Has Hangman Page been humbled?
The most tumultuous year of his career has been marked by anger, revenge, violence, and ultimately a very lonely existence. An obsession with becoming AEW Champion once again got intertwined with a literal blood feud with Swerve Strickland. Page may have ultimately defeated Strickland, but at what cost? He’s still not the world champion. And now his actions are bringing lasting, debilitating results.
Despite his best efforts, Christopher Daniels was unable to get through to Hangman, leading to a Texas Death Match on last week’s Collision. What neither man knew was that it would be the last of the Fallen Angel’s career. The former(?) friends went to battle in what was mostly a one-sided, bloody affair with Hangman coming away victorious. It was clear a lot of damage had been done to Daniels, although we didn’t find out how bad it was until Dynamite.
Soon after Hangman easily dispatched of his local opponent, Daniels appeared in a neck brace and explained that he was wrong in how he went about trying to help Page. He only pushed Page further into madness and felt the brunt of it in their match. Unfortunately, Daniels’ suffered further damage to an already weakened neck and was told by doctors that he had wrestled his last match. When those words were uttered, Page’s demeanor took a noticeable shift.
When everything started between Swerve and Hangman back in September 2023, no one could have predicted where things would end up as we bring the first month of 2025 to a close. The personal nature of the rivalry descended into a home invasion and a house burning down. Hangman justified his actions by making it about defending his family, and whether you agreed with him or not, everyone can understand the need to protect your family.
And since that chapter ended, Hangman has set his sights on anyone that got in his way of Swerve and getting back to the AEW Championship. Even though he beat Swerve, it didn’t give Page peace. He unsuccessfully challenged for the AEW Title and wound up ending Daniel’s career. Did that all hit him on Wednesday? He ended the run of a beloved figure, but more importantly, a mentor and friend.
Is the reality of what Hangman did to someone who only tried to help him enough to finally end his complete descent into madness? Through it all, many have continued to support him and he may need them more than ever.
Let’s take a quick look around the other happenings in AEW…
The Hurt Syndicate Win Tag Team Gold
It took Private Party five years to win the AEW Tag Team Titles and after 84 days that reign came to a close at the hands of Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin. Call it bad luck or running into a dominant team at the wrong time, but unfortunately for Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen, the hurting was inevitable. Now, Lashley is a tag team champion for the first time in his career alongside a tag team specialist in Benjamin, who is now a tag champion for the sixth time. I don’t ask for much, but Hurt Syndicate vs. Murder Machines please and thank you.
Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita
Dynamite began with the face-to-face between Ospreay and Omega and despite two recent saves by Ospreay, Omega wanted no part of an alliance. Enter Don Callis, Takeshita, and Fletcher to attack Omega while Ospreay painstakingly watched from the ring. Seeing enough, Ospreay made yet another save and an arena-wide brawl broke out with Brian Cage and Lance Archer joining the fray. The brawl galvanized Omega and Ospreay, leading to the challenge at Grand Slam Australia. Four of the best in the world in the ring at the same time? Let’s go!
Jeff Jarrett and MJF
Jarrett climbed out of the gutter MJF dragged him into to make it clear that the two will settle their differences at some point, even if it doesn’t happen in the ring. The Last Outlaw then put his sights back on Jon Moxley and the AEW World Championship, leading to an attack by Claudio Castagnoli. Jarrett didn’t stay down for long, challenging the Death Rider to a match on Dynamite next week with the intention of getting to Moxley and the title.
Later on Dynamite, MJF would also address the issues with Jarrett, but did so by interrupting the entrances of the next match. With the local competitor already waiting at ringside, the other competitor in the match made his entrance, an angry Hangman Adam Page. Page and MJF had a tense face-off with the latter exiting the ring before anything else could happen. All of a sudden, what appeared to be a collision course between JJ and MJF has now opened up some other possibilities for the two.
Harley Cameron’s Journey Home
We already know Australia’s own Toni Storm will be heading back home to Grand Slam next month to face her old (new?) rival, the AEW Women’s Champion, Mariah May, but Storm decided to throw some encouragement to a fellow Aussie in Harley Cameron. Apparently, that was all the motivation Cameron needed to confront the four-belted Mercedes Mone with a song and a challenge for Grand Slam. The champion denied Cameron a ride on the Mone Train, but here’s hoping Harley has a chance to make Mercedes or someone feel the wrath in her home continent.
Until next time, when I’m back to talk about wrestling even more…
Read more from Matt Camp on DraftKings Network!
You can see Matt as a host and analyst on AEW’s social channels. Matt is also one of the hosts of Busted Open Radio on Sirius/XM. Matt hosts a pro wrestling stream every Monday-Thursday, 3pm ET for Bleacher Report.