“Hangman” Adam Page had a fantastic run in AEW over the past year.

He had a grand buildup to his eventual championship match with former tag team partner Kenny Omega – a run that saw the former member of “The Elite” overcome a crisis of confidence to win the belts at Full Gear – a great run with the belt that saw him defend the belts on seven occasions, and even a high-profile match with CM Punk at Double or Nothing that saw the run come to an end in a consequential way. By Page's own admission, he had two of his hardest matches of all time over the past year with Lance Archer and Bryan Danielson, as he detailed at an appearance at GalaxyCon Raleigh 2022, as captured by All Elite Hub and dictated by Wrestling Inc.'s Eric Mutter.

“I would say two. One of them would be wrestling Lance Archer in a Texas Death Match. I got my eyebrow cut, and I didn't know there were vessels and veins in your eyebrow. So I bled so much, there was blood in my eyes and I couldn't see and I couldn't breathe, because it was going up my nose. I couldn't see anything. I got thrown onto those steel steps, and my left arm crashed into the edge of it, and I lost feeling in my left arm for a while. It was a terrible combination. So that was a really hard match.

“Second, I'd say wrestling Bryan Danielson for an hour. An hour is so long to do anything, especially wrestling someone like Bryan. He's just doing jumping jacks and having a good old time, and I'm just huffing and puffing, trying not to throw up. So those are probably my two hardest matches.”

While some assumed that AEW would have Page take a step back after losing to Punk at DoN, Tony Khan took things in the opposite direction, pushing his former champion even harder in the leadup to Forbidden Door in what would end up being a four-way bout with Jay White, Kazuchika Okada, and his biggest in-ring foe, Adam Cole, for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title. While the “Hangman” didn't ultimately secure the win and wasn't even in the ring when White rolled up Cole for the victory, he came out of the Chicago-based Pay-Per-View looking good.

Outside of an appearance in the Royal Rampage immediately following Blood and Guts, and a tag team match with Jon Silver versus the Butcher and the Blade on Night 4 of Fyter Fest, Page's biggest contribution to AEW came when he saved the Young Bucks from being attacked by Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, and Bobby Fish with a pipe on Dynamite. Though he opted against joining the Jacksons, Nick, and Matt, in the AEW World Trios Championship Tournament, opting instead to commit his support to Dark Order as a cornerman, he still reconciled with the Bucks, and they became friends for the first time in what feels like years.

Had all things remained the same, Page likely would have remained a side figure in AEW until All Out at the earliest, where he could have had to decide between siding with the Dark Order or The Elite in the World Trios Championship Tournament's finale – assuming things shook out that way – but with on single call-out in the middle of an AEW ring, that all changes – Punk has thrust Page back into the forefront of AEW for his evocation of Colt Cabana during their pre-Double or Nothing feud, and Khan would be wise to capitalize on that moving forward.

The “Hangman” benefitted from CM Punk's AEW business decision.

“There’s somebody that’s from around these parts, that I would like to challenge to a rematch, Punk told the crowd assembled in Virginia on the “House of the Dragon” edition of Dynamite. “And I would like to do it right here and right now for you beautiful people. “Hangman” Adam Page, you want that rematch? Well, you’ve got it, right here, right now, let’s go.”

When Page didn't appear despite the cheers of “Cowboy Sh*t” from the crowd, the proper AEW World Champion

“My sentiments exactly,” Punk declared. “Now on to the important things, that isn't ‘Cowboy Sh*t,' that's ‘Coward Sh*t.' A little bit of advice that I suggest you take; the apology has to be as loud and as public as the disrespect. And if anyone else has a problem with the champion, will I suggest you come down and see me, because everyone wants to be the champ until it's time to do ‘champ sh*t'.”

While Page has since responded to Punk twice, first via a joke-y tweet from John Silver and then via an admittedly funny tweet of his own, it's pretty safe to say this feud, thrust back into the AEW foreground by the “Chick Magnet” instead of the Khan, is only heating up.