Wrestling / Adam Page

Hold my beer.

Adam Page (born Stephen Woltz on July 27, 1991) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling. Prior to AEW, he also wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honor. In 2016, after years of floundering in ROH's midcard, he joined the infamous gaijin stable Bullet Club. After two and a half years as a member of that group, he and several other Bullet Club members broke off and formed their own faction called The Elite. The Elite (sans Marty Scurll) would later leave to found their own promotion, AEW, where Page quickly developed into one of its top stars.

While initially coming off as a somewhat bland babyface at the start of AEW (especially since he had to go up against Chris Jericho to be the first ever AEW World Champion). Hangman quickly gained momentum and popularity by the start of the next year, retooling his character into a Functional Addict "anxious millenial cowboy". Combined that with his partnership with Kenny Omega and their fantastic match against The Young Bucks at Revolution, the well-received storyline between his falling out with the The Elite and subsequent friendship with The Dark Order, and his year-long Character Development in AEW and Page has become one of the biggest stars in the company and when that company includes Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, and CM Punk that's quite the accomplishment.

Page is a 1-time AEW World Tag Team Champion (with Kenny Omega), a 1-time ROH World 6-Man Tag Team Champion (with The Young Bucks) and a 1-time AEW World Champion. He was also the winner of the first ever Casino Battle Royal in AEW.

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Time For Some Cowboy Tropes

• The Alcoholic: A lot of gags revolve around him drinking, and indeed his sudden appearances usually involve him entering and/or leaving holding a mostly-finished cup of beer.
• Anti-Villain: The Decade at some level really did care for ROH's well-being.
• Arch-Enemy: Swerve Strickland, especially ever since Swerve broke into Page's home and threatened his son. Page's hatred for Strickland after that became so strong that it surpasses perhaps even his desire to become AEW World Champion, with him making it his mission to prevent Strickland from ever winning the belt, and going as far as faking an ankle injury just so he could have an opportunity to attack Swerve by surprise with a crutch.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Deadeye, a kneeling back-to-belly piledriver that Page used as a Finishing Move, is both cool-looking and looks pretty effective to put opponents down, but looks to be as complicated to apply as the name "kneeling back-to-belly piledriver" sounds to be. Understandably, after his standing in AEW began to rise, Page would switch to the relatively simpler but still cool-looking Buckshot Lariat, a slingshot somersault lariat.
• Badass Teacher: He was a high school teacher before he hit it big as a professional wrestler.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: At AEW Revolution 2023, "Hangman" Adam Page beat Jon Moxley in a Texas Deathmatch via submission by strangling him with a steel chain. In the same match type at AEW Full Gear 2023, Swerve defeated Hangman by knockout using a steel chain to strangle him, effectively putting him down for the count.
• Big Good: Following the departure of Cody Rhodes, he became indisputably the top good guy in AEW.
• Butt-Monkey: Not in the ring; Hangman can hold his own fine, but he's often the target of hilarious "facts" presented on his name card on his way to the ring, or in the case of Revolution, having the upper part of the nameplate left blank.
• Canon Name: His fellow wrestlers continued to call him by his kayfabe first name Adam despite NJPW billing him as Hangman Page during his run there.
• Combination Attack: Page and Omega have The Last Call (a combination of Hangman's Buckshot Lariat and Kenny's V-Trigger).
• Cowboy: Whenever Adam Page comes in, it's time for some COWBOY SHIT.
• Crowd Chant: "COWBOY SHIT!"
• Deep South: He is a proud "Mid-Atlantic Boy" from Virginia.
• Different in Every Episode: Instead of the usual kayfabe factoids, the information tab on Hangman Adam Page's entrance graphic changes every week to reflect some random thought in-character as the Functional Addict, such as "Days Sober: 0", "Social Distancing Since November", and "IDK Make It Say Something Like Happee Hawlidays".
• Expy:
  • A hard man associated with nooses whose nickname takes the place of his first name in New Japan Pro-Wrestling when he's brought into Bullet Club, much like Luke Doc Gallows before him.
  • People have also drawn parallels between Page and Stan Hansen. Both are big, surly southerners decked out in cowboy paraphernalia who use a lariat as their finishing move and had a successful run in Japan.
• Finishing Move: Buckshot Lariat (a slingshot somersault lariat), the Deadeye (a kneeling back-to-belly piledriver).
• Foreign Wrestling Heel: As is the norm for Bullet Club members in NJPW.
• Functional Addict: Hangman is rarely seen without a drink in his hand, has mentioned sitting at home with a bottle of whiskey while not working, and regularly drinks beer during matches, yet is still more than capable in the ring. Subverted as time went on during his "being kicked out of the Elite" storyline, as his addiction has become a clear coping mechanism for his insecurity and what he turns to whenever saddened or frustrated. It took him becoming friends with The Dark Order to find something resembling inner peace.
• Funny Background Event: In episode 149 of Being the Elite, Brandi and Cody Rhodes are trying to shoot a promo at the Jacksonville Jaguars practice facility for AEW's Fight For The Fallen pay-per-view. Hangman Page is running up and down the football field as part of his "Full Gear Challenge". A few seconds later, Cody and Page are shooting their own promo while Brandi is trying to take a 360 photo.
• Good Is Not Soft: Despite being one of the top babyfaces in AEW, Page is more than willing to dish out the violence when it comes down to it as seen in his wars with Jon Moxley and Swerve Strickland.
• Gratuitous Spanish: One of the silly nameplate facts given to Page when he and Kenny Omega faced off against the Lucha Brothers said, "¿Cómo se dice yeehaw?" ("How does one say yeehaw?").
• Grievous Bottley Harm: During the Stadium Stampede match at Double or Nothing 2020, Page and Kenny Omega had to break five bottles of "a little bit of the bubbly" (from a bar inside the stadium where the match took place) over Jake Hager's head to take him out of the match.
• The Gunslinger: As part of his New Old West motifs, his trademark moves are named after marksman terms: "Buckshot Lariat" ("buckshot" being a term for a shotgun shell) and "Deadeye".
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Hangman, despite being established as one of the top wrestlers in AEW, did not consider himself worthy of being in The Elite with Omega, The Bucks and Cody.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Progressively becomes this during his time in AEW throughout 2020. His own feelings of inadequacy drive a wedge between The Young Bucks and himself, culminating in him sabotaging his friendship with them, which resulted in Kenny Omega breaking away from him after the two lose the tag titles. He's self-aware of how much he's burned bridges with the others and filled with self-loathing when he's not drunkenly lashing out at others.
• Honorary True Companion: To the Dark Order. He's not an official member (even refusing membership when offered, saying that he still wasn't ready after his break-up with the Elite some time earlier), but has their support regardless. Fight for the Fallen 2021 solidified this as Hangman and the Dark Order made their way to the ring together as a posse under a remix of Hangman's music, all wearing the Order's black and purple. As for the chyron, it forgo its usual mocking of Page, simply mentioning his winning record for the year and identifying them all simply as the Dark Order.
• It's All My Fault: Hangman blamed himself for him and the Dark Order losing to The Elite and therefore also losing their respective title opportunities at Fight for the Fallen 2021.
• It's Personal:
  • Explained on the December 14 2022 edition of Dynamite that the reason he was so intent on getting his hands on Jon Moxley after suffering a concussion in their October 2022 AEW championship match, was because he couldn't remember his son's name for over an hour due to the concussion.
  • His feud with Swerve Strickland turned into this, particularly after Swerve invaded his home and threatened his son.
• I Work Alone: On the August 4 2021 edition of Dynamite, he refused to let the Dark Order continue getting hurt and losing their title opportunities on his account and cut ties with them. He insisted that his problems with the Elite were his alone and that he should be the one to fix them. He softened a bit after getting another shot at the Championship at the Casino Ladder Match later that year; the Dark Order came out into the ring to celebrate with him after he won the Championship from Kenny Omega, and they would later come to his aid during a later Championship match against Adam Cole when his friends from the Undisputed Era attempted to interfere.
• Kick the Dog: He filmed BJ Whitmer while he stalked Steve Corino's wife.
• Mid-Battle Tea Break: In the middle of the Stadium Stampede match at Double or Nothing 2020, Jake Hager finds Page at the stadium bar and just casually sits down to have a whiskey with him. Of course, when Hangman finishes his drink, he immediately attacks Hager.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "The Hangman".
• New Old West: Page appropriates a lot of Old West motifs to his character, often being likened to "the sheriff" of AEW.
• Odd Friendship: How exactly did a hard-drinking modern-day cowboy end up becoming best pals with a wacky band of weirdo adult goths? Your guess is as good as ours—but it's endearing as hell.
• One-Steve Limit: The reason why Page dropped the "Adam" from his name in NJPW. Page and Adam Cole joined the Bullet Club at roughly the same time, and NJPW management felt having two Adams in Bullet Club would confuse the Japanese fans who were largely unfamiliar with both of them.
• Plot Tumor: All but called it by name when running down BJ Whitmer for derailing the Decade with his Steve Corino obsession, saying "when there is a cancer you cut it out!" to his metaphorical purging of Whitmer from his life.
• Power Stable: The Decade, Bullet Club, The Elite.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Page's rant to BJ Whitmer at Supercard Of Honor X.
• Red Baron: Hangman.
• Roaring Rampageof Revenge: Page against BJ Whitmer, as he blamed Whitmer for the fall of Decade and had been abused by him throughout the group's existence anyway.
• Running Gag:
  • Hangman Page wearing "full [wrestling] gear" in situations where the rest of BTE is wearing casual or dress clothes. Cody and the Bucks insist that he lose weight prior to AEW's Double Or Nothing pay-per-view. The "full gear" gag was written into the Episode 141 intro. The same episode featured Page's "Full Gear Challenge". It finally pays off in Episode 152.
  • The text above Page's nameplate being changed to various silly things, much to his frustration. Examples include, "Drank a bottle of whiskey at home alone last Wednesday", "IDK make it say something like Happyee Hawlidays", "Has been drinking" (which got popular enough to make it onto a shirt), and, "Not gonna pay Private Party that $12".
    • This had a heartwarming payoff during his entrance for his World Championship match against Kenny Omega at Full Gear 2021 where his nameplate instead said '"We're proud of you" - Graphics Team'.
• Running Gagged: The nameplate gag was finally retired beginning with his world title defense against Adam Cole at Revolution 2022. From then on, the nameplate displayed more traditional statistics about Page.
• Sanity Slippage: His feud with Swerve would cause this, thanks to Swerve's psychological torture and Hangman's inablility to beat him in a match. By the time of Revolution 2024, Hangman's desire to regain the AEW World Championsip and hatred of Swerve had devolved him into an irrational and nearly psychotic savage.
• Smug Snake: During his rivalries with Andrew Everett and ACH, Page proved their equal in agility but not in sense or finesse. His shooting star shoulder block was pretty much the definition of Awesome, but Impractical.
• Tag Team: With Kenny Omega as of late 2019.
• Unknown Rival: At BJ Whitmer's suggestion he called out Jay Briscoe, on shows where Jay Briscoe was not present in order to paint Briscoe as a coward when he naturally did not come out to answer them. When Briscoe was present though, Page went out to confront him, against Whitmer's wishes. Briscoe, accepted the challenge but didn't even know who Page was, much less that he'd been trying to challenge him for weeks.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With the rest of The Elite. Despite their constant bickering and Hangman's attempts to distance himself from the stable, Page always has his friends' back when they need him the most.
  • Subverted. He was this until the vitriol overtook the best buds, resulting in The Young Bucks telling him off for screwing them out of a tag title shot and kicking him out of The Elite. Kenny Omega would distance himself as well afterwards, having grown tired of his actions and wishing to focus on the single division again going forward.
• We Used to Be Friends:
  • Decade came after both him and Cedric Alexander. Alexander resisted, Page, not so much. Unlike TaDarius and ACH there was no make up, Page remained loyal till Decade crumbled from within.
  • Also with The Elite. The webseries "Being The Elite" especially showed off how chummy he was with the group. On the wrestling shows, however, his low self-esteem and the tendency for the Bucks to belittle him led him to betray them and cause them to lose a chance to face him and Omega for the AEW tag championships. All the other members dismissed him after that and have nothing nice to say to him.
  • In the lead-up to Page's final confrontation with Kenny at Full Gear 2021, he sought out Matt and Nick and sincerely apologised to them for screwing them over (while simultaneously threatening to ruin their lives if they screwed him during the match). At the climax of the match, the Bucks came out when it looked like Page was about to beat Omega, but instead of interfering they just watched. Right before Page delivered the final match-winning Buckshot Lariat to Kenny he locked eyes with Matt, who just gave him a small approving nod.
    • They would eventually reconcile by May 2023, as Page would rejoin the Elite to aid in the fight against the Blackpool Combat Club.

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