so uh it is february 25th 2026. yep getting close
yeah we are we're basically standing on the absolute
precipice of aew's revolution pay -per -view
right now and if you've been following along
with us you know the tension in the wrestling
world is just um It's tangible. You can feel
it. Oh, absolutely. It's incredibly thick right
now. Right, because Hangman Adam Page has just
issued an ultimatum that feels less like your
standard wrestling promo and more like, I don't
know, like a Greek tragedy almost. Yeah, it really
does. He went on record on Dynamite saying that
if he loses his upcoming world championship match
at Revolution, he will literally never challenge
for the title ever again. Which is, I mean, it's
the classic burn the boats strategy, right? Yeah.
He is effectively betting his entire career relevance
on it. single night. Exactly. And in the wrestling
business, where those titles are the primary
currency of success, that is a massive, massive
gamble. It feels incredibly heavy. But what makes
this so compelling to me for this deep dive today
isn't just, you know, the stipulation itself.
It's the man who's actually making it. Right.
The person behind it. Yeah, we're talking about
a character who is completely defined by this
massive, glaring contradiction. Like, on the
surface, he's this beer -swilling, buckshot,
lariat -throwing cowboy. A badass, essentially.
Right. But underneath that, he's a former high
school graphic design teacher who has spent,
what, the last seven years battling crippling
anxiety and imposter syndrome in front of a global
audience. And that duality, I think, is the exact
core of our deep dive today. For everyone listening,
we aren't just going to look at wins and losses.
or the star ratings on his matches. No, we're
going way deeper than that. Right. We are tracing
the whole psychological evolution of Adam Page,
going all the way from a utility player in the
Bullet Club to becoming AEW's second ever triple
crown winner. Just last month in January 2026.
Right. The Triple Crown. We really need to understand
why he would back himself into this corner. We
really do. And we have a ton of ground to cover
to get you there. We're going to look at his
origins, that famous anxious millennial cowboy
arc that I think really defined the early 2020s
for a whole generation of fans. And then his
terrifying descent into violence, specifically
that feud with Swerve Strickland and his huge
redemption in 2025. But let's let's start with
the human being behind. the character because
you mentioned the teacher thing earlier. Yeah,
the real guy, Stephen Blake Waltz, born in Aarons
Creek, Virginia. Aarons Creek. And just to give
you a sense of his background, there's a fun
little nugget from the biography material we
pulled for this. He is actually the nephew of
the man who co -created the famous slogan, Virginia
is for lovers. See, that is that is oddly wholesome
for a guy whose literal wrestling nickname is
Hangman. It really is. Yeah. But I think it speaks
to his intelligence and his overall background.
This isn't just a guy who drifted into professional
wrestling because he had no other options or
just because he was some big brute. Right. He
had options. Plenty of them. He actually graduated
from Virginia Tech with a communications degree
in just two years. Two years. Wow. Yeah. And
for five years while he was grinding on the independent
wrestling circuit, driving hundreds of miles.
very little money. He was teaching high school
journalism and graphic design. That just paints
such a vivid picture in my head. You can totally
imagine him grading typography projects or checking
the kerning on a yearbook spread while sitting
in a dingy locker room before going out to get
thrown through a folding table. Exactly. And
that context really matters for everything that
comes later because he didn't go full time with
New Japan Pro Wrestling until May 2016. That
teacher grounding is crucial because it makes
him relatable to you and me. Yeah, he feels real.
In an industry full of superheroes and literal
monsters, he's a regular guy who just happens
to be very good at violence. It adds this layer
of intelligence to his work. I mean, he understands
visual storytelling inherently because he literally
taught it. Well, speaking of violence and visual
storytelling, let's talk about the name, Hangman.
Right. Where exactly does that come from? Because
in a vacuum, without context, it's a pretty dark
moniker. It evokes some very grim imagery. It
does. And the origin of it is actually rooted
in heel work, which are bad guy tactics in wrestling.
It started during his time in the Bullet Club.
The faction in New Japan. Right. A really famous
faction of foreign villains over in New Japan
Pro Wrestling. So in 2016, during a feud, there
was a storyline angle where he attacked a wrestler
named Chris Sabin. with a literal hangman's noose.
Wow, okay, so that was pure shock value. Precisely.
It was a villainous tactic just to get heat from
the crowd, but the nickname itself just stuck.
However, the real evolution for him didn't happen
until he joined the Elite, which was that super
popular subgroup with Kenny Omega and the Young
Bucks. The guys who founded AEW. Exactly. And
this is really the prologue to the modern era
of wrestling, right? The elite were the cool
kids. They were breaking the internet and selling
huge amounts of merch before they even had a
national TV deal. They were absolute rock stars.
And when they launched AEW in 2019, Page was
basically positioned as their chosen one. The
golden boy. Yeah, he was young, handsome, super
athletic, and he obviously had the right friends.
He won the Casino Battle Royale at their very
first show, Double or Nothing. which earned him
the right to fight for the inaugural world championship.
The script seemed completely written. The young
hero claims the throne right at the start. But
he didn't. He lost that match to Chris Jericho.
And this is where the real insight for our deep
dive comes in. Because in traditional wrestling
booking, the way these stories have been written
for decades, when the young hero loses, he gets
angry. Right. He hits the gym. Exactly. He trains
in a montage and comes back stronger to win the
very next month. But Page didn't do that. The
writers, and Page himself, decided to tell a
completely different story. A story about failure.
Which brings us to the anxious millennial cowboy
era. And I think this is where he stopped being
just another good wrestler and became a character
that people actually saw themselves in. Correct.
He totally spiraled. He started drinking on camera.
And it's really important to note for the listeners,
this wasn't like Stone Cold Steve Austin drinking
where it's a big party and the crowd cheers.
No, it wasn't celebratory at all. This was numbing
the pain drinking. He was drinking alone at the
hotel bar. He distanced himself from his friends
in the elite. He completely convinced himself
he was the weak link of the group. It was an
entire narrative about imposter syndrome. I vividly
remember the lower third graphics they used during
his TV entrances. Usually those graphics list
a wrestler's championships or their win -loss
record. But his would say things like, hasn't
replied to the Young Bucks texts or drinking
alone. It was brilliant meta storytelling. Even
when things went well, it didn't fix him. He
won the tag team titles with Kenny Omega in 2020,
but he just couldn't enjoy it. He looked miserable
holding the belt. He always looked like he was
waiting for the other shoe to drop. He was literally
a champion, but he still felt like a fraud. And
the shoe did drop. I mean, his insecurity basically
caused him to cost the Young Bucks a major match.
As a result. He was kicked out of the elite.
Then he and Omega ended up losing the tag titles
to FTR. Everything fell apart. Yeah, he was totally
isolated, friendless, and title -less. It was
a complete deconstruction of the babyface, the
traditional good guy in wrestling. He was at
absolute rock bottom. But this is exactly how
they built him back up. Not through superhuman
strength, but through vulnerability. Which is
where the Dark Order comes in. Right. Now, for
any of you listening who might not be deep into
the lore, the Dark Order actually started out
as this spooky, almost serious cult -like group.
Yeah, very ominous. But by this point in 2020,
they had organically evolved into a group of
lovable, well -meaning... losers. They were essentially
a comedy act. Yeah. And they kept trying to recruit
Paige. And he kept pushing them away. He said
no repeatedly, telling them he didn't deserve
to be part of any group. He literally looked
at them and said, I'm poison. But they kept showing
up for him anyway. It's that classic trope of
the popular kid suddenly realizing the weird
outcasts are the only ones who actually care
about him as a person and not just as a winner.
It worked beautifully on screen. It slowly rebuilt
his confidence. He even took a legitimate paternity
leave break, which was a really nice touch of
modern realism that AEW openly acknowledged on
television. Right. And then he returned in October
2021 to win a massive casino ladder match, which
earned him another shot at the world title. That
perfectly set up the climax at Full Gear 2021
against his former partner, Kenny Omega. And
that's when he finally hit the buckshot lariat.
Right. And for the uninitiated. Let's visualize
that move for a second. He stands on the apron,
which is the edge of the ring outside the ropes.
He grabs the top rope, flips over it straight
into the ring, and uses all that momentum to
deliver a massive clothesline. It's an incredibly
athletic move. Very. And he hit it, pinned Omega,
and finally won the AEW World Championship. It
wasn't just a wrestling win. It was the ultimate
validation of a two -year -long mental health
arc. So he reached the mountaintop. He did it.
But in wrestling, the story never really ends.
And looking at the timeline of our deep dive
here, things get significantly darker after he
eventually loses that belt. We go from a rocky
underdog story to basically a slasher film pretty
quickly. Much darker. He ended up losing the
title to CM Punk in May 2022. But the real turning
point for his character, the massive shift from
anxious to violent. happened later that year
in October 2022. Against Jon Moxley. Yes. During
a match with Moxley, Page suffered a legitimate
real -life concussion. The referee actually had
to stop the match early. Which really blurs the
line between the show and reality, because usually
injuries you see on TV are worked, meaning they're
totally part of the script. But this was a shoot.
It actually happened in real time. It was a very
scary moment for everyone watching. But when
Page eventually returned from the injury, they
leaned heavily into that reality for the storyline.
He wasn't the sad, anxious cowboy anymore. He
was absolutely furious. He felt robbed. He felt
like his livelihood and his health had been taken
from him. So he engaged in this incredibly brutal
feud with Moxley, which culminated in a Texas
death match at Revolution 2023. And a key stat
you have to note here, Page became the first
wrestler in AEW history to make Jon Moxley submit.
That is a massive rub for Page, especially considering
Moxley's entire character is built on being the
toughest guy who never gives up. Exactly. But
honestly, even that level of violence kind of
pales in comparison to what happened next with
Swerve Strickland. This brings us to Act 2 of
our deep dive, The Descent. The feud with Swerve
Strickland is where we see the total and complete
erosion of Adam Page's morality. Swerve didn't
just want to beat Page in a wrestling match.
He wanted to mentally dismantle his life. He
made it deeply personal. Very personal. In the
storyline, Swerve actually invaded Paige's real
home and stood over his child's crib. And that
crossed a line that broke something inside Paige.
He completely stopped caring about winning matches
and started caring purely about hurting Swerve.
I'm looking at the notes right now for their
Texas death match at Full Gear 2023. And, well...
It's honestly gruesome. It was a horror movie.
It was highly controversial at the time. At one
point in the match, Page literally drank Swerve
Strickland's blood. He literally drank his blood
on pay -per -view. He did. It was a shocking
visual explicitly intended to show the audience
that the teacher was dead and gone. The anxious
millennial was gone. This was a man completely
consumed by vengeance. Yeah. And it didn't stop
there. He later burned down Swerve's childhood
home in a promotional vignette. In September
2024, straight up arson. He even turned on his
old friends, the elite, yet again. He became
a full -blown villain, a heel, but not because
he was inherently evil. He became a villain because
he was totally obsessed. It's so interesting
because usually in wrestling, the bad guy is
the one doing the home invasions and the arson.
But here, the good guy was pushed so far past
his breaking point that he became significantly
worse than the villain who started it. Exactly.
He became exactly what he hated. So we've gone
from the insecure hero to the bloodthirsty Avenger.
But 2025, so last year, really seems to mark
a shift back toward the light for him. The source
material refers to this period as his renaissance.
And 2025 truly was the year he put the pieces
of himself back together. He finally seemed to
find a healthy balance between his incredible
wrestling skills and that dark aggression. Sports
Illustrated actually named him their Male Wrestler
of the Year. That's a huge accolade. It is. He
also entered the Owen Hart Cup Tournament in
May 2025 and won the entire thing, defeating
Will Ospreay in the finals. That is a massive
technical achievement on its own, considering
Ospreay is widely considered one of the very
best in -ring performers in the world. And winning
that tournament gave him another guaranteed shot
at the world title, right? It did. against his
old rival, Jon Moxley, at All In Texas in July
2025. And of course, it was another Texas death
match. Those two just love trying to destroy
each other. But this time, Page won, capturing
his second AEW World Championship. So now he's
a two -time champ. That puts him in a very elite
bracket of performers in that company. Correct.
And he defended it really successfully for 133
days against top guys like MJF and Kyle Fletcher.
He eventually lost the belt to Samoa Joe in a
steel cage match at Full Gear in November 2025.
Right, just a few months ago. But even then,
it took direct interference from another wrestler,
Hook. to actually beat him. So he lost the championship,
but he kept his credibility entirely. He didn't
lose clean. And that brings us right up to the
present day, early 2026. And Page is doing something
completely new right now. He's teaming up again,
which is honestly surprising given how poorly
his partnerships went the last few times. This
part is for the real stat heads and the wrestling
completionist listening. In January 2026, literally
just last month, Page formed a brand new trio
with Speedball Mike Bailey and the Jet Kevin
Knight. They officially call themselves Jet Set
Rodeo. See, Jet Set Rodeo is an incredible team
name. It sounds like an action anime title. It's
very strong branding, no question. And they actually
defeated a team called The Ops, which was Samoa
Joe, Katsuyori Shibata, and Powerhouse Hobbs
to win the World Trios Championship. Wait, their
team name was The Ops? Yes, the Ops. Modern wrestling
naming conventions are just fantastic sometimes.
But this victory is historically significant
for our deep dive because winning those belts
made Adam Page only the second triple crown winner
in AEW history. Just to clarify for the listener,
Triple Crown specifically means winning the world
title, the tag team title, and the trios title,
correct? Exactly. It proves total mastery over
every single male division in the company. He
can work high -profile singles matches, he can
work traditional tag team psychology, and he
can handle the totally chaotic six -man tag style.
permanently solidifies his legacy as a foundational
pillar of AEW. But despite all of that success,
despite holding the gold right now, we end up
right back where we started this discussion,
the big ultimatum. Yes. So on February 12th,
he saves Dustin Rhodes from a beatdown, seemingly
turning face or becoming a good guy once again.
Then he wins a massive number one contender match
against Andrade at Grand Slam Australia on February
14th. Earning the title shot. earning the shot
for revolution. And then he just puts the metaphorical
gun to his own head on dynamite. If he loses,
he never challenges for the belt again. Why?
This is the true psychological crux of the issue
with his character. Why would a triple crown
winner, a guy clearly operating in the prime
of his physical career, say, if I lose, I never
challenge again? It feels incredibly masochistic.
It is masochistic, but it's also a deep necessity
for his specific character type. If you think
about his entire arc that we just laid out, he
failed repeatedly when he was anxious and hesitant.
Then he completely lost his soul when he was
vengeful and obsessed. Now he's actively trying
to manufacture a very specific type of desperation.
By removing his own safety net, he's forcing
himself into a corner. So he's basically trying
to hack his own brain. Precisely. He knows internally
that he fights best when his back is firmly against
the wall, when his actual survival in the main
event scene is on the line. If he knows he can
just naturally challenge again in six months,
maybe he doesn't fight quite as hard. Yeah. But
if he knows this is it. That brings out a totally
different animal. It's high stakes poker. And
honestly, it changes the viewing experience for
us as the audience, too. Usually in wrestling,
if a hero loses a big match, you just assume
there will be a rematch or a rubber match down
the line. It's the nature of the business. Or
another match. But by removing that possibility
entirely. Page has made this match at Revolution
feel like a series finale for his character.
It really forces the fans to pay attention. It
stops the endless cycle of win some, lose some.
It creates actual permanent finality in a television
genre. that famously never, ever ends. So let's
look at the full picture before the big show
this Sunday. We have the graphic design teacher
who became a violent cowboy, the anxious millennial
who found confidence through friendship with
a cult, the vengeful father who drank another
man's blood and committed arson, the history
-making triple crown winner, and now the man
willing to risk his entire main event legacy
on one single match. It is, without hyperbole,
one of the most complex, layered, long -term
stories in modern history. modern professional
wrestling. Adam Page isn't defined by being the
strongest guy or the fastest guy in the ring.
He's defined by how deeply he feels the absolute
extremes of human emotion. Yeah, the highs and
the lows. He's the most human character on the
entire roster simply because he makes terrible
decisions based on his feelings. That's the real
hook for me. He's messy. He's incredibly relatable.
He's not Superman. He's the guy who desperately
tries to be Superman, but just keeps tripping
over his own cape. Precisely. He represents a
massive shift in wrestling storytelling from
the old standard of I am invincible and I feel
no pain to. I'm incredibly broken, but I am still
standing here. And this Sunday at Revolution,
we find out if he gets to stay standing here.
It's funny, we started this whole deep dive by
talking about him being a high school teacher.
In a way, he's still teaching. He's just teaching
a very, very violent lesson about resilience.
Or, depending on how Sunday goes, a lesson about
knowing exactly when to quit. Ooh, that's a really
dark way to look at it. It's a very real possibility
we have to consider with this stipulation. Well,
that brings us to the end of our deep dive into
the incredibly chaotic career of hangman Adam
Page. From Aaron's Creek, Virginia, to the main
event of Revolution, it's been quite a ride to
revisit all of this. It certainly has. But before
we sign off, I want to leave you, the listener,
with a final thought to chew on while you wait
for the pay -per -view this weekend. We've talked
a lot today about this ultimatum as a motivational
tactic. Right. The brain hack. But consider this
alternative with the never challenge again stipulation
hanging heavily over his head. Is Adam Page really
just trying to force himself into a corner to
find that cowboy hunger one last time? Or subconsciously,
is there a part of him that is actually looking
for a way out? Oh, that's interesting. Maybe
the hangman isn't actually looking for the role
title anymore. Maybe he's finally looking for
a valid. permanent reason to cut the rope and
just let the exhausting burden of being the main
character go that is the ultimate question and
i guess it will be answered on sunday it definitely
will thanks for joining us as we unpack all of
this on the deep dive we will catch you on the
next one