2. Hangman Page & The Young Bucks Vs The Dark Order
AEW
Was the dynamic in this match doomed by the vignettes that came before it, or did Hangman Page's crumbling kinship with the dilapidated Dark Order over the last several months do the damage?
Earlier in the show, they accepted an open challenge extended by The Hung Bucks having been left on read for long enough by the former AEW Champion. Not for the first time, he looked somewhere between angry and upset and yeah yeah yeah people are complex and Hangman Page is AEW's totem because of it, but sometimes wrestling needs it kept simple, stupid, and the reasons were laid bare when the bell rang.
Drawn into the fight by Evil Uno, it was tough to receive Page as the hero of this mini-story because The Bucks were d*ckheads throughout and The Dark Order are so utterly pathetic at this point that it scanned as schoolyard bullying. The work was crisp and flawless but the live crowd didn't seem to know which way to support it beyond gasps and claps at all of the usual. The babyfaces (?) got the win, but is Hangman okay with it?
Bluntly, who gives a sh*t at this point? Page and Omega 2019-2021, this isn't. Speaking of which...
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years.
As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say.
With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling.
Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.
