Hangman Page crucifies Adam Cole on Good Friday to retain the AEW world title

Hangman Page defended the AEW world championship against Adam Cole in the main event of tonight’s (Apr. 15) episode of Rampage. It wasn’t just another standard title match like the one they had last month at Revolution. No, this time it was a Texas Death Match. That means anything goes, and the match can only be won by submission or knockout (being unable to stand up by the ref’s 10 count).

With a stipulation like that, this match was guaranteed to have heightened levels of violence. Both men started off swinging steel chairs, where Cowboy Adam proved to be more adept. He beat the shit out of Cole in the early going, dragging him over the barricade into the crowd, smashing him in the head with a beverage, and bringing him back in the ring for a steel chair-assisted moonsault.

The level of violence only escalated from there. I don’t think Cole’s spine will ever be the same after this nasty bump onto the steel chairs:

After Cole talked some personal trash at the cowboy, Page became irate and obliterated him with the Buckshot Lariat. He tied Cole’s wrist to the ropes and brought a steel chair wrapped in barbed wire into the ring. It looked like he was going to crucify Cole, but babyface Page just couldn’t go through with it and instead dropped the chair. He untied Cole, and Cole immediately landed a low blow like the snake that he is.

Page wouldn’t make that same mistake a second time. He used the barbed wire to give Cole a crown of thorns on Good Friday, and then finished him off with Deadeye through a table:

And just like that, Hangman Page is still your AEW world champion.

Check out all the results from Rampage right here.