Featured Columnist IVSeptember 8, 2024
AEW
In the latest chapter of one of AEW’s most heated rivalries, “Hangman” Adam Page beat Swerve Strickland in an unsanctioned lights out steel cage match at All Out on Saturday.
This was a brutal match, to say the least.
The ending sequence began when Page shoved a syringe into Strickland’s mouth, and he then knocked him out cold with a chair shot to the head, winning the match after the referee stopped the bout.
That wasn’t the only eye-popping moment from this match, though.
All Elite Wrestling @AEW
When you’re fueled by hatred.
Staples don’t mean anything to Swerve Strickland.Order #AEWAllOut on PPV right now!
🔗 https://t.co/syiiI8vnqC#HangmanAdamPage | @swerveconfident pic.twitter.com/BQAuQdlA7D
All Elite Wrestling @AEW
Hangman with the barbed wire lariat!
Order #AEWAllOut on PPV right now!
🔗 https://t.co/syiiI8vnqC#HangmanAdamPage | @swerveconfident pic.twitter.com/dPJpeUxf2Z
All Elite Wrestling @AEW
Directly onto the lower back of Hangman Adam Page!
Order #AEWAllOut on PPV right now!
🔗 https://t.co/syiiI8vnqC#HangmanAdamPage | @swerveconfident pic.twitter.com/mnlJDS1fmC
All Elite Wrestling @AEW
SWERVE STOMP!
Order #AEWAllOut on PPV right now!
🔗 https://t.co/syiiI8vnqC#HangmanAdamPage | @swerveconfident pic.twitter.com/Ikf2U8GLwb
All Elite Wrestling @AEW
Memories of a house no more DRIVEN into the skull of Adam Page!
Order #AEWAllOut on PPV right now!
🔗 https://t.co/syiiI8vnqC#HangmanAdamPage | @swerveconfident pic.twitter.com/CzyG3lJkZ4
All Elite Wrestling @AEW
HOLY SH*T!
Order #AEWAllOut on PPV right now!
🔗 https://t.co/syiiI8vnqC#HangmanAdamPage | @swerveconfident pic.twitter.com/5LnWBQmJuC
All Elite Wrestling @AEW
Swerve battles between sanity & clarity as Adam Page continues with the steel chair!
Order #AEWAllOut on PPV right now!
🔗 https://t.co/syiiI8vnqC#HangmanAdamPage | @swerveconfident pic.twitter.com/yE6txLORg9
The stage was set for Saturday’s encounter two weeks ago at All In when Page showed up during the main event between Strickland and Danielson.
Page distracted Swerve, and while it didn’t lead directly to him dropping the AEW World Championship to Danielson, the interruption could have been construed as costing him the match.
The first match between Strickland and Page occurred at WrestleDream in October 2023, and they faced off again the following month in a Texas Deathmatch at Full Gear. Swerve won both bouts, and he also broke into Hangman’s house at one point during the feud, which fueled Page even more.
At Revolution back in March, Page and Strickland both faced Samoa Joe in a three-way match for the AEW world title, which Joe won by making Page submit. After that, Page disappeared from AEW programming for the next few months.
When he returned, it was as an entrant in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, which was for the AEW world title No. 1 contendership.
Fittingly, Swerve became AEW world champion during Hangman’s absence by beating Joe at Dynasty in April, giving Page even more incentive to take back the title he won back in 2021.
Page reached the final of the Owen Hart tourney by beating Jeff Jarrett in the first round and Jay White in the semifinals, but Danielson would not be denied a title opportunity, as he beat Hangman in the finals despite being a bloody mess.
At All In, another opportunity to earn a world title shot passed Page by, as he failed to win the Casino Gauntlet match, which likely contributed even more to him snapping and trying to cost Swerve the title.
Hangman crossed the line in a significant way on the final episode of Dynamite before All Out, though, when he burned down Swerve’s childhood home, which Strickland had just purchased with money from his new AEW contract.
Page and Strickland looked to settle their differences once and for all inside a steel cage at All Out, and it was Hangman who finally got the better of his longtime rival.
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