After seemingly putting an end to William Regal's run in AEW once and for all – though, in actuality, that might have happened later in the show – Jon Moxley returned to Dynamite live from Indianapolis with a bone to pick. Not with anyone in particular, mind you, he didn't come out and challenge MJF or call out a performer like CM Punk who wasn't even in the area – though that would have been an incredible case of dramatic irony – no, Moxley wanted to walk around the ring, puff out his chest, and challenge any man who was willing to get in the ring and duke it out between the bells.
“You know, I grew up about 90 miles from here,” Moxley said. “When I first started, I used to wrestle right here in Indianapolis all the time. Down in Fountain Square, down by the old Salvation Army Gym. That was a long time ago, this has been a crazy a—ride, you never know what’s around the corner. But there are three constants in this world, three certainties – death, taxes, and Jon Moxley. There is nobody that can outwork me, out-hustle me, out-wrestle me, out-fight me, out-bleed me, or out-sweat me. Today, nothing’s really changed; nothing has changed here in AEW. I am at the top of the food chain, and I do what I want, and I say what I want, this AEW ring belongs to me. And you can bet you’re a—that there is not a man in that AEW locker room, there is not a man in this building, there is not a man within 100 miles that has the balls to come out here, look me in the eyes and tell me any different.”
Fortunately, Moxley didn't have to wait long for someone to answer his call, as whose music but the “Hangman's,” – “Hangman” Adam Page, that is – rang out through the Indiana Farmers Coliseum while fans cheered on the returning babyface. After suffering a brutal in-ring concussion at the hands of Moxley earlier in the fall, Page was back, and the look in his eyes was that of revenge. After getting in Moxley's face, the “Hanger” watched on as his former in-ring foe addressed him on the mic.
“You sure you want to do this man, after what happened last time?” Moxley asked before banging his head. “Oh, I'm sorry, do you not remember last time?”
Before Moxley could make one more quippy response, he ate a stiff right fist to the chin, and the duo started to brawl in the ring, outside the ring, on the ramp – which resulted in Moxley falling off the stage entirely in a totally not botched maneuver – and even into the backstage area, where Tony Khan opted to send the two superstars home in order to keep his staff out of the hospital. Did AEW just see the opening swings of a brand-new feud? For the sake of professional wrestling fans, let's hope the answer to that question is a resounding yes, as a feud between the two performers could be just what the Dr. ordered to get both performers over.
#Hangman @theadampage is BACK! And he's making a direct beeline for @JonMoxley!
Tune in to #AEWDynamite LIVE on TBS! pic.twitter.com/FdRBNKtyPt
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) December 1, 2022
A Jon Moxley-“Hangman” Adam Page feud is perfect AEW business.
In wrestling, taking a belt off of a champion is easy but booking them immediately afterward is hard. How can a performer go from the top of the wrestling world to a new angle on-the-fly without addressing the elephant in the room? Sure, a booker can throw an ex-champ at the new one in the sort of back-and-forth booking that can create years-spanning feuds, but Tony Khan tried that with the TNT Championship on multiple occasions, and all it did was make fans furious.
No, the best possible way to keep a former champion relevant, on television, and in a prominent place in the promotion's plans moving forward is to find them a new feud and throw them head-first into it. When Moxley initially lost his strap to Kenny Omega, he went into a feud with, well, Kenny Omega before entering a tag team with Eddie Kingston due to the “Mad King's” involvement in the finish of Revolution 2021. That sort of worked and was effective for Moxley but the non-explosion at the end of a “Barbed Wire Exploding Death Match” sort of changed the plans ever so slightly for TK and company, as a bigger explosion may have led to a longer time on the shelf for Mox.
Page, by contrast, never even entered into a proper feud after losing his belt to CM Punk, as Punk immediately suffered an injury, his angles with Adam Cole were stifled due to multiple injuries afflicting the former leader of “The Undisputed Era” and even before he suffered a concussion against Moxley, he was sort of bouncing around without a clear direction for multiple different reasons.
Pairing up Moxley and Page now is the perfect way to keep both performers relevant without either stepping on the toes of MJF, The Elite, or even The Acclaimed, assuming the duo doesn't become tag team champions a la the pairing of “Hangman” and Omega.
At this point in AEW, Moxley and Page are perennial top-five contenders for the AEW World Championship; they both deserve to be booked on every Pay-Per-View, but by building them up individually as solo acts, all that does is make fans question why they aren't challenging for the top or even the TNT Title. This sort of booking can work in a promotion that has nine hours of weekly television, but for one like AEW, who has just three hours outside of YouTube, that sort of booking is more or less reserved for Hook, who takes up less than 10 minutes of TV time per week. Putting Moxley against Page, by contrast, gives the two men a reason to show up to work, squash weaker talent, and, most importantly of all, interfere in each other's matches in order to ensure that the only person the other is booked to wrestle at Revolution is their new rival.
With the Blackpool Combat Club effectively put on ice, at least for now, as Bryan Danielson fights for Regal's honor, Claudio Castagnoli flirts with becoming a sports entertainer, and Wheeler Yuta continues to feud with Daniel Garcia, allowing Moxley to go toe-to-toe with an “equal” for weeks, months, or even longer could provide AEW with the signature upper-midcard feud the promotion has been hoping for. It may not be Cole-Page V, but it has the potential to be even better in the end.
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