'Hangman' Adam Page

[Oliver]

You know, if he had got a bit more shine in the first few Dynamite episodes I'd say yes. But he's not really been a feature.

Hard to know, but I think he might struggle to do so within the next 12 months. Certainly in the 3-5 year timeframe, though.

[Prime Time]

What's the deal with making him a drunk?

[Powder]

Not necessarily a drunk, just a guy who likes to have a drink.

And it goes with his Cowboy Shit and the IDGAF attitude.

[mizfan]

I think it's a bit more layered than that. After promising to become the first AEW champion and standing in the spotlight as potentially THE next generation of star, he failed to take the title and his relationship with the other members of the Elite has become strained. The character stuff is still unfolding but the takeaway for me is that he's either buckling under the pressure or resenting that he was arguably "set up to fail" with too much being put on his shoulders too soon. Hence the drinking, the poor communication with his sometimes tag partner Omega, showing himself to be unreliable when it comes to helping the other members of the Elite, and so on.

It could be a very nice little character arc depending on where it goes.

[PEN15v2]

It's a nice touch, honestly.

[Prime Time]

Is it a bit odd to do 'poor communication' stuff with Omega and still have them win the tag belts?

I'm sure there are ways around it and maybe it'll still work but just from a distance it feels counter-intuitive.

[mizfan]

Not my favorite bit of the story, I don't mind admitting. Especially since even in the match itself they still had a bit of miscommunication. But it seems like for the moment they've put it behind them, at least until the other shoe drops!

[mizfan]

Wondering who'll be Page's partner tonight... saw Darby Allin hinting he might volunteer to step in but considering they've got some interesting people potentially waiting in the wings to make a big debut (Lance Archer and possibly Luke Harper come to mind), might be time for someone to step into the limelight.

[Prime Time]

Hey, I suppose credit where it's due, they've left the belts on Page and Jazzhands for more than 200 days now.

Given they were teasing a split way back when, I imagine they might go into the loss/break up shtick as soon as crowds being back is the norm?

[SirSam]

Yeah they kinda paused that story when lockdown first happened presumably to wait for the crowds to come back and also because Hangman didn't make the Lockdown taping.

I think they now know that crowds will be a long time so seem to have picked things back up.

The tension they are building with FTR is really cool. They could go a whole lot of directions and each one would be believable.

[Prime Time]

There's been an assumption for a while now that Adam Page would eventually be the man to beat Kenny Omega.

With CM Punk coming in - and the rumours about Bryan Danielson to follow - what do you think the future has in store for Page now? Is he still going to be the guy down the line? Or is that now so far off in the future that who knows where he'll end up?

[The Cook]

It appears that the only reason he isn't dethroning Omega at All Out is because Page is about to become a father for the first time and so has requested some time off. So all I see is it being pushed down the road to the next show, Full Gear, which would be even more poetic as that's the show where Omega beat Page last year to become no.1 contender against Moxley.

It'll mean the first Omega vs. Punk/Danielson matches won't be for the title but that won't dilute the quality. And as someone else somewhere else pointed out, a babyface World champion who loves a drink is the perfect opponent for a certain straightedge guy to violently turn heel against

[King Kong Sundae]

If that is the case the title matches could end up as Page Vs Punk and or Danielson instead then

[mizfan]

In my eyes there's no other way to go than putting Page over Omega for the title, anything less would be a big mistake I think. The idea of having Punk go heel seems almost unthinkable, god knows he could pull it off but it seems like it'd be steering so hard against the tide. Though maybe in time things would look different.

[The Cook]

Unless Hangman suffers some sort of serious long term injury I agree he absolutely has to be the one to take the title from Omega.

I'm sure Punk will eventually turn heel but not any time in the next year.