For the higher a part of two years, “Hangman” Adam Web page has been in a tailspin of destruction and self-loathing, however All Elite Wrestling‘s once-“anxious millennial cowboy” is able to write a brand new chapter. As a founding member of the AEW roster and a former World Champion, Web page is not any stranger to holding gold, however this 12 months his path to victory within the Owen Hart Basis Event (culminating in a main-event match at Double or Nothing for a future title shot) is blocked by an opponent he’s by no means met one-on-one within the ring.
“That is the second 12 months in a row I’ve made the finals. I’m pleased with it this 12 months, as I used to be final 12 months. I’ll be wrestling Will Ospreay at Double or Nothing, and it’s a type of matches I’ve been ready for. Lots of people would contemplate Ospreay to be the very best wrestler alive, and I wouldn’t argue with them an excessive amount of. He’s unimaginable, distinctive. Particularly since he’s been right here in AEW, I see his opponents working and combating more durable than they ever have earlier than, nonetheless to lose to him.”
“Finest wrestler alive” might appear to be hyperbole, however Web page’s Double or Nothing opponent has the file to again it up. Nicknamed “The Aerial Assasin,” 32-year-old Will Ospreay is 8-0 in singles competitors for 2025, was awarded Sports activities Illustrated’s match of the 12 months in 2024 (with Bryan Danielson), and ranked third on the latest version of Professional Wrestling Illustrated’s annual “Prime 500 Wrestlers” checklist.
“He’s somebody the followers have fallen in love with, understandably so,” Web page says. “It looks like two fan-favorites lastly having to face off. The stakes, apart from the winner getting a shot on the World Championship itself, couldn’t be greater. It’s a bit nerve-racking, nevertheless it feels good.”
Forward of their bout within the Owen Hart Basis Event Finals, Web page and Ospreay shaped a short lived alliance to problem the Don Callis Household (Josh Alexander and Konosuke Takeshita) in a tag match on a weekly episode of “AEW Dynamite”. Was Web page scouting Ospreay through the tag?
“After all I used to be,” he says. “I’ve scouted him since he acquired right here. It’s inevitable that I’d find yourself going towards somebody as gifted as him. I’ve watched him since he’s acquired right here, not simply as an individual, however as knowledgeable wrestler. I’m watching his matches, noticing what he excels in, which is generally every part, however noticing the little flaws and holes in his sport that present up now and again. Subconsciously, it’s one thing I’ve been making ready for for a very long time.”
Web page and Ospreay’s match at Double or Nothing isn’t simply the long-awaited conflict of two AEW titans; the match is the end result of this 12 months’s Owen Hart Basis Event (the Owen), an annual match held in honor of the Canadian grappler whose loss of life at a WWF pay-per-view in 1999 rocked wrestling world.
“I’m very pleased with the Owen Hart Basis match and AEW — I feel it’s among the best issues AEW has put collectively,” Web page says. “To honor Owen Hart, as a wrestler and as a human being, yearly — and with this 12 months’s finals being on the pay-per-view, and the winner happening to most important occasion the largest present of the 12 months — it’s given such weight, such significance, in what the match is for and the timing of it. I’m actually proud AEW has been in a position to honor Owen in that approach.”
Although All Elite Wrestling continues to be in its relative infancy as a wrestling promotion (the corporate was based in 2019), followers have been following Web page for many years by “Being The Elite.” Created by Nick and Matt Jackson (The Younger Bucks), “Being The Elite” chronicled the exploits of The Elite, an influential group of wrestlers together with Web page, the Bucks and Kenny Omega.
“Once I begin speaking about my profession and what I’ve been by, I can’t speak about it with out mentioning Being the Elite, what it meant for wrestling, and the way actually, AEW wouldn’t have existed with out it. That was the actual automobile that created a reference to followers, and began a motion, a following.”
“For me personally, ‘BTE,’ in its entirety, was in all probability probably the most enjoyable I’ve ever had in wrestling. It’s arduous to think about that on the finish of the day, it would all the time be probably the most enjoyable I’ve ever had in skilled wrestling, as a result of these guys are my finest associates, the folks that I’m spending as a lot or extra time with each week than I’m with my circle of relatives.”
“All of us love the identical factor. We’re all artistic folks. Getting to try this collectively by no means felt like work. I assume it wasn’t work, nevertheless it by no means felt prefer it both, it was all the time enjoyable. And it was one thing we have been obsessed with. A number of occasions we might be up in the course of the night time. For the cruise Halloween episode, I didn’t sleep for a pair days attempting to do it, and that was by no means a burden.”
“It was similar to ‘Wow, I haven’t slept in any respect, I’ve been working,’ nevertheless it was such a enjoyable factor to do, such a privilege. The longer it went on, the extra we began to acknowledge the fruits of our labor; we might do Ring of Honor or New Japan [Pro Wrestling] reveals, and it felt like the group was there to see ‘BTE’ quite a lot of occasions.”
“The crowds have been larger, the viewership was larger, and finally it ended up being All Elite Wrestling. However on the similar time, you had the sense that us goofing off, us having enjoyable, is altering the panorama of wrestling and in a really optimistic approach. It’s such a cool factor to be part of.”
However whereas Web page, Omega, and the Younger Bucks’ mutual friendship might have led to the creation of AEW, “The Elite” have since imploded. All three males will participate in Anarchy within the Enviornment, a 6-on-6 tag workforce match the sees The Younger Bucks becoming a member of forces with Jon Moxley’s villainous Dying Riders steady to tackle Kenny Omega and an all-star lineup of AEW babyfaces.
“Yeah, the Bucks have been assholes these days, huh? I’ll watch out with how I say this. I really feel like I’ve all the time tried to watch out with how I strategy speaking about them, as a result of I do owe a lot of my profession to them, all the time will, and I’ll all the time pay attention to that. However I do assume they perhaps have misunderstood the place my thoughts is presently at.”
“I don’t know whether or not to take that as a slight and intentional, or as an sincere mistake, however they’ve completely been assholes to Kenny, I’ll say that. I haven’t adopted up with Kenny since he’s been again, perhaps in the way in which that I ought to. Perhaps that’s one thing I can do, and I do know that I ought to do it sooner somewhat than later. I don’t know why I haven’t.”
Although victory at Double or Nothing would set Web page again on a path towards the AEW World Championship, his previous 12 months within the firm has been a tumultuous one, involved much less with title pursuits and extra with exacting private revenge on Swerve Strickland. Now that their hatred-fueled blood feud has cooled to a simmer, Web page admits he overpassed himself in his quest for revenge and says he struggles to know why followers nonetheless assist him.
“I ask myself on a regular basis. When wrestling followers watch us each week, they watch an actual a part of our lives unfold in entrance of them. They don’t get to know us on a private degree, however it will probably really feel that approach,” Web page says. “It’s a extremely bizarre one, and it’s one which, in its personal unusual approach that I can’t describe, is significant.”
“After they’re watching AEW each week, they’re in a position to see in all of us issues that we aren’t in a position to, as a result of they’re watching it unfold in entrance of them,” Web page continues. “They’re in a position to consider within the components of us that perhaps we don’t, and that’s what that has been for me. In all of the issues that I’ve performed previously few years, the individuals who watch AEW each week believed in a greater me than I did. It’s one thing I don’t point out extraordinarily usually, however it’s extremely significant.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.