I can hear some of you now... “oh great, here’s Sean with more hyperbolic praise for AEW’s World title program.”
This isn’t exactly that. But it is hyperbolic praise for the main focus of that program. And the reason I felt inspired to praise him isn’t related to Dynamite’s main event scene.
The story of Hangman Adam Page’s chase of the championship that’s eluded him since All Elite Wrestling’s earliest days is my favorite one in pro wrestling, for a lot of reasons. A main one is that I can’t remember the last time, or if I’ve ever, related to a babyface the way I do to Page.
He’s smart, talented, and sarcastic; full of equal parts fight and self-doubt. Page takes setbacks and betrayals hard, and doesn’t deal with them in the healthiest of ways. But he tries to do the right thing, and with the help of some friends just might accomplish the biggest goal he’s set for himself.
The anxious millennial cowboy isn’t the coolest, or the most badass, or the purest hero. But Hangman could pretty much be me or any of my friends. You know, if we were good looking, physically fit pro wrestlers.
Anyway, those two non-wrestling examples of why I was thinking that... the first was Page’s reaction to Jeffrey Bezos’ trip to space yesterday (context, context, and context):
if you work piss-in-a-bottle hard for long enough then you too can watch your boss’ boss’ boss’ tax cheat boss go on a ten minute almost space vacation. aew dynamite tomorrow at 8pm
— HANGMAN PAGE (@theAdamPage) July 20, 2021
It’s a good tweet. And my favorite part might be the casual plug for Dynamite.
There’s also this, where it was announced Hangman is doing Cameo-style video messages for Pro Wrestling Tees. Half the proceeds will go to the Halifax County Public Schools Education Foundation, which helps out students & teachers in the Virginia school district where Page used to teach. He’s keeping the other half because he’s “a greed [sic] little bitch.”
https://t.co/R3AUow5apa pic.twitter.com/SpB3AqmaVj
— HANGMAN PAGE (@theAdamPage) July 21, 2021
Yep, that’s my guy.
Not so much that I’m gonna pay $200 for a video, even if half is going to a great cause he loves. But I can’t wait to see him do some cowboy shit on Dynamite tonight.