How AEW Must Reheat Its Biggest Monster
To get there, the Dark Order must circle Page at ringside, when he steps back into competition, to explain the varying motivations with a visual cue. This must be handled with more care than the Colt Cabana storyline because Cult is the affable, ageing cult hero. Page is the future Ace of the company.
To sell the anxiety of the turn, he has to show temptation, but he can't play it naively for comedic effect. He's the smarter, more serious babyface. When the Dark Order help him win - and the opponent must be credible, like Eddie Kingston, to strengthen him ahead of the PAC blowoff - he has to notice and he has to rebel. He's a drunk, and he's capable of being manipulated into bad deeds to shake the anxiety. But he's not a bad person, and the looming spectre of the Dark Order is the best way of illuminating that in the interim before he enters the final phase of his quest for redemption.
He is so attentive to detail that he can build the mystery of the recruitment angle in a way that differs to the Cabana deal - perhaps a lower third reading "Has been looking into Scientology and idk". Page uses his aesthetic to tell his stories - it was almost heartbreaking, when he wore the long tights at All Out, in one last bid to connect with Kenny Omega - and he can experiment with a purple trim to deepen the intrigue.
He can't join and will not join the Dark Order.
CONT'D...(4 of 6)