#meta: hangman adam page

[adamcoles-baybay]

hanger and swerve are both forever changed by that match. we know this. what's even more profound is how hanger is the main character of the dubs. & he is now embracing his monstrous nature. our main character isn't a surface level hero, he is in fact no better than swerve as a heel. this is what true storytelling is and for that, i'm grateful to be a fan

[sithwitch13]

I keep thinking how Swerve is taking a lot of inspiration for himself from horror movies. He's the unstoppable killer, laughing when he's stapled and never leaving the victim alone. But Hangman as the final girl was really driven in with those last few seconds before the feed cut out. The temporary return to himself, realizing what all he's done along the way, and that scream. God, that scream.

It wasn't victory. It was anguish and horror. That look in his eyes was haunting. I know we've been joking "lol Swerve broke Hangman" but I think this is what really did it. This is him realizing he's lost his soul in the process.

I want to know how Hangman moves his character forward from here, but most importantly I want to know where Swerve goes now. I can almost see him being almost at peace with it. Like, he's made Hangman into a monster arguably worse than him, and that was what he wanted all along.

This Hannibal-ass story, I swear.

[heelkenny]

there's an interview right before revolution 2020 where kenny and hangman talked about their action figures. kenny brought up the barbed wire broom as being his weapon of choice in the Mox fued.

then in bte 204 Hangman talked about teaming up with a broom and cleaning his house better than anyone ever had, as thinly veiled metaphor for tagging with kenny (who he was tag champs with at the time)

and of course Hangman talked about looking for brooms in his conversation with Dark Order about how they just want him to be happy and for him to find what makes him happy

so to Hangman, kenny handing him the barbed wire broom is about coming home and finding what makes him happy. to Kenny it's a way of saying to hangman that their fued against the bcc is their shared fight.

[cowboyshit]

hangman’s monologue

I don’t know how to preface this but, for those of you who watched today’s bte (5/18/2020) and saw hangman’s monologue, I had to go in depth and break it down for everything I interpreted it alluding to. Overall it’s an insanely intelligent and amazing promo where on the surface level it can read as a reflection of what’s going on in the world, but when you pick it apart for the metaphors interwoven within you can see how much of a testament to his character and current story line it is and what he understands moving forward and what he’s come to the conclusion of doing. Basically this is just me going feral for thousands upon thousands of words because I clearly love a cowboy WAY too much.

You can read it under the cut, if you’d like!

Okay so I’m a little brain tired after a full day’s work but I’m still pretty feral about Hangman’s monologue and the metaphors it was filled to the brim with so *rubs hands together* I’m going to see what I can pick apart!

For the most part we understand the bald eagle he talks about seeing is something that makes him want to go home. Home is not his physical house, but All Elite Wrestling. That’s the home he’s been avoiding. I was almost thinking the bald eagle represented Matt Hardy in some way, which makes the line: “…when I hear what sounded like a miniature tornado spin right past my ear” seem to me like it relates to Vanguard 1 being a drone that’d sound like that – because, as far as I’m concerned, every time I’ve been at a demonstration with a bald eagle flying they’ve not sounded like a miniature tornado, but maybe he was being a little hyperbolic or maybe it was coming in fast haha. Plus, if we tie the bald eagle to Matt Hardy that could be the change Hangman has seen that’s making him think maybe it’s time to come home. He’s watching Kenny with Matt and maybe feeling guilty for not being there with his tag partner. Hearing the constant commentary of “one half of the tag team champions” is perhaps getting to his guilt? Because even if Hangman doesn’t want to be tag team champions with Kenny and even if he doesn’t actually care about having that tag team gold (which – small interjection, for all he says he doesn’t care about it, he did make a point to pack it with his ‘essentials’ when he left to go live in the woods) he does shoulder guilt of not being good enough, in not doing what he’s supposed to do. His partner is there, so Hangman feels guilty that he’s not. A tag team is supposed to stick together. So maybe, just maybe, the bald eagle has something to do with Matt Hardy, as that’s been the only change to AEW recently (with him tagging with Kenny) that’d be enough to put some sort of guilt on Hangman’s shoulders that I can think of.

Oh also – real quick – I do think it’s interesting he’s talking about this happening as he comes up on his last bottle of whiskey, but he talks more about that later so I’ll get into that a little more later on. I think this has to do with his acceptance that he’s using the alcohol as a crutch, but I digress. Moving on!

“Maybe I should go home? I don’t know. The thought itself bloomed inside my brain like a malignant tumor; uninvited, unwelcome, but growing just the same. I mean, it would be ridiculous to go home right now. Because out here I can’t get infected. I can’t infect anyone else.”

These lines are more evidence that Hangman is fighting within himself, with his own mind about returning “home” to AEW. It’s an unwanted thought, but it’s an important and heavy and prevalent one. In the woods and away from AEW he can’t feel day-to-day like a dog chasing it’s tail, reminded that he’s not quite achieved what he wanted (remember that he promised at the press conference that he would be AEW world champion before 2019 was over, which he failed to do and he has never had another chance at that title yet). Or, even worse, when he’s there he’s constantly shown his loneliness to his face where it’s inescapable, even if some of it is his own doing (not seeking new friendships after breaking off with the Elite and even going so far as to horribly damage his new friendship with Private Party over a measly $12. It’s not about the money at this point, I think Hangman is afraid to let anyone get close to him again because he thinks if he has no one close to him he won’t have to fight those thoughts of being shoved back into the shadows).

Which brings me to this little part: “Because out here I can’t get infected. I can’t infect anyone else.” When he’s away from AEW he can’t be infected by his worries of splitting with the Elite and he can’t allow those feelings and what he does because of them – drinking, acting out – to hurt anyone else. Because Hangman loves the Elite as much as he probably wishes he didn’t. He has too good of a heart not to love them, even if he is angry at them and even if he doesn’t want to be a part of them anymore. We saw this when he went from angrily yelling at Matt and Cody to asking with concern after Nick’s well-being once he found out he’d been “hurt” by Hangman during their last match.

The next few lines that follow I do believe may be more about his commentary regarding the coronavirus and what it means to be traveling to the show, etc. but once we get through those lines we hit this part: “I mean even now I would never know if I overreacted coming out here to live, but I would forever live with the pain of knowing I didn’t do enough. And to be honest, I’ve been kind of enjoying living out here. I’ve got good company, and I know you can’t see them right now, but they’re everywhere. It’s not just people either. Two days ago I swear a raven winked at me.”

There’s a lot in those lines that follow the same theme of what’s been discussed. If he never returns home to AEW, he won’t know if he’s been overreacting about everything. Things are getting muddled in his head where it’s reality vs anxiety. Maybe running away and hiding from everyone was an overreaction. Maybe avoidance, instead of ripping off the band-aid and letting the wound air and heal wasn’t the right move. If he never goes back, he’ll never know. He’s beginning to understand that the only way forward is to return, but there’s that fear and anxiety inside him that keeps screaming to slam the breaks and reverse, to go deeper into the woods as it were instead of coming out from the shadows.

And of course he’s enjoyed living away from “home” despite this moment of reflection he’s having. Out here in the woods he doesn’t have to fear disappointing anyone. He doesn’t have to run across the Elite’s path and worry there’ll be another fight because they just won’t listen to him. He doesn’t want to fight with his friends. He just wants to shake hands and go his own way, but they’ve got their claws in him and it’s made him desperate and feral to get away from them and as such he acts out and in turn hurts (infects) other people AND himself.

But, like I said, Hangman says: “But I would forever live with the pain of knowing I didn’t do enough.”

Even if it isn’t his fault that Matt, Nick, and Kenny (I’m leaving Cody out only because he really hasn’t had a solid presence in the Elite story lines since this has begun) won’t let go, he’s recognizing that if this is something HE wants – if he really wants to be separated and that’s what’s going to make him happy - it’s going to have to be something he does. And if he doesn’t go back to AEW, if he just continues to hide and get drunk in the woods, that failure will sit on HIS shoulders and no one else’s. There will be no one to blame but himself.

Also! I do believe the line about the raven is a reference to Marty which is why I included it, but that’s really all I gotta say about it haha I was just excited to think he was referencing his old villain buddy.

Okay so the next bit is a little long, but I need to include his whole dialogue to break it down: “Why did I think that in the first place? Honestly? I mean, it feels selfish, but there is a large part of me that wants to march right back up the front steps and slip off my boots and let them dry, stumble right through the front door with a sheepish grin, hoping nobody noticed I had left in the first place. And as nice as it is out here, truthfully the past few months has left me feeling pretty damn worthless. Like, I used to know more, but living in a house is kind of all I understand now. And maybe most selfishly, I feel like I want to go back home because I was on the run of my life in that house. I was learning to eat as much toast as I wanted fresh from our Russel Hobbs toaster. I nearly won the prestigious “Man of the House” award in May. I teamed up with our broom to clean the house better than ever swept it before. And I feel like I might have been starting to patch up the holes of the house.; the walls that made the house what it was in the first place. Everyone was loving it - what I was doing in the house - and it made me feel more validated than I ever felt in my life. And I felt like maybe I was on my way back to winning the “Man of the House” award. The thing I had promised to win on day one. But I - I’ll never get that momentum back… I mean, does momentum even exist in a house that’s empty?”

This part is FULL of so much and I’m going to try my best to talk as cohesively about it as possible without just. Screaming.

So again, he’s talking about how he thought about returning to the “house” and what all of that entails. Of course Hangman wants to return without notice – he doesn’t want to have to answer on where he’s been or what he’s been doing. He doesn’t want prying eyes to poke and prod inside when even he’s still tangled about what his journey is and what would actually make him happy. It’s only going to set off his anxiety if everyone starts pointing out how long he was gone because a part of it, despite himself, is tied to that guilt for how long he’s been gone in the first place. He does feel guilty for being away. The last thing you want when you’re guilty for something is for it to seem like everyone’s going to put it under a microscope. And maybe he knows he isn’t strong enough yet to not fall back on harmful behaviors in order to cope with that sort of scrutiny.

Also, him feeling worthless being away from AEW. Hangman, at his core, is a representation of struggling with self-identity. Who is he? At the end of the day who is Hangman Adam Page? I don’t think that’s a question he has enough self-confidence to look in a mirror and answer. He’s caught searching right now, lashing out, numbing himself, stumbling, trying, doing, failing, succeeding… and he’s still just a little bit lost. He hasn’t quite caught his stride. His eyes are so focused on the AEW World Championship (which I believe is the Man of the House award he’s talking about) because he thinks that’s what’s finally going to prove to everyone – but more importantly himself – that he’s good enough.

The funny thing though, I think this reflects the children’s story he wrote about his character too – is that I feel like there’s a chance even holding that title isn’t going to prove anything to himself. Like when it talks about the “golden horseshoe” in his children’s book and the fact that “Adam” didn’t need it to do an amazing job. But… I digress.

And I think that’s where the last line ties in, where he talks about not being able to find that momentum. He doesn’t think he can get back what he had when he was going after the championship in the beginning. Everyone’s moved on, he thinks. The eyes of the belt now fall to others - Mox, Brodie Lee - where’s room for him in that? With how tangled up he is right now it’s no wonder he can’t see himself pushing for the momentum again of having everyone rally behind the idea that he’d hold the championship or be capable of taking it away from the names who have it now. He feels like that part of the house has emptied out and with all his other battles he can’t see how he’d get through those to get any piece of importance back on that spot. 

I want to reiterate and focus on another section in that long quote because I think it’s incredibly important: “And maybe most selfishly, I feel like I want to go back home because I was on the run of my life in that house. I was learning to eat as much toast as I wanted fresh from our Russel Hobbs toaster. […] I teamed up with our broom to clean the house better than it’d ever been swept before. And I feel like I might have been starting to… patch up the holes of the house… the walls that made the house what it was in the first place. Everyone was loving it, what I was doing in the house and it made me feel more validated than I ever felt in my life.”

If you’ve been watching AEW from the start and hadn’t seen much of Hangman before, you’ll have caught on to the trajectory of his popularity and how he is at the highest point in his career that he’s ever been in. The cheers these days are for HIM. I remember my excited surprise when, during a promo with the Bucks and Kenny, Hangman interrupted them and the entire arena cheered for HIM. For his interruption. Think about that in terms of how his career used to be – how no one really cared that much if Hangman was coming out to the BC theme because they’d rather see the more popular Bullet Club members, The Young Bucks or Kenny Omega. But now he has a catchphrase people are chanting. People pop FOR him. He’s learning how to eat that “toast” the crowd is giving him. He’s learning how to accept this outpouring of love and support us fans are showing up in troves with for him. 

The line about the broom is clearly a nod at Kenny. They cleaned the house better than before – that match at Revolution was… astonishing. I feel like he and Kenny were finally hitting their stride and coming to a better understanding in working in tandem in the ring and that’s what this is a nod to.

And now those last two lines. Patching up the holes of the house – that’s his relationship with the Elite. Before all this went down, we saw a BTE episode where Matt and Hangman sat down at a bar and started to get serious before the camera cut and didn’t let us see what the conversation was, but we understand it was about the contention between the two of them (as Matt’s the one lashing out the loudest and angriest out of the bunch and making Hangman explode the worst). So, right before all this happened Hangman was maybe finally feeling like he was getting somewhere with the holes torn in his relationship with his friends. His brothers. His family. (Which – real quick – we know found family is a huge thing for Hangman, given the earlier episode of BTE where Jimmy Valiant talked to him and Hangman lamented over the loss of how Jimmy helped him and all the trainees feel like they were a family).

And that last line about feeling validated. He finally is getting the recognition he’s (quite frankly) deserved all along. He’s come into himself and now the crowd is rallying behind him. At each show he was just getting more and more over. Everyone has been loving what he’s been doing at AEW. They care more about him than KENNY OMEGA (which we also see Kenny rant about in this same episode earlier on when he’s on the zoom call with Colt). Imagine how insane that must feel to him after he’s always put these guys on such a high pedestal for their achievements!!!! Look at his career record when paired to Kenny’s or the Bucks. But finally, FINALLY after all this time he was emerging as the favorite and of course that’s where he’s finding validation. That’s helping take down those worries and those anxieties when it comes to feeling like he’s not enough or that no one cares about him. How can he feel that way when he goes to the ring and thousands of people are screaming HIS catchphrase or popping for HIM? And maybe there’s a part of him that’s stayed away because not having that audience cheering for him robs him of the validation he was just beginning to accept and brings his fears back that are always waiting in the wings.

Okay, moving on.

“I mean it seems unfair that I get to live out this Snow White woodland fantasy while Cynthia from Food Lion has to go back to her apartment every morning. I mean am I the bad guy here? I mean, either way I look at it, I’m the bad guy in my own drunken monologue here in the woods. I mean, maybe that just the way the world has conditioned me to think when the choice was never mine to begin with.” 

I think the “Cynthia from Food Lion” bit is talking about us. The audience. Hangman feels guilty for running away and leaving us behind while we still have to face our day-to-days and we don’t get the luxury of running off and getting drunk in the woods when things go bad. We have to keep facing our day no matter what we’re going through. We have to keep “going home” in a way, regardless of what our struggles are. It’s valid to feel guilt for it, but he’s also right about the way the world has conditioned him to think when the choice was never his to begin with. It’s, to me, that reflection of what us millennials face. We are constantly told we are in the wrong, that we’re killing business after business despite the issues being out of our control to fix or have a hand in. We’ve been conditioned to constantly feel this guilt that we’re not doing enough – for the most part our parents and grandparents had degrees or jobs or houses by the time they were in their twenties whereas most of us can’t afford that. We’re constantly told that we’re not doing enough. That it’s our fault even when we don’t have a choice. 

“I don’t know. All I know is that I can’t shake the feeling that the world is about to fuck me dry one more time. And for the first time ever, I have the chance to put on lipstick first. I mean… I need… I know I need to go back home. Home is still there.” 

This is a little vulgar of an expression, but I think that’s the point. It’s shock value to really pull your attention toward it. It needs that hard light shone directly on it. In the beginning I talked about how sometimes we know we have to walk into something that’s going to be awful just to get through to the other side and I think that’s what this refers to. Hangman knows he can’t keep running from his problems and, given his history, he can’t help but feel like it’s going to explode in his face even if he comes with good intentions. If we look at the trajectory of every time he tried to tell the Elite he wanted to separate from them we see how it got uglier and uglier each and every time. So even though he doesn’t think it’s going to go perfectly fine or the way he wants it to go (where he’s allowed to walk away, figure out who he is on his own, and then maybe go for the AEW World Championship if that’s even still something he can achieve) he knows he has to go back. He’s had a chance to “put lipstick on first” which means he’s had the chance to get ready for it. To steel himself. For the first time in his career he’s had a chance to step away from the storm, stare it right in the eyes and see exactly what he has to do in order to get through it, even if he comes out battered on the other side. He has to go home. He has to go back to AEW. He has to face everything he’s been running from lately.

So now the final bit which is my favorite metaphor simply because it has to do with horses so, you know the horse girl in me SCREECHED.

“But honestly, what I want to do is climb back on my horse and ride off into the sunset and just say the hell with it. Maybe this little rant is all I have left. I’m just throwing my leg over a saddle with a broken tree. Kicking a horse i know has long been dead, and the horse just collapses, and I’m sitting back here in the same spot wondering “Why did I want to go home in the first place?” Maybe it was the eagle coming back home to her nest that made me think it or maybe it’s because I’m out of whiskey.”

For those of you that don’t know, the tree in a saddle is the saddle’s frame on a western saddle. It’s basically the structure the saddle is based on and how you tell how to properly fit your saddle to the horse so you don’t cause further problems for your horse while riding. When the saddle tree breaks, the saddle can shift where it’s positioned on the horse’s spine and cause a LOT of problems for your horse. It’ll add pressure where pressure shouldn’t be added and distribute the weight off, effectively fucking up the horse’s spine. It’s easy to ride a saddle with a broken tree because for the most part unless you are paying close attention you won’t feel that the tree is broken, but your horse absolutely will. So what he’s saying is that while he wants to get in the saddle and ride off into the sunset to effectively never be bothered again, he won’t be able to do that.

The next few lines are simply more reflections of Hangman trying to work through his personal anxieties. Maybe he’s telling himself this last little bit as a way to try and “get out” of going. Maybe he’s trying to tell himself he’s crazy for thinking it’s time to go back. It’s also a reflection of what he’s worried about – that all of this is going to be for naught. That it’s hopeless. That he’s had time away to reflect and think, but maybe that’s just it. Maybe when he goes back he’ll just be “beating a dead horse” and be caught up in the same shitstorm he was before. That he’ll go through all this trouble to go back only to find himself planted right back on his ass in the spot he’s at now. Aimless and tangled up inside his head.

Those last couple lines, again – he’s wondering what’s made him think this way. Is it because he’s out of alcohol and he finally has to face sobriety and think? Or is it because the “bald eagle” came back to her nest and made him feel like he needed to go back too?

Like I said before, overall this is an amazingly thoughtful piece. The way it was delivered like a rambled monologue but actually had so many in-depth layers was phenomenal. It comes across like someone working through their anxiety, talking out their problems, being pulled back into those thoughts of doubt and trying to convince himself out of them. Just... fucking phenomenal, really.

[bloodycowboyclub]

And so by Adam's blood did his enemy sign, binding Adam to the gold, until such a time as Hangman's blood spills not upon the Earth.

TO MY BLOODY VALENTINES 💌

[maxwelljacobfriedman]

July 2, 2017: G1 Special in USA - Kenny becomes the inaugural IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion after a single elimination tournament.

Not only did Hangman Page get eliminated in the first round, the person who eliminated him, Jay Lethal, fell to Kenny in the semifinals

Page still comes out with the rest of Bullet Club to celebrate, and even helps hold Kenny up when it seems like he’s worried Kenny will lean back too far, but he’s also not excited like the Bucks (or other people we will ignore). It’s never addressed, but it’s absolutely one of the inciting incidents of Hangman’s fear that he’ll never be as good as his friends that will fester and grow over the next few years.

[tamedbyafox]

alternative theory (though I love yours @adampage)

Hangman loses the title and becomes consumed with his own inadequacy to the degree that cheating and cowardice come onto the table.

The points where he was stealing tags from Kenny, I think, are the closest we see to this in his character so far. He doesn't believe in himself and as a result hurts the people around him. I think if they had him drop the title to someone - Danielson would be a good choice at this point, given his recent heel shit, though I think I need to see whose stories fit at the time. Its hard to say exactly who would be a good slightly-shitty heel. Because I don't want it to be MJF/The Bunny style of openly shitty heel. There needs to be just a bit of plausible deniability.

If you had Hangman lose to someone who plays just a touch dirty. And have him take it really hard, harder than before. He touched greatness and couldn't. fucking. keep it. Have him go on a losing streak without the belt and have him think he was just lucky. Maybe mention how injured Kenny was when he got the belt. If Kenny's back have him beat him in a match, just because. Have mid card guys squeak out narrow clean wins (and push OC/BF while you're at it!). Have him lose in a Dark match to a Dark Order member for whats supposed to just be a little friendly fun and take it real hard. (you really wanna be shitty, have him be mean to Negative One, hoooooboy) You could have a man consumed by his own inadequacies in a way that turns him to heel-sins. I don't think bringing back the alcoholism story line is necessary; but you could do it! I think better would be an obsession with training or the gym or working to improve and studying - but make clear he's studying famous heels. Have him cite to matches of Cody's from the Bullet Club. Have him ask Danielson about his time on the Indies. Maybe mention whatever the fuck Chuck Taylor was up to when he was losing his mind and ruining their tag team chances in New Japan.

Have Hangman decide that he wants to be good enough again, and if what that means is cheating, so be it. Have him think he's had his run, he was a one hit wonder, and he's desperate now. Wracked with guilt and agonizing every moment, have him cheat. Have it start small but be consistent and get dirtier and dirtier.

The key, I think, would be in having him cheat when its fairly clear he could just about win the match clean.

If you can work into BTE or things about how this is only a temporary thing, how this is something he doesn't want to keep doing but he needs to win, he needs to get back to being great? I think you can create a rich and conflicted villan, all the worse for having tasted greatness, still so close to lovable, and so far fallen from the man we loved.

Cowardice, arrogance, and disrespect of the rules of wrestling. The Heel Trifecta.

Hangman Adam Page fans, do any of ya’ll have a fantasy booking for a Hangman heel turn? I can’t possibly picture it, but I do feel like there’s a particular level of marking out for a guy where you just know what would vibe best for them to become Evil…

[groovycowboys]

hangman for all of the questions <3

1. why i like them about to get meta but hangman and i may or may not have spiritual connection through our characterization 😌 /j. but for real i see a lot of myself in him. his insecurities are kinda like mine exemplified. he’s got such a charming aura about him that makes him easy to like! i instantly gravitated towards him. also from like adam out of his role: he knows what being a cowboy means and i think thats really great. he’s able to tell that amazing story about redemption and growth and its nice. i think what sold me on him was that he used to teach journalism and thats my field. and also he might have ocd. so i guess i loved adam himself and then gravitated toward the character loll  2. why i don’t  i don’t really enjoy his alcoholism being played as a joke. i know a lot of people who have had substance dependency and it really sucks. i wish they’d keep it more serious or at least have it come to a point where he gets better  3. favorite episode (scene if movie)  the time when he forgot to tan his back and wrestled keith lee (my other fave) at pwg  4. favorite season/movie  bruh what qualifies as a movie or season for a wrestling character. i’ve liked all his eras. i’m not too much of an expert on him tho i couldn’t name like his roh 2014 matches or anything  5. favorite line  anything he says on the graphics also his press release for entering the championship tournament. cowboy shit is also good. also pp jokes. i can’t decide do not make me pick the man is funny.  6. favorite outfit  GOD his cowboy shirts are the peak of fashion. i love the black one with red roses.  7. otp  uhhhhhh adam page and happiness lol  8. brotp  i love adam’s dynamic with private party i hope they become friends soon  9. head canon  adam actually did k*ll j**y r***n hes dead.  10. unpopular opinion  i don’t really enjoy the elite dynamic.  11. a wish i just hope adam’s character heals and grows and goes through that cowboy journey  12. an oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen  reduce him to alcoholism and make him a joke because of it. forget about him or diminish him. he’s friends w evps tho so ;0  13. 5 words to best describe them  sweet, goofy, stupid, anxious, yeehaw  14. my nickname for them  adamb (a dumb) or sweetie 

[themellowaewfan]

Road to All Out- Episode 05

This was a fine episode. It started with an interview with the Best Friends which I was surprised by since there more comedic slant would probably be on Being the Elite. I’m glad they were on here though. On Being the Elite some of the wrestlers come off as cartoony (which isn’t always a bad thing) here they come off like real people. Just a couple of cool guys who aren’t afraid to express their love. I really like them. 

We then get Alex Marvez doing a bit where he builds up Cody vs Shawn Spears. It wasn’t a bad segment, but I felt it was a little superfluous. Cody vs Shawn Spears has already been built up really well and this segment didn’t add much. Not a bad segment, just wished the time used in this segment was used to build another storyline instead. Like announcing the other women’s match at All Out or something. 

The next segment is a clip from HOG wrestling where Adam Page cuts a promo on Chris Jericho. It’s another really good one. I have come to really appreciate Hangman Adam Page’s promo skills. He always comes off as super impassioned. I hope AEW let’s this guy ride a fucking horse to the ring at All Out. 

The final segment is Kenny Omega finally cutting a promo about his match at All Out. I really like it. He talks about how he lost his shine a bit and how his match with Jon Moxley is a chance to prove himself. This works on both a kayfabe level and a meta level. In Kayfabe, he’s talking about coming short at Double or Nothing against Chris Jericho. On a meta level, it could be referring to the complaint that Kenny Omega has lost his shine a bit (though his match with Cima was really good). I felt like this promo did a nice job building up the match that I’m sure will be fire. 

Overall this episode is ok. The opening with the Best Friends was good as was the ending with Kenny Omega. I did however felt like the Cody vs Shawn segment was a bit unnecessary and I’ve already seen the Adam Page promo because they’ve uploaded it to their Youtube channel a couple of days ago (though  I guess including it here was fine since there’s probably a ton of people who only watch the Road To videos). 

[omegatheunknown]

AEW Fyter Fest

AEW keeps the momentum going with a card that was a little less prestigious, but a little more chaotic, but overall entertaining and plenty filling.

- What’s the draw of the ‘Buy-In’ pre-card, especially when the whole show is free? Obviously don’t give away your best offerings for nothing, but if the point is bringing eyes to the product and having them follow-up by buying the event... these pre-cards are not going to do that. - I sort of love the introduction of JR with entrance music as a ‘and now the real show is beginning’ signifier. JR’s really got some of his passion back, and the combination with Excalibur continues to be a surprisingly satisfying one. May Alex Marvez stay out of the both indefinitely. - Camera cuts have calmed down. I think this event was at .5 Dunns for unnecessary cuts, which is still far too many, but at least they stopped stacking cut/cut/cut and opted for more of those lovely crane shots. Entrance music should be way louder, the pyro was fun, the dumb fyre fest gag at least allowed for a colourful set design and AFAIK no legendary Canadian grapplers fell off the stage trying to head straight back up the tunnel. So that’s a big win.  *Pre-Card Best Friends v SCU v Private Party (**) - Three way tag-team matches with only two active teams is always an odd stipulation and as fun as that match was to get the party started, the format leads to any finish getting a bit dusty as a result. Really enjoying Marq Quen and his Wesley Snipes-in-Demoltion Man fit. Allie v Leva Bates (dud) - The Librarians are an intentionally awful gimmick with plenty of winking going on, which is fun on BTE for thirty seconds a week but the live crowd seems to be beyond done with Bates and Avalon and the shushing. I will admit it took too for long it to click for me to realize the heelish potential in wrestlers attempting to keep the crowd as quiet as possible, but as fun as that meta-irony is, it meant this slow moving match which should’ve hyped up the crowd on the debuting Allie (The Bunny alive and well after being killed to death by Su Yung on Impact, Cherrybomb’s current whereabouts unknown.) looked worse than it was and was the worst thing on the card. Michael Nakazawa v Jebailey (**) - I have heard the name enough by now that I know that Jebailey is ‘the’ CEO guy but I don’t really know what that means or what he does in everyday life but he’s certainly a non-wrestler and yet he showed a decent grasp of the fundamentals and Nakazawa ran him through what was a DDT-esque comedy match with some funny spots and a nice turn for Bryce Remsburg as wrestling’s most committed comic referee.  *Main Card CIMA v Christopher Daniels (**1/2) - Daniels has never felt like a bigger deal than he does now, on the edge of fifty. Hard not to root for a guy with 25+ years experience trusted to have an explosive curtain jerker and get the crowd into the evening. CIMA’s an excellent foil, the pair are so smooth and deft at building a match I only wish there was more at stake between them, which is maybe the through-line of the whole evening barring some exceptions. They’re putting in groundwork elsewhere for the fall, but before AEW gets to TNT they’re going to do some more of these exhibition style affairs. Riho v Nyla Rose v Yuka Sakazaki (***) - A pox on B/R live or my friend’s wifi for stalling and so we missed Yuka’s amazing theme song, but AYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA aside, this was a really nice match with a bit of sloppiness that nevertheless made up for the kneecapping of Nyla via Awesome Kong last month. Nyla looked every bit the powerhouse, pulled off a couple really nice high-energy maneuvers (knee drop from the top rope to the rope-hung Riho was nuts.) Conversely, there were definitely moments early on where it looked too much like a two-on-one match, though it did ultimately build to a satisfying bit of anguish for poor Yuka. Hangman Adam Page v Jimmy Havoc v Jungle Boy v MJF (***) - Prayers up for the audience-cutaway victim of MJF’s savage (rote but knocked out of the park) promo. Salt of the Earth. - Wondered what Havoc was bringing to the match until I realized it’s nice to show him in a more conventional competition and it doesn't harm him in the least to eat a pin. A good showing, though I miss the AFI. - Jungle Boy is going to be great. Got in some really bananas aerial stuff, and like... not to put too fine a point on it, but he looks like Luke Perry. - Adam Page is money. I don’t remember exactly but how is it he was more or less randomly assigned to Bullet Club-RoH as ‘just a guy,’ just three years ago? Sure, he was 24 years old and still finding his pace in the ring, but everyday there is less and less doubt that he’s a top guy, he’s your big beautiful babyface hero. Match was as good as one could reasonably expect from a four-way. Cody v Darby Allin (****) - A lot of the cards for All In, DoN and Fyter Fest have been exhibition matches for skill and style. Cody, probably recognizing where his strengths as a wrestler lie, has been the big exception -- nothing at All In had the emotional resonance of Cody winning the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, nothing at Double or Nothing (or most of wrestling in 2019) could touch the intensity of the Rhodes vs Rhodes match, and last night Cody delivered another of the best version of himself and helped Darby Allin make himself a big fucking deal. The kid is nuts, though I have to assume some skateboard bumps put falling on mats to absolute shame. Maybe my friends and I are nuts, but we were all pretty sure that the controversial post-match chair shot was largely taken on the shoulder with some accidental (and sharp) contact to the head. Also is it really a Cody match if he doesn’t gig? Apparently there have been some subsequent developments suggesting they really did intend for one (1) unprotected chair shot for the love of the sport, to which I say, again, Cody is his father’s son.  The Elite v Lucha Brothers & Laredo Kid (****) - 100% exhibition, 100% spot fest, despite the pseudo-feud going between the Young Bucks and Los Hermanos de Lucha, this was bound to be one of those pure sprint ‘show me what you’ve got’ type of matches. Emotions, strife and storytelling are integral to the wrestling theatre, but so is the actual wrestling. The Young Bucks and their perfect opponents -- Penta & Fenix, also the Motor City Machine Guns, also SCU, also the Briscoes -- are the finest purveyors of tag team wrestling in form of the free-flowing, spot-to-spot-to-spot kinesis that they’ve made their name on and this was no different from the ‘usual’ mind-bending and entertaining spectacle possible when The Elite are in the ring. That Laredo Kid came out and hung tough with 5 of the best wrestlers in the world is astounding and marks him as one to watch. - Of special note, as usual, is Fenix, who is better and crazier every time I see him, like he’s in the process of a Hiromu Takahashi-esque supernova. Legitimately might be the best talent to appear in the ring for AEW.  Jon Moxley v Joey Janela (***1/2) - Loved the work Justin Roberts did to introduce this match. Such gravitas. So silly. - Moxley’s back in his element, and I’m suddenly a huge mark, though I am way more excited about what he’s been doing in New Japan, up to and including his choices in ring gear. Though at least he’s out of jeans and wife beaters. Match was well-paced for a deathmatch style, no doubt owing to both party’s absurd enthusiasm for this sort of utter nonsense.  - Joey Janela has way too much of a Mick Foley (for the fans, for the love of pain) in him and I don’t think any amount of beatings will beat it out of him. Though Moxley seemed game to try. - Barefoot thumbtacks is decently fucked up, I think. The level of mayhem was balanced nicely between sadism (tacks, barbed wire boards,) wrestling nonsense (barbed wire wrapped chair) and satisfying spots (Joey’s big elbow drop.) - Kenny getting his revenge was necessary but seemed a bit half-hearted, almost? I’m plenty excited for their match as is, all he needed to do was assault Mox in the ring and peace out, but I guess tit-for-tat is the law of the jungle.

[adampage]

uwu how abt the legend ryan adam-page buckshot-lariat themself

physically trying not to have a heart attack bc u and @adamcoles really do share a half a braincell

@adam-page oh I’m so glad to have ryan on my dash! they post such good content! they’re so funny! and legit like. are half the reason I love Adam Page. the meta is sooooo good and the Thots™️ that they have! their MIND!!! like I am just. so grateful for the wrassle cowboy thirst it makes me feel a little less alone bc cowboy + wrestling is just such a good combo and we need more of it in life. hangman is such a cutie patootie and the fact that ryan is so. in-tune. with my thirst and the love for him is. pure. and so nice omg they’re so nice 💙

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Special in USA Day 1 preview

This is airing live Saturday night on AXS TV and the Fight Network at 8pm EDT.  It’ll also be streaming on NJPWworld.com, but the stream is region-locked for the US, to get Americans to watch it on TV.  I’ve heard you can get a free trial of Sling TV and watch the AXS broadcast that way, but I need to look into it.  The show will be available on demand  at NJPWworld for everybody the next day.

Kazuchika Okada vs. Cody Rhodes - Okada holds the IWGP heavyweight championship, the premiere title in New Japan Pro Wrestling.  Rhodes recently captured the ROH world champion, making him the top titleholder in Ring of Honor.  Only Okada’s title is on the line in this match, so Cody has a chance to become a dual champion.  It’s probably not as big a deal as when the NWA champion would wrestle the AWA or WWF champions, but the spirit is there.

If you’re new to New Japan Pro Wrestling, Okada is the top guy in the promotion, having held the top championship for most of the last five years.  He’s tall, young, and a little bland, with no obvious personality beyond being cocky and rich.  If JBL were on the New Japan announce team, he’d trot out that line about “building a WWE superstar from the ground up” for Okada.  Like Roman Reigns, Okada catches some heat from fans who think he’s not the best guy in the company and is overpushed because of his perceived marketability.  Unlike Reigns, Okada has racked up an impressive series of match of the year candidates (especially in the past year alone) that have largely silenced the naysayers.

Cody probably needs no introduction since he’s wrestled for WWE, New Japan,  TNA/Impact/Global Force, Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, EVOLVE, and WhatCulture just in the past year.  Cody’s story--a lackluster push in WWE, the death of his legendary father Dusty Rhodes, and his dramatic decision to become a free agent--has set the tone for his act as an underrated blue-chipper on the cusp of greatness.  After working freelance for a while, Cody has settled into NJPW and ROH as a heel in Bullet Club, an NWO-style faction founded by Finn Balor and once led by AJ Styles.

This is a match that could have major ramifications on New Japan and ROH booking through the end of the year.  If Cody wins the IWGP title, it will upset the balance of power in Bullet Club, where he nominally takes a back seat to Okada’s top rival, Kenny Omega.  It would also play into Cody’s ROH storyline, where he’s supposedly a free agent that could walk away at any time with their world title.  The angle will clearly be to find someone who can beat Rhodes, and that’ll sound like a taller order if he’s the champion of two promotions.  Something else to consider is that Cody is not scheduled to participate in the G1 Climax this summer, which the IWGP champion traditionally does.  Basically, if Cody wins, it’ll be big news.

That could be trouble for New Japan, in that an Okada win would preserve the status quo and might be disappointing for a lot of fans, especially fans attending this event.  An American promotion would probably sense that and hot-shot a title change, but I don’t get the feeling New Japan is so capricious.  If they didn’t plan for Rhodes to win six weeks ago, they probably won’t change those plans now.

Ordinarily I’d be skeptical that Cody has a prayer of winning the title.  But the underlying angle for Okada all year is that he’s survived some brutal wars, and it’s starting to wear him down.  It would be deliciously tragic for him to fight his greatest opponent to a stalemate, and then have nothing left in the tank to stop his greatest opponent’s flunky from stealing the win.  That alone gives Cody a chance.  Now that he’s ROH champion, I’d say he’s got a bigger chance.  But I’m not ready to count out Okada just yet.

Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin - This is part of the first round in the tournament to introduce the new IWGP United States championship.  The winner will face either Jay Lethal or Hangman Page in the semifinals on Day 2.

Omega is the rising star of New Japan, and definitely the man who benefited the most from the departure of AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura last year.  He took over Bullet Club from Styles, elevating the meta-heel style that he’s cultivated alongside guys like the Young Bucks, Adam Cole, and Kevin Owens.  Kenny and the Bucks are “The Elite,” a stable-within-a-stable that frankly may be getting too big for Bullet Club.  A schism could be coming, based on what we’re seeing with Cody Rhodes lately.

Elgin has the look and background of a journeyman wrestler, but he’s only 30 and has made impressive gains in the past few years, winning the ROH world title and getting a pretty good push in New Japan.  In WWE his size and strength probably wouldn’t get a second look, but in NJPW it’s enough to get some big reactions from the Japanese audience, which loves power spots.

We’ve seen these two fight throughout 2016, most notably in New Japan’s first-and-only ladder match.  Either would be a strong choice to hold the US championship, even though both are Canadian.  Omega is more pivotal to the company’s plans, but we don’t yet know how exactly.  If he’s going to win the world title to be a non-Japanese face for the entire brand, he can lose here to set up Elgin as a future contender.  If he’s just going to be the face of the non-Japanese arm of the brand, then it makes perfect sense for him to steamroll through this tournament.  I’m just not sure which is more likely, so I’ll pick Omega to advance and save the intrigue about his future for the semifinals.

Tetusya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii - Another first round match in the US title tournament.  On Day 2 the winner of this match will go on to face the winner of Zack Sabre, Jr. vs. Juice Robinson.

Naito is most easily explained as the anti-Roman Reigns of pro wrestling.  Imagine, if you will, Roman being pushed hard and made to look strong, winning the Royal Rumble and being set up as the inevitable challenger for the world title at Wrestlemania, getting a tepid response the whole way.  Now imagine WWE actually runs a poll asking if the intercontinental title match should headline Wrestlemania instead, and then actually doing it.  Now imagine Roman actually getting angry about this, forming the coolest heel faction in the company, and becoming a hundred times more over than he ever was as a babyface.  This is pretty much what Naito went through from 2013 to 2015.

Ishii is a rugged fireplug of a man, hard as fuck and dour as hell.  He will have no time for any of Naito’s bullshit.  It’s tough to think of anybody to compare to Ishii, but I guess you could say he’s sort of like Tazz or Samoa Joe, at least in terms of persona.

On paper Naito is a top act and Ishii’s role is to put guys like that over.  But New Japan likes its upset tournament wins, and Ishii would make sense advancing in the tournament as a threat to the eventual winner.  Naito is coming off a big loss to Hiroshi Tanahashi last month, so another loss here would be pretty significant.  On the other hand, if he wins I don’t see any particularly interesting tournament opponents for him, except perhaps Kenny Omega, and I doubt they’re giving that one away again for  a while yet.

Bottom line, Naito doesn’t need to win here unless he’s getting the US championship, and there isn’t much point in that since it would be a retread of his recent run as intercontinental champion.  And if anyone’s going to knock him out early, it’s bound to be Ishii.

Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa vs. Raymond Rowe & Hanson - The Guerillas of Destiny used chairs to beat Rowe and Hanson for the IWGP heavyweight tag team title at Dominion, so this is the rematch.

Hanson and Rowe have been wrestling as War Machine for a few years now, and they’ve got a good thing going as two big dudes doing flashy moves.  They’d be a great fit in WWE, and I’d be very surprised if WWE isn’t keeping an eye on them.  Tanga Roa is best known to American fans as Camacho from WWE a few years back, and for being the biological son of Haku.  Tama Tonga, one of Haku’s adopted sons, is best known as the bad guy from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, as well as your darkest sexy fears.

These are two good teams but I’m not sold on the idea of seeing them wrestle again so soon.  It might be that New Japan moved the title onto GOD for the sole purpose of putting it back on War Machine in their native country.  I’d like to think that, since War Machine has a good thing going and there’s no reason to interrupt their momentum.

Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA & David Finlay & Jay White vs. Billy Gunn & YOSHITATSU & Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka - Tanahashi is the IWGP intercontinental champion and, no bones about it, NJPW’s equivalent to John Cena--the franchise player who carried the company for years, now reducing his workload as he enters his forties.  Kushida is the IWGP junior heavyweight champion (and ROH television champion), and plays a similar role of a white-meat babyface in the New Japan lightweight division.  Finlay and White were both rookies until recently, working opening matches in their generic black trunks, but White was sent to Ring of Honor to develop a gimmick while Finlay managed to break out of the pack without leaving Japan.

Gunn, a noted ass man who loves to pick ‘em and kick ‘em, needs no introduction.  In New Japan, he’s been an occasional ally to Yoshitatsu, who had a forgettable 2007-2014 run with WWE.  Tanaka and Komatsu have been on excursion in Mexico wrestling as Raijin and Fujin, the Tempura Boyz, for CMLL.

This looks to be a filler match to get Tanahashi, Kushida, and Gunn on the show without actually having them work very hard.  We know Gunn is challenging Tana for the IC title on Day 2, and I gather Kushida will defend the junior title as well, so they’ll be saving the best stuff for then.  (I realize Gunn is 53 and doesn’t have that much “best stuff” to save, but you get the idea.)  If it was up to me I’d book Billy to score the fall to build to the title match, maybe on Finlay.

Zack Sabre, Jr. vs. Juice Robinson - One of the first round matches in the US title tournament.  Whoever wins gets Naito or Ishii in the semifinals on Day 2.  Sabre is the current RPW British heavyweight champion, but that title is not at stake.

Sabre may be best known to most American fans for his run in last year’s WWE Crusierweight Classic, where he was a heavy favorite to win assuming he signed with WWE, but he didn’t.  He’s held the Rev Pro title twice, beating AJ Styles and Katsuyori Shibata--I didn’t see those matches but that sounds pretty fucking impressive.  I’ve been particularly intrigued by his style of wrestling his way out of holds instead of powering out.  Of all the guys who have never held an IWGP singles championship in this tournament, I think he’s the strongest choice to go all the way.

Juice is familiar to WWE fans as CJ Parker, the guy Kevin Owens beat in his first NXT match.  He’s had a good run in New Japan working his way up the ladder, and if you’ve been watching this guy for a few years you start to feel a little pride when gets little pushes here and there.  Juice has a score to settle with Sabre from the Dominion show, where Taguchi Japan eliminated Suzuki-gun in a trios gauntlet match, but then Sabre jumped back in the ring and twisted Juice like a pretzel, leaving him easy pickings for Los Ingobernables de Japon.

The only thing going against Sabre here is that I don’t see him being matched with Naito in the semifinals or Omega in the finals.  (New Japan seems to limit interaction between their big three heel factions.)  If those two get eliminated early on, the tournament is Zack’s to lose, but that’s a tall order.  Juice makes more sense if you need somebody expendable to do a job later in the tournament, against literally anyone in the field.  It’s tough to call, so I’m going with Sabre for now.

Jay Lethal vs. Hangman Page - Yet another first round US championship tournament match.  The winner of Omega/Elgin will meet the winner of this match on Day 2 in the semifinals.

Lethal’s big claims to fame are his run in TNA as “the guy who does the Macho Man impression” and his run in ROH as “the guy who demands to be taken more seriously.”  Lethal was laid out in an angle at the ROH Best in the World show last week, and ROH has already taped a month of TV where he’s supposedly MIA, so it’s very possible that he will be either scratched from the tournament or show up with bandaged ribs and get obliterated.

Adam Page is a midcarder in ROH and a prelim guy in New Japan.  He’s in Bullet Club and carries a noose around to hang his opponents, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen him win a match.  I consider him the least likely to win this tournament, and that’s knowing his first round opponent may not even make it to the show.

Assuming Lethal is swapped out for a last-minute replacement, Page is the perfect guy to get blindsided and squashed by a big surprise.  I really don’t see any outcome where he advances to the next round unless they want to do Omega vs. Page to set up some Bullet Club shenanigans.

Hiromu Takahashi & EVIL & BUSHI & SANADA vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Dragon Lee & Volador, Jr. & Titan - Takahashi and his teammates are members of Naito’s faction Los Ingobernables de Japon, the Japanese spinoff of CMLL’s Los Ingobernables stable in Mexico.  Evil, Bushi, and Sanada are the current NEVER six-man tag team champions, but this is an eight-man tag so the title won’t be at stake here.

Jushin Liger is a 30+-year veteran and a legend among light heavyweights, who’s wrestled at the first WCW Monday Nitro and the first NXT Takeover: Brooklyn.  Dragon Lee, Volador, and Titan are all CMLL guys, and Lee in particular has a long-running rivalry with Takahashi.

I’m guessing this is going to be a throwaway match to get all these guys on the card for Day 1, and then maybe on Day 2 the LIJ guys will be doing more important stuff.  New Japan and ROH love to show off their partnerships with promotions around the world, but in practice the CMLL guys tend to just be treated like interchangeable nobodies in the undercard.  So I’m pretty sure LIJ will win, and I just hope the finish involves Bushi using the poison mist.

Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson & Marty Scurrl & Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Beretta & Will Ospreay & Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe - This is another multi-man match with little purpose except to set up the IWGP junior heavyweight tag title match on Day 2, with the Young Bucks (Nick & Matt) defending against Roppongi Vice (Romero & Beretta).

The Bucks are the 500-lb gorillas of the non-WWE wrestling world, and they can basically do whatever they want, wherever they want.  Marty Scurrl is the guy who dresses like a plague doctor and carries umbrellas around like he’s auditioning to be the next Batman villain.  Fale is big and fat and wears sunglasses.�� Yujiro thinks he’s a pimp and is friends with this nice lady, but I don’t know if she’s coming to this show.  This is pretty much everybody else from Bullet Club that isn’t higher on the card (except Chase Owens, but I’m not even sure Bullet Club remembers Chase Owens is in Bullet Club).

Beretta and Romero are a part of Okada’s stable Chaos, as is Ospreay, but I guess there weren’t enough Chaos guys left to team with so they got the Briscoes.  Rocky is a cool dude who knows the best places to party in Japan.  Trent used to be a WWE jobber and is friends with Rocky.  Ospreay is one of the hottest names in light heavyweight/flippy-floppy style wrestling, and seems to make Old Man Wrestling Twitter blow up at least once a year.  The Briscoes are toothless hillbillies from rural Delaware.

This is probably gonna be a clusterfuck of a ten-man tag, and I think that favors the Bullet Club.  The Bucks always seem to win unless there’s a good reason not to, and I don’t see a good reason here.

[vijayabalaji]

Chris Jericho Reveals Big Match for AEW All Out

Chris Jericho Reveals Big Match for AEW All Out

Chris Jericho appeared on Busted Open Radio today and revealed that he will do battle with “Hangman” Adam Page at AEW’s All Out pay-per-view during Labor Day Weekend near Chicago.

Page won the Casino Battle Royale on the AEW Double Or Nothing “Buy In” pre-show this past Saturday night to earn a shot against the winner of Jericho vs. Kenny Omega, in a match that will crown the first-ever AEW…

[vijayabalaji]

Jon Moxley (Dean Ambrose) Debuts At AEW’s Double or Nothing, Signs Multi-Year Contract

Jon Moxley (Dean Ambrose) Debuts At AEW’s Double or Nothing, Signs Multi-Year Contract

Jon Moxley, better known to most wrestling fans as Dean Ambrose, made his debut with AEW after the main event match between Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho. The match saw Jericho defeat Omega and earn a spot in the first ever AEW heavyweight title match against Adam “Hangman” Page.

As Jericho was cutting a promo post-match, Moxley came in through the crowd and dropped Jericho with Dirty Deeds.…

[vijayabalaji]

First Match Announced for AEW Double Or Nothing

First Match Announced for AEW Double Or Nothing

All Elite Wrestling has confirmed the first match for their big Double Or Nothing event – PAC (Neville) vs. “Hangman” Adam Page.

The match was made official at today’s AEW Double Or Nothing Ticket Announcement Party in Las Vegas. It was also confirmed that transgender indie wrestler Sonny Kiss will be at Double Or Nothing. There’s no word yet on who he will be wrestling but it was noted that…