3 hours ago
3
For the better part of two years, “Hangman” Adam Page has been in a tailspin of destruction and self-loathing, but All Elite Wrestling‘s once-“anxious millennial cowboy” is ready to write a new chapter. As a founding member of the AEW roster and a former World Champion, Page is no stranger to holding gold, but this year his path to victory in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament (culminating in a main-event match at Double or Nothing for a future title shot) is blocked by an opponent he’s never met one-on-one in the ring.
“This is the second year in a row I’ve made the finals. I’m proud of it this year, as I was last year. I’ll be wrestling Will Ospreay at Double or Nothing, and it’s one of those matches I’ve been waiting for. A lot of people would consider Ospreay to be the best wrestler alive, and I wouldn’t argue with them too much. He’s incredible, exceptional. Especially since he’s been here in AEW, I see his opponents working and fighting harder than they ever have before, still to lose to him.”
“Best wrestler alive” may seem like hyperbole, but Page’s Double or Nothing opponent has the record to back it up. Nicknamed “The Aerial Assasin,” 32-year-old Will Ospreay is 8-0 in singles competition for 2025, was awarded Sports Illustrated’s match of the year in 2024 (with Bryan Danielson), and ranked third on the most recent edition of Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s annual “Top 500 Wrestlers” list.
“He’s someone the fans have fallen in love with, understandably so,” Page says. “It feels like two fan-favorites finally having to face off. The stakes, aside from the winner getting a shot at the World Championship itself, couldn’t be higher. It’s a little nerve-racking, but it feels good.”
Ahead of their bout in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Finals, Page and Ospreay formed a temporary alliance to challenge the Don Callis Family (Josh Alexander and Konosuke Takeshita) in a tag match on a weekly episode of “AEW Dynamite”. Was Page scouting Ospreay during the tag?
“Of course I was,” he says. “I’ve scouted him since he got here. It’s inevitable that I’d end up going against someone as talented as him. I’ve watched him since he’s got here, not just as a person, but as a professional wrestler. I’m watching his matches, noticing what he excels in, which is mostly everything, but noticing the little flaws and holes in his game that show up every now and then. Subconsciously, it’s something I’ve been preparing for for a long time.”
Page and Ospreay’s match at Double or Nothing isn’t just the long-awaited clash of two AEW titans; the match is the culmination of this year’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament (the Owen), an annual tournament held in honor of the Canadian grappler whose death at a WWF pay-per-view in 1999 rocked wrestling world.
“I’m very proud of the Owen Hart Foundation tournament and AEW — I think it’s one of the best things AEW has put together,” Page says. “To honor Owen Hart, as a wrestler and as a human being, every year — and with this year’s finals being at the pay-per-view, and the winner going on to main event the biggest show of the year — it’s given such weight, such importance, in what the tournament is for and the timing of it. I’m really proud AEW has been able to honor Owen in that way.”
Though All Elite Wrestling is still in its relative infancy as a wrestling promotion (the company was founded in 2019), fans have been following Page for decades through “Being The Elite.” Created by Nick and Matt Jackson (The Young Bucks), “Being The Elite” chronicled the exploits of The Elite, an influential group of wrestlers including Page, the Bucks and Kenny Omega.
“When I start talking about my career and what I’ve been through, I can’t talk about it without mentioning Being the Elite, what it meant for wrestling, and how really, AEW wouldn’t have existed without it. That was the real vehicle that created a connection with fans, and started a movement, a following.”
“For me personally, ‘BTE,’ in its entirety, was probably the most fun I have ever had in wrestling. It’s hard to imagine that at the end of the day, it will always be the most fun I have ever had in professional wrestling, because these guys are my best friends, the people that I’m spending as much or more time with every week than I am with my own family.”
“We all love the same thing. We’re all creative people. Getting to do that together never felt like work. I guess it wasn’t work, but it never felt like it either, it was always fun. And it was something we were passionate about. A lot of times we would be up in the middle of the night. For the cruise Halloween episode, I didn’t sleep for a couple days trying to do it, and that was never a burden.”
“It was just like ‘Wow, I haven’t slept at all, I’ve been working,’ but it was such a fun thing to do, such a privilege. The longer it went on, the more we started to recognize the fruits of our labor; we would do Ring of Honor or New Japan [Pro Wrestling] shows, and it felt like the crowd was there to see ‘BTE’ a lot of times.”
“The crowds were bigger, the viewership was bigger, and ultimately it ended up being All Elite Wrestling. But at the same time, you had the sense that us goofing off, us having fun, is changing the landscape of wrestling and in a very positive way. It’s such a cool thing to be a part of.”
But while Page, Omega, and the Young Bucks’ mutual friendship may have led to the creation of AEW, “The Elite” have since imploded. All three men will take part in Anarchy in the Arena, a 6-on-6 tag team match the sees The Young Bucks joining forces with Jon Moxley’s villainous Death Riders stable to take on Kenny Omega and an all-star lineup of AEW babyfaces.
“Yeah, the Bucks have been assholes lately, huh? I’ll be careful with how I say this. I feel like I’ve always tried to be careful with how I approach talking about them, because I do owe so much of my career to them, always will, and I’ll always be aware of that. But I do think they maybe have misunderstood where my mind is currently at.”
“I don’t know whether to take that as a slight and intentional, or as an honest mistake, but they have absolutely been assholes to Kenny, I will say that. I haven’t followed up with Kenny since he’s been back, maybe in the way that I should. Maybe that’s something I can do, and I know that I should do it sooner rather than later. I don’t know why I haven’t.”
Though victory at Double or Nothing would set Page back on a path toward the AEW World Championship, his past year in the company has been a tumultuous one, concerned less with title pursuits and more with exacting personal revenge on Swerve Strickland. Now that their hatred-fueled blood feud has cooled to a simmer, Page admits he lost sight of himself in his quest for revenge and says he struggles to understand why fans still support him.
“I ask myself all the time. When wrestling fans watch us every week, they watch a real part of our lives unfold in front of them. They don’t get to know us on a personal level, but it can feel that way,” Page says. “It’s a really weird one, and it’s one that, in its own strange way that I can’t describe, is meaningful.”
“When they’re watching AEW every week, they’re able to see in all of us things that we aren’t able to, because they’re watching it unfold in front of them,” Page continues. “They’re able to believe in the parts of us that maybe we don’t, and that’s what that has been for me. In all the things that I’ve done in the past few years, the people who watch AEW every week believed in a better me than I did. It’s something I don’t mention extremely often, but it is incredibly meaningful.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.
English (US) ·