Did AEW Revolution set the stage for ‘Bad Guy’ Hangman Page? | Column
It’s been several hours and six days since Hangman Page’s ability to challenge for the AEW World title was taken away from him.
Whether you believe this is a good thing or a bad thing, the stipulation that someone can no longer challenge for the world title is now a big part of AEW history. It’s been a major storyline point twice. It permanently altered the course of Cody Rhodes’ career in the company and now is going to do the same for Page.
There are, of course, only two possibilities for what happens next: Page either breaks the stipulation, or he doesn’t.
I think many AEW fans are worried about this, but it isn’t the existential crisis for the company some feel it is.
We know how it would play out if Page never breaks the stipulation, because we’ve already seen it. That’s what happened with Cody Rhodes. There were other factors at play, but Cody’s storylines in AEW began to feel disconnected from the rest of the show after, and fans noticed. I don’t know how much his existing in his own universe factored into fans turning on him, but I’m certain it played a role.
As for how Page might break the stipulation, Khan has clearly laid out how this could happen.
Tony Khan clarifies AEW World title stipulation
Here is what Khan said at the post-AEW Revolution media scrum about the stipulation:
“It’s the same thing with Cody, it was a gentleman’s handshake with both of them,” Khan said when asked how strict the stipulation is. “They both came to me and said, ‘I want to put this at stake.’ And both of them, I told them, ‘That sounds f***ing nuts, dude.’ Both of them really wanted to do it. And in both cases I said, ‘Are you sure?’ And they both said, ‘Yeah.’ So it is an agreement we made. Second time it’s happened. [Page] is somebody that’s known for being a man of his word, and we made an agreement. So it’s a verbal contract.”
What Khan is saying here is that the stipulation is not an AEW contractual rule, but more of an honor-bound agreement. Granted, that’s not exactly the understanding many fans came away with, but essentially he’s saying Page can break it if he chooses, but it would be dishonorable, i.e. making him a bad guy.
Now despite this explanation, Page choosing to break the verbal agreement Khan referenced above would still have the same effect in undermining how stipulations work in AEW. It would send the message to fans: yes, we have stipulations, unless we can find a way around them. That certainly sounds bad, but it’s essentially how things have always gone in wrestling, whether you view that as a good thing or a bad thing.
Yes, Junkyard Dog lost a Loser Leaves Town match to Butch Reed, but then this masked Stagger Lee guy shows up. Macho Man lost a retirement match but then Jake Roberts’ snake bit him, so he was allowed to wrestle again. Sting lost a match to Bully Ray with the stipulation he could never challenge for the TNA World title again, but then just did like six months later because the company was under different management. Other than the latter example, these didn’t kill the stipulations entirely, just somewhat.
If Page breaks the stipulation, fans know the next time this specific stipulation comes into play again, and it will, that it actually means the person can’t challenge for the title again without turning heel. It will still have some effect, just not as much.
Is This The Beginning of “Bad Guy” Hangman Page?
Again, the two options are: a babyface Hangman Page adheres to the stipulation, has feuds over the TNT title, International title, National title, whatever, and that’s how the rest of his time in AEW goes. Or we get “Bad Guy” Hangman Page. And there’s something exciting about the possibility of what that character could look like.
You know that at some point Khan dreamed up an angle for Cody to break the stipulation, turn bad guy, and feud with AEW’s top babyfaces. We can only speculate that this was the plan, but if it was, maybe we’re about to see it. Maybe Hangman Page is about to do the storyline we never saw Cody do.
We’ve seen glimpses of what bad guy Hangman would be, because it came out in his rivalry with Swerve Strickland. I’ve embedded below a promo that Page did about his feud with Swerve and fans still choosing to cheer Swerve despite that whole breaking-and-entering incident earlier in their rivalry. Page sort of half goes down the “because of the fans…” angle. It might serve as a bit of a preview for things to come.
Is This The End of Babyface Hangman Page?
I really hope this is not the end of babyface Hangman Page in all of wrestling. There’s a reason why fans are so drawn to the guy, to the point that he was chosen over Will Ospreay and so many others to dethrone Jon Moxley at All In. He’s great in the role and there is no better example of this than his performance at Grand Slam Mexico last year.
Page’s promo in Spanish at Arena Mexico was one of the greatest things I’ve seen or heard. I’m not talking about just wrestling, and I’m not even talking about entertainment. I am saying that out of all the things I have ever seen and heard in my life, Page’s promo at Arena Mexico was one of the greatest. It transcended wrestling and was inspiring AF.
AEW posted the below video with English subtitles of Page’s promo:
I bet had Page not even been a wrestler, but rather just some dude who grabbed the microphone on this show, it would have had the same effect.
It’s hard to believe that the babyface who cut that promo will no longer be around. But wrestling is a very peculiar industry, and the stories Page tells in it are not finished by a long shot.
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.