It would be an understatement to call the last two years “rough” for ‘Hangman’ Adam Page. From stapled heads, to houses on fire, his death feud with Swerve Strickland culminated in a Lights Out Steel Cage match at All Out 2024 in one of the most brutal and bloody wrestling matches seen in years.
Now Page is ready to turn over a new leaf, or at least try to. His latest run is about exorcising his demons to once again claim championship gold. I spoke to the All Elite Wrestling superstar ahead of his match at AEW Double of Nothing against Will Ospreay, one that could once again put him back on the path to being a world champion.
The final of the Owen Hart Cup between Page and Ospreay is very different to the matches he’s had in recent years. It’s the clinical, rather than emotional, and when asked whether that makes it more difficult to prepare, Page actually thinks it will help him.
“Maybe that’s been a hindrance in my career really for the past 2 or 3 years,” Page says, “I’ve been a little more blinded by my focus on my actual feelings towards the opponent versus, what is at stake. The stakes have, in a lot of cases, maybe been somehow less important than the opponent to me and maybe the opposite is true here so I’m kind of I’m excited for that change.”
That emotion has had a major push-and-pull on Page’s relationship with the crowd. From the raucous chants of “Swerve’s House” to “Cowboy Shit,” he acknowledged on a recent episode of AEW Dynamite that he didn’t quite understand why fans still supported him after his laser-focus on making Strickland’s life miserable.
“It’s kind of a strange relationship,” Page muses. “I don’t want to say it’s a one-way relationship, But it kind of is at times. Maybe they see the kind of person that I could be, more than the person that I was being. You know, I don’t want to just assume how people feel and why they feel that way, so I guess I shouldn’t put those those labels on it.”
Page has developed an almost Stone Cold Steve Austin level of admiration from his fans. So much of what made Austin popular during WWE’s “Attitude Era” was his ability to connect with people. In him they saw a blue collar guy raging against his oppressive boss, getting one over on ‘the man.’ In a very different way Page has turned being an “Anxious Millennial Cowboy” into something audiences can relate to. He shares his anxieties, doubts, imposter syndrome, and frailties with the world, defying the macho archetype of masculinity which are ever-present in wrestling.
When I ask Page about people pulling meaning from his character he pauses for a moment.
“I guess my goal is to just be who I am, and tell the stories that I find interesting — and be the kind of performer that I would think was interesting. Just to be an honest and a truer version of myself for the world. And if that’s how wrestling fans or people watching take it then I think that’s fine. I don’t think they’re incorrect. The goal has never been to subvert expectations about masculinity. This isn’t something I sit down and think about in that way. I just want to be who I am.”
Much of Page’s career has been defined by those around him, both in All Elite Wrestling and in New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he became a star. Throughout that time there have routinely been people at his side, most notably Matt and Nick Jackson, better known as the Young Bucks, and Kenny Omega. From Bullet Club to The Elite, the four have largely been together — but in recent years his goals and those of The Elite haven’t aligned. I asked him if there’s a future he sees where they join forces again.
“I can look at pro wrestling and I know it doesn’t exist without those three. I know that I’m not a world champion without those three. I guess that makes it harder in some ways when you don’t agree. Right now they’ve come back to AEW, and they said that they’ve taken out Swerve as a gift to Moxley, but also a gift to me. We haven’t really talked about that too much, and whether I felt appreciative of that, or whether I think they maybe just read the room wrong.”
I asked Page if The Elite did read the room wrong by attacking his long-time enemy.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s a little, it’s a little hard to say. It’s a very complex thing.”
It’s impossible to talk to a professional wrestler without asking for their personal Mount Rushmore. At first Page bristles at the idea of giving four names, saying that wrestling is so subjective and there are so many criteria for how to look at talent that it’s impossible to distill the business to one mountain. So, I rephrase, asking him instead to give me the four people who have shaped his career up to this point.
“You could put Matt and Nick on there and combine their faces, like it’s half one face, half the other face. Kenny would probably be on there as well. I’m not carving into a mountain to honor Swerve Strickland. I wouldn’t do that, but if you had to ask about people who have shaped my career, he would be one of them, he has shaped my career and my life in ways I wish had never happened, but it has happened.
“The last one’s a little tough,” Page pauses, before the answer snaps into his mind. “Christopher Daniels. It might seem like a strange one but, I met him when I was 18 or 19. I was doing independent wrestling in front of 50, 100 people at best. I met him, then we wrestled. It was a booked on a Saturday, wrestled on a Sunday type of situation — and he gave me a lot of good advice and feedback. It was the first time that I had met someone in wrestling who was somebody, and who had accomplished something. He put into my mind what I needed to do to to make to the level that he was at. In Ring of Honor we ended up crossing paths again, and we ended up traveling together, spending tons of time together throughout my time at Ring of Honor, and then New Japan, and now in AEW — then ultimately being someone who I wrestled in his final match. That’s the one who I think has shaped my career tremendously.”
Knowing that being a cowboy is an innate element to Hangman Adam Page I had to ask him the most Anxious Millennial Cowboy question I could muster: Naturally it was whether he’d rather wrangle five horse-sized ducks, or 50 duck-sized horses.
“I go the horse sized ducks because there’s five of them. Wrangling is about numbers, you know? You can’t, you can’t wrangle and herd 50 anything. I don’t care how small they are. You can’t, it’s way harder to get them in one place. You got to go with five horse sized ducks and if you can wrangle 5 horses, I think a duck would be easier. The way the structure of their body and, you know, the bone structure and how their bodies are composed, they seem like they would be easier to wrangle than horses themselves.”
We talked about this more at length, including the mechanics of the neck which would allow for easier lassoing with a duck, as well as the need to clarify these would be walking ducks exclusively. Both ‘Hangman’ Adam Page and myself agreed that if the ducks were able to fly it would be an impossible task.
‘Hangman’ Adam Page will face Will Ospreay in the final of the Owen Hart Foundation Memorial Cup at AEW Double or Nothing, taking place on Sunday, May 25 on pay per view with the buy in pre-show starting at 7 p.m. ET, and the main card starting at 8 p.m. ET.
