15 Greatest Angles In Modern Wrestling History
14. Hangman Page: Burning Down The House
Across its early messaging, AEW promised a sports-oriented presentation.
Rather quickly, this was betrayed, until eventually, Dynamite resembled every other 21st century TV product, with its overproduced run-ins and vehicular stunts. AEW's world wasn't as heightened as WWE's, nor anywhere close to the murder-infested Lucha Underground, but this descent into hokey terrain still bothered a lot of viewers desperate for a legitimate, different alternative. Why, then, was the angle in which Hangman Page committed a felony, without going to prison, so well-received?
Because it was awesome.
Hangman Page committed arson by burning down the childhood home of Swerve Strickland, which had been foreshadowed twice; Page had promised to burn Swerve's life to the ground, and Swerve had happily announced the purchase of the property in the days prior to the segment. On the strictest of levels, this was a dumb, hokey angle, the likes of which defined WWE, WCW, and TNA at their dirt-worst. The difference here was twofold.
Firstly, they earned it: Hangman's descent into fury and mania was exceptionally well-performed. Without even grading it against the curve of dismal wrestling acting, Page seemed genuinely unhinged but he also seemed more lost than pure evil. There was still a babyface, the main character, lurking under the husk.
Also, the actual scene was wild. They burned the hell out of that house. No expense was spared. AEW usually has awful form when it explores this sort of big, headline-grabbing stunt - Chris Jericho's Blood & Guts roof bump, Chris Jericho's car getting wrecked, Chris Jericho spraying the Pinnacle with a champagne hose - but the visual was wild, and Page literally drinking it in was the hardest visual in company history.
The ends justified the means here.