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Double or Nothing 2025
Owen Hart Men’s Tournament Final
Hangman Adam Page versus Will Ospreay
Hangman Adam Page fans!
At the end of April I wrote Another Bummer Hangman Summer explaining how it was best not to get too caught up into your emotions into thinking maybe this time AEW goes all the way with Hangman Page to make him AEW Men’s World Champion. Do not think this would be the time that Tony Khan rewrites the code of 2022 and decides its now time to go with Hangman. The Hangman story is always going to be the same. Every summer it’s disappointment. And even if you get hope out of the Owen Hart Foundation Final? It’s going to be disappointment later.
What did Gabe Kidd say last week? Oh right. Abandon all hope.
Of course, that’s just going to make us believe that much more. Us, as in all Hangman Adam Page fans. We’re all fans aren’t we? If you’re reading this it’s probably because you enjoy how many times I write about Hangman. I doubt any hater puts the time in. Or maybe they do. I have just spent like 10 hours listening to people talk about the failures of the Toronto Maple Leafs. It’s more entertaining than a pop song. Anyway.
The build up to this match has been clearly defined as Will Ospreay’s ascension versus Hangman Page’s redemption. One man is looking to take the spot as the main character of AEW. The other man is the main character and is on track for his return to the top. Is this the moment of a torch passing between Ospreay and Page, or is this the moment Ospreay realizes he doesn’t have enough?
Because in my mind, and I’ve said this before, that I think Will Ospreay would make a far more compelling top heel in AEW than a top babyface. Lots of people think just because AEW fans immediately loved Will Ospreay that he should have become World Champion immediately. No growth, no time to settle in, just strap him up at All In London 2024. When he faced Swerve Strickland at Forbidden Door, the whole point was to get people off that mindset and focus on Swerve. Instead, it just had his supporters wanting him to win the title even earlier.
Ospreay has sold shirts, popped crowds, had great matches, and is a good representative of the company, but there’s just something missing. There’s something a little inauthentic about it all. It feels packaged in a way that I could say comes from another company, but it’s really just about the booker showing their hand a little too obviously. AEW protects Will Ospreay based on when his matches and segments air, he gets TV time on the mic when he isn’t the best to do it, and he’s constantly a focal point without being a World Champion in a way where you feel like you know what’s going on.
And when you know what’s going on? That’s how it doesn’t feel real. Most movies know you know the protagonist is likely to win and they try to create situations where maybe they don’t, maybe you doubt them, and maybe you wonder just how they are going to survive this situation. Ospreay hasn’t really had that. His greatest conflict in AEW so far has been a friend of his turning on him and him being emotionally distraught about using a wrestling move. That’s the trials and tribulations of Will Ospreay?
He hasn’t been baptized in fire in AEW, and AEW greats always get baptized in fire. Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega both had to fight each other as top dogs in 2019. Omega had to watch The Elite crumble around him, and then reform under the evil supervision of Don Callis. Hangman had to become a drunk, reject his friends, almost join a cult, and lose everything before he could come back to win everything. CM Punk… well, he didn’t get baptized and that’s why he couldn’t hold the belt for more than a week. The Cards Never Lie.
That baptism is important to the story of AEW stars. Fans can relate more to someone who has had an arc and a journey than someone who is just good all the time and eventually wins.
I say all this because win or lose, I think this story is not about Will Ospreay’s ascension. Even if he defeats Hangman Adam Page I don’t think he beats Jon Moxley at Y’All In Texas. Especially if Mercedes Moné versus Timeless Toni Storm is the main event. I think the important story here is that Will Ospreay needs to get close and knocked down. He needs to realize he isn’t the guy. He isn’t the prince that was promised. He isn’t the main character. And that realization is what drives him to reject the fans, reject the company, abandon all hope, and become the great villain of All Elite Wrestling.
As for Hangman Adam Page, maybe he finds redemption in defeating Will Ospreay. He won’t find redemption going up against Jon Moxley. Even if, and I’m sure someone is going to say this is just sour disappointment talking, but even if Hangman beats Ospreay, and beats Moxley to become AEW Men’s World Champion? There isn’t some long title reign to make everyone feel better waiting for him. The plan has always been to eventually crown Darby Allin, and that plan will eventually snap into place.
Would it be so bad if Hangman won, only to lose to Mox, and Mox to be beaten by Darby by All Out Toronto (Eh Oot?) or WrestleDream (probably in Seattle again?) I’ve actually advocated in the past that it would have been good for Jon Moxley to drop the title temporarily only for him to return 10 times more evil. Basically the Lex Luger title win in WCW only, you know, better. Would it still be redemption if Hangman got back to the top of the mountain only for it to be fleeting?
I know for the deep Hangman fans, the idea of them going all the way with him on paper but not do it in practice is worse than not going at all with him. There were legitimate criticisms that when Hangman won the title, the company was too focused on their new toys of CM Punk and Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole. He didn’t get to be the focal point of the show the way Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley were.
For me personally, I’m okay if Hangman Adam Page gets back to the top and it is only fleeting. I’m old enough to remember that Bret “The Hitman” Hart was never a long term champion that the WWF stuck with. They were always looking for his replacement in every reign he had. I know how Toshiaki Kawada was never the guy when Mitsuharu Misawa was around, and when Misawa left to create Pro Wrestling NOAH with all of All Japan Pro Wrestling’s stars, it was lonely at the top for him. Sometimes your favourite guy is not the guy, but can still be one of the best wrestlers of his time. Maybe I’m just used to my favourite wrestlers (Kazuchika Okada in New Japan Pro Wrestling aside) always being the alternative top guy instead of the company top guy.
But that’s not the point. The point is the Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament final. Ospreay or Hangman. Who do you have? I’ll tell you something nobody has thought about, and it came to me in a, “Oh god no” realization.
What if it ends in a draw so it’s a triple threat at Y’All In Texas?
What if AEW has heard all of the Ospreay fans and all of the Hangman fans and decides no, we can’t have one beat the other. We can’t have a large portion of our fanbase be sad and mad going into another All In. Let’s just end it indecisive and have both men face Jon Moxley.
Oh yeah, bet you didn’t think of that. And now you have. And now you hate it.
Sigh. This isn’t the predictions but the preview. But I thought I’d just let you have every idea in your mind possible for the outcome of this match. Maybe this is Ospreay’s ascension and the company goes all the way with him to be champion going into Forbidden Door in London, England.
Maybe this is Hangman Adam Page’s redemption and all of our doubts are turned against us, like Tetsuya Naito losing the IWGP Intercontinental Championship just when it was said that the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 14 would be a champion versus champion match, only for him to win the belt back on night one and win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in the main event of night two.
Or maybe it’s neither and the plan is still all about Darby Allin’s ascension to the top of Mount Everest and the top of All Elite Wrestling.
You may fret about your favourite losing. You may fret about people complaining about their favourite losing. I for one am excited that All Elite Wrestling throughout their history are unafraid to do these match ups. Two beloved stars going one on one with a result. Moxley and Omega in 2019. Darby and Cody in 2020. Danielson and Page in early 2022. Swerve and Ospreay in 2024. Now we got Ospreay and Page in 2025 with so much on the line and so many fans putting their passions into the result of this. Yes, someone will leave sad. Someone will leave happy. That’s the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory. Embrace the emotion. Enjoy the ride.
