career on a Saturday night opening bout. His goal wasn’t to take attention away from Adam Page. His goal wasn’t to use a younger star to propel himself. His goal was to give Adam Page a decisive final victory and end his career on his shield.
Christopher Daniels did the right thing and every AEW veteran should be looking to him as an example.
After defeating Tyler Shoop, Hangman continued to beat down the young man and then hit him with the Angel’s Wings, Daniels finishing move. Daniels music hit and for most they expected the build up to another match. Instead, Daniels wore a neckbrace and explained to Page that he realized the mistakes he made in igniting Page’s fire.
“I let my ego and my insecurities escalate this to the point where I accepted the most violent match against the most violent man. I regret that Adam. I’m going to regret that the rest of my life.”
Ego and Insecurity
Daniels informed him it would be the last match he’d ever wrestle. He told Page he won, and he hopes he can be happy now. Page wasn’t the same angry ball of fury anymore. He let out a, “What” that was in shock and dismay. The humanity of Hangman Adam Page finally coming out.
Daniels chose his words carefully. Insecurity is one of the greatest drivers of the career of Hangman Adam Page. His insecurities as a member of The Elite, his insecurities after losing the AEW Men’s World Championship, and his insecurities of being unable to protect his family from Swerve Strickland. Insecurity drives Page through most of his stories, and it’s an insecurity that when worked against him is effective in defeating him. That’s why Jay White, probably the most secure man on the roster in believing in his ability to win, has Hangman Adam Page’s number.
Insecurity and ego is also something you’d find in Maxwell Jacob Friedman. His insecurities have driven most of his decisions, including going back to his return in 2024 when he was insecure about Will Ospreay and turned on Daniel Garcia due to it. He admitted to Adam Cole that he had planned to turn on him and Cole just beat him to the punch, proving the friendship was nothing more than a game of cat and mouse.
That insecurity is also why MJF is trying to find a backdoor to the AEW Men’s World Championship instead of going head on. MJF could certainly find a few goons and knows every trick in the book to counter what Jon Moxley could do to him, but after everything that has happened since he lost the Triple B, he’s in a similar state as Hangman. Whereas Hangman is a chaotic ball of rage? MJF is a miserable shell of himself.
Both men didn’t start 2025 in programs that will lead to a shot at the AEW Men’s World Championship. Instead, both men found themselves fighting older versions of themselves. Jeff Jarrett is a reminder of what MJF’s future could be. Page knows that Daniels is exactly what he might one day end up. Page ending Christopher Daniels career might have been the wake up call he needed that his anger and fury hasn’t got him anywhere closer to his goals. This isn’t about redemption anymore. It’s about clarity.
Wake Up Call
Having MJF and Adam Page in the ring together reminded me of the fact that AEW was built on eventually those two men inheriting it. The original plan for the AEW Men’s World Championship in 2022 felt like it was supposed to go from Hangman Adam Page to Maxwell Jacob Friedman, but after CM Punk won the championship and MJF temporarily quit, that match turned to dust. They once teased going at each other again at the end of 2023, but nothing came out of it. Both men also lost their AEW Championships to ROH legends past their prime.
This confrontation between the two felt like AEW dropping a hint that these two could be in each other’s crosshairs in the near future. Page is trying to be a bad guy, but the crowd clearly wants that Cowboy Shit. They don’t need him to be redeemed. They just want their angry man to come home to them. MJF on the other hand, after cutting a clearly passionless promo against Jeff Jarrett, it felt like there was finally some life in his eyes when he was face to face with Page.
I’m hoping I’m not reading too much into this, because MJF versus Adam Page with one of them going after the AEW Men’s World Championship after is the kind of thing All Elite Wrestling needs right now. It’s what they are getting in Ricochet versus Swerve Strickland. It’s what we’re hoping Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega’s partnership against the Don Callis Family is progressing towards. It’s not about making some 50 something wrestler feel like they are still in their prime. It’s not about a holding pattern. It’s a true program between the best of the best with the final outcome hopefully being a forward trajectory instead of sideways.
MJF and Adam Page are both driven by insecurity, and fight that insecurity in very different ways. It’s what has them beating up and manipulating old men instead of going towards the championship they never should have lost. Maybe it’s time they bring the fight to each other, a wake up call to everyone why AEW should have been their company to inherit, instead of hijacked by the Main Event Mafia.
