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The best place to key in on long-term storytelling in AEW isn't actually on an AEW-branded production, but instead on Being The Elite, the YouTube show produced weekly for years now by The Young Bucks.
BTE set the stage for the launch of AEW, set up the falling out between The Elite and “Hangman” Adam Page, and even killed off and eventually resurrected Adam Cole, who was poisoned to death with a spiked can of Monster Energy Drink – a Monster Rehab to be exact – before being summoned back to life via a seance on BTE 272.
Heck, BTE even set up the desire of Brodie Lee and his Dark Order subordinates to blow their earnings from a Chillis sponsorship on a fleet of six lawn mowers; lawnmowers that were debuted on an episode of Dynamite in a segment that left Jim Ross equally as angry as he was confused.
And now, on the fallout episode of BTE following Blood and Guts, the Young Bucks used their YouTube show to strongly hint at a desire to reunite with the “Hangman,” who they kicked out of The Elite in 2020 just before the tag team of Page and Kenny Omega dissolved after their championship loss to FTR. Matt wrote out a heartfelt plea to his pal in a move that was incredibly similar to a text he sent back in 2020 but opted not to send it out of a fair fit of self-consciousness.
Will the Young Bucks get back together with “Hangman” Adam Page?
When the Young Bucks first met Adam Page, it wasn't as a member of Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, or AEW. Heck, Adam Page didn't even have the name, it was in PWX during their Rise Of A Championship X Pay-Per-View from Winston-Salem, North Carolina back in 2015, where the Bucks lost a three-way match to Country Jacked (Adam Page and Corey Hollis) for the promotion's tag team titles.
At that time, the Bucks had already recorded 17 different title reigns, including runs multiple runs with the PWG World Tag Team Championships and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships, so that particular loss was no big deal, but clearly, the Jacksons, Matt and Nick, saw something they liked in the young Cowboy, as they swiftly began to take him under their wings in Ring of Honor.
By 2016, Page was a member of The Bullet Club, having earned the “Hangman” moniker by choking out Chris Saban with a hangman's noose during his heel turn, and he quickly joined the Bucks in Japan and wrestled Satoshi Kojima, Matt Sydal, and even Ricochet, mostly in tag teams and multi-man matches with Yujiro Takahashi.
Though the trio rarely wrestled together – though when they did, they were billed as the “Hung Bucks” – Page became an unflappable member of The Elite, the faction who ultimately started AEW alongside Tony Khan, and while Hangman didn't get EVP status in the company, he did wrestle in the first-ever AEW World Championship match in a losing effort to the company's at the time biggest star, Chris Jericho. Hangman was famously featured on the All Out 2019 poster alongside Jericho, Jon Moxley, and Kenny Omega, which would go on to perfectly predict the first four champions within the company and was booked like a star despite having very little name recognition.
E o primeiro pôster do All Out 2019, que possui os campeões mundiais em ordem:
Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega e Adam Page (?). pic.twitter.com/WUVC1e5L3W
— 🇧🇷 (@ouopina) October 11, 2021
How much of that was thanks to the Bucks and Omega? According to BTE, quite a bit, as they all helped “Hanger” along his path to eventual championship gold. Even when they weren't working together, and were technically feuding, the Bucks never stopped having a soft spot for Hangman, as their interaction during his championship win against Omega at Full Gear clearly showcased. Even at Forbidden Door, when Adam Cole was laying concussed and with an injured shoulder, the Bucks still looked to Page before being pulled back in by Kyle O'Reilley to check on the Undisputed Elite's unofficial leader.
What if the Bucks waved off O'Reilley to check on Page? What if they swept their differences under the rug right then and there and brought back the faction AEW was built on? What if, indeed.
During their backstage promo at Blood and Guts, the Young Bucks stewed on their solitary status in AEW, lamenting the loss of all of their friends due to injury. While that could have been that, the segment's depth was deepened on BTE, where Matt marinated on the prospects of pursuing a handshake truce with the “Hangman.” If only he had hit ‘send,' as the episode's name suggested, maybe the AEW landscape would look vastly different by month's end.
