The BEST Wrestling Moment Every Year (1989 - 2026)

2. 2025 | The Ironic Closure Of Hangman Page

Put yourself in the place of Hangman Page. 

In 2019, you’re over, but not that over. You’re the fourth most popular babyface in AEW behind Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, and Jon Moxley - and all the while, as fans wonder why Omega isn’t pushed in the top spot, it’s because you’ve been told that they’re building around you. That’s a lot of pressure. It’s a significant risk, but your EVP friends, at a time when they hold significant creative influence, believe that you can surpass them all. 

That faith is paid off in 2020 and 2021, when you do in fact become the main character. After an incredible chase towards the AEW World title - a story arc to which you have devoted incredible attention to detail, even down to your lower third chyrons - you become AEW World champion. The AEW experiment is a huge critical and commercial success, and as a team, you’ve done it the right way. There’s minimal politics and gossip and bullsh*t. The U.S. finally has a coherent, cool, anti-carny outfit as the #2. 

Then CM Punk comes in, is basically handed your spot in the spring of 2022, and his longstanding conflict with producer Colt Cabana acts like a wildfire ripping through the utopia. You are adamant that he tried to get his enemy, and your friend, fired. You can’t let it go. You make a righteous mistake, You call him out using subtext on national television. 

Punk eventually snaps. He gets suspended for battering Matt Jackson after All Out. The Brawl Out story is so incredible that nothing Tony Khan books is anywhere near close to being as interesting - and by 2023, the plot is lost entirely. At the exact same time as AEW’s reputation is never lower, the creative nosedives. AEW is in systemic disarray. CM Punk’s second meltdown finally forces Tony Khan to fire him, but there’s no closure. AEW’s desperate attempts to restore the feeling are pathetic retreads of power struggle storylines. The AEW dream feels like it’s over - and it can all be traced back to you. 

The fans still believe. Your feud with Swerve Strickland is an ultra-rare highlight of the downfall era. They still back you. You are the main character, still, but now, you’re also the last hope. You get the push a second time, and without constantly droning on about it, you actually restore the feeling after a monumentally special build and match against Jon Moxley at All In 2025. 

As you retrieve the belt from the briefcase, a beautiful and ironic moment of closure, you burst into tears. All that was lost is back and, arguably, better than ever. The great dream nearly disappeared. You were the one to bring it back.

Page’s tears were loaded with subtext, his moment as hard-earned and as important as any other.