The One Thing EVERYONE Always Gets Wrong About AEW

This storyline does not work if Kenny Omega had returned at All Out and re-entered the singles ranks, won often, and went out each time with the full-blown big star parody that is Justin Roberts' ring introduction. The emotion of the Full Gear 2021 main event, in which Hangman Page finally beat him clean in the middle of the ring, has to linger. Omega must carry that sense of devastation. He still can't bring himself to watch the match back, in what is an important plot point. His ego cannot sanction that he has been surpassed by Page. For that to happen, Page had to actually surpass him. Omega has the ability to turn his star power on and off like a faucet. He can recapture it with a single, amusing ring introduction. He does this in order to tell the longest stories in wrestling.

Whether you agree with the idea or not, or think there's a better way of utilising a star of Omega's magnitude, the idea is to book Hangman Page as Kenny Omega's successor. It's all deliberate. Omega isn't pissing about.

All along, the Elite considered Hangman Page to be the best among them. Omega and Page feel that the best way of achieving this objective is to tell the story the way in which they are telling it. It isn't a traditional story of two in-form wrestlers competing to see who is the best. It's more ambitious than that. It's a bold approach - for it to work, AEW has deliberated lowered the value of both Omega and Page at various points - but the redemption arcs have elevated the promotion to a seminal level. The rise of Hangman Page is one of the great modern pro wrestling stories.

The fall and rise of Kenny Omega promises to be equally special.

CONT'D...(4 of 5)