How Hangman Page Will Change Everything About Pro Wrestling
After the events of Stadium Stampede, in which Page and Omega seemed to fully reconcile, the debut of FTR followed. In just exquisite long-term booking, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler set in motion a masterplan to shatter the Elite from within, and they wormed their way in by targeting Page's drinking habit. They themselves were beer-swilling mid-Atlantic boys, and they knew that they could fake a connection, and they did, knowing that Page's alcoholism was the source of the fracture.
They eventually convinced Page to turn on the Bucks - they were after that spotlight again - and he did. At All Out - a very rich pattern is emerging here - Page lost the title match. His poisoned mind scattered, he f*cked up a double team, and in the end, he reached out. Kenny Omega let him fall like a drunk over a stool, and the Cleaner defeated his former partner at Full Gear. But again, the balance was perfect; Page won the Eliminator quarter and semi-final. He is a great professional wrestler. He just doesn't believe himself to be Elite, and he couldn't join in the celebrations after the Bucks finally vanquished FTR later that night. He hovered, uncertain, by the entrance tunnel. That his failure was brought into starker focus by the success of the original Elite was such expert, big picture booking. 'Deft' is a word your writer uses often, to describe the best of AEW. That particular orchestration of events was majestic. That failure stung so sharply that it led him down a path no top babyface has ever travelled.
Because Hangman Page is quietly redefining what it means to be a professional wrestling babyface.
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