At the Bottom: Hope | AEWeekly #168

Welcome to the #AEWeekly review discussion where PWM contributors reflect on the highlights of the last week in AEW. The eligibility week always includes the most recent episode of Dynamite and Collision, plus any social-media exclusives up until publication.

This week’s contributors are Sergei [@sergeialderman.bsky.social] talking Best Interview, Lauren [@sithwitch.bsky.social] exploring a key Story Beat, Emiliana [@emilianartb.bsky.social] with the Moment of the Week, and Sergei editing and organizing it all.

 A page of links to prior installments may be found here: #AEWeekly

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Toni Storm

"Over the Boardwalk..."

by Sergei.

Toni Storm is entertaining every time she is on camera, and generally I tend to grade her on a curve. I might give someone else "Interview of the Week" just for showing noteworthy improvement. But if it's Toni, I expect a speaking segment to be… well: Timeless. This week, the World Champ had a fun, seemingly impromptu, romp on the microphone immediately post her match with Lady Frost. It was entertaining, (as always) but it wasn't exactly "the performance of a lifetime," so why?

I'll get to that…

The segment begins with her laying on her back in the ring, selling the exhaustion of her recent match, and yet she still feels the need to address her people… as well as her peers in the women's division who are all "coming for her." But she quickly recovers the energy to take the promo on the move, running up the aisle, and for what purpose? It turns out that the Champ simply wanted to take advantage of the amazing (cinematic, even) view just outside the venue doors: a balcony overlooking the iconic Atlantic City Boardwalk.

The promo was liberally sprinkled with Storm's usual rhyming catchphrases, "the Whore you all Adore," etc. But what made this one really stand out for me was a rhyming slogan that greatly predates Toni Storm: "I'm here and I'm queer." This may not seem that noteworthy… The performer Toni Storm being bisexual is something she has made clear in out-of-character interviews, and the character also being bi was well-established by the Mina Shirakawa love triangle story, so is this news?

But in pro wrestling, I think that there is an assumption that anything put on screen is primarily aimed at a male gaze until proven otherwise. The kisses with Mariah May and Mira Shirakawa could be perceived as meant as titillation: the latter day version of "HLA". But one thing that "girls kissing girls" for the sake of men's entertainment don't do, it's use that "q" word! Storm adding "I'm here and I'm queer" to her litany of rhyming slogans made for an amazing moment and lifted this promo above just entertainment.

Nick Wayne

"Get your head in the game."

by Lauren.

Nick Wayne is having a hell of a year. He just won the Ring of Honor TV title a couple of weeks ago, and as of this week he will be in Japan competing in New Japan's Best of the Super Juniors tournament, where he will undoubtedly shine. He's not even twenty years old yet.

But apparently, that's old enough to stand up to his “father,” Christian Cage. When Nick first joined the Patriarchy, he was still freshly eighteen years old and ready to learn. He competed with Luchasaurus–then renamed Killswitch by Christian–for the position of Best Son, winning Christian's praise and affection with a misspelled handwritten Father's Day card. He has assisted and protected Christian for nearly two years.

But since Christian's failed attempt to weasel the AEW World Championship away for himself, the pedestal that Nick held him on has crumbled. He is no longer content to let Christian talk for him, even going so far as to call Christian out for not following their plans. He is chafing in Christian's shadow.

Nick has been learning. He was there when Christian claimed Luchasaurus’ TNT title belt as his own, and he is not allowing Christian to steal his glory. He has kept control of his own belt… mostly. On Dynamite, Christian accepted a match against Jay Lethal on Nick's behalf, despite Nick protesting that he hadn't been expecting to wrestle. Despite that, he won.

Christian Is obviously unhappy with his “son” using his own voice. Even him putting the ROH TV title on Nick was a power play, both reminding Nick who is really in charge while “allowing” him control of his own title.

Nick will soon be in Japan, presumably away from his “father” and mother. While most young adults are not wrestlers competing for international glory, the experience of being on one's own for the first time is similar enough. Nick is effectively a young adult with a controlling parent and high expectations upon him. In Japan, he will be free from that overbearing presence for a time, among his peers and able to curate his own thoughts and experiences.

This is the time for Nick to fly free and use his own voice. This is a formative time for the man that he will become, and his future is so promising. And when one day Christian complains that his “son” wants nothing to do with him, never writes or calls or comes home for the holidays, he'll have nobody but himself to blame.

gif lovingly crafted by Emiliana

Hangman Adam Page

"Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Tony Khan; Or, Alternatively - The Archaic Definition of Hope Is Trust"

by Emiliana.

We would always end up here. If there is one thing Tony puts above all else, it is giving us some of the most legendary matchups that we could ever wish to see with our own two eyes. Will Ospreay will wrestle Hangman Adam Page in the Finals of the Owen Cup Tournament at Double Or Nothing in Greendale, Arizona, just a short drive from where my closest friend, podcast co-host, and fellow Hangman enjoyer resides. When the new Double or Nothing color scheme emerged before Revolution, I was both ecstatic and annoyed that a place called Not Where Emi Lives gets the really pretty orange and teal and purple color scheme, complete with desert graphics, that I so thoroughly enjoy and love. As a matter of fact, I was annoyed this color scheme and design didn’t show up last year, when I was present at Double or Nothing in Las Vegas (I mean come on, Vegas is literally the desert, too). But enough about a color scheme. No, what I’m most pissed off about is that this banger of a match is happening and I have no clue if Hangman Adam Page will come out the winner.

“But Emi, isn’t that the greatest feeling to have in the predetermined sport of professional wrestling?” Yes, absolutely yes, if I had even an inkling of trust in the booker at the current state of play. Let’s take a look back into why I distrust the booker and exactly why I think Hangman Adam Page is the correct answer to the question, “Who should dethrone Jon Moxley?”

In May of 2022, Hangman Adam Page cut a promo on CM Punk that, while he admitted it was not a pipebomb, changed the scene of the promotion it took place in (allegedly) almost as much as CM Punk’s fake worked bullshit pipebomb in 2011. In this promo, Hangman touched on the insincerity of Punk as a person, implying that when the cameras were off, CM Punk became a much different person than the voice-of-the-voiceless, “I’m just here to put over young talent” kind of guy that he said he would be, to say nothing of the throwaway “workers’ rights” line that supposedly set Punk off. Page insisted, to Punk and to the audience, that Hangman was “SAVING AEW FROM [CM PUNK].” And I often look back at that particular part of the promo and say to myself, “wow, Hangman was right.” But NOT in the way fans have been using the phrase currently, where they use it as a catch-all to excuse Hangman’s wrongs in the time during the Swerve feud and his subsequent heel turn. No, I mean it just exactly in this sense: the character of Hangman Adam Page saw CM Punk for what he would do to the company he helped create, and he wanted to destroy every last remnant of him, and he was right.

And when I think about what happened after -  from Hangman losing to Punk, to the scrum, to the brawl out situation, to the suspensions, to the AEW downturn, to all the petty “insider knowledge” that came out about the situation as well as others before it, and then the return of the Elite and CM Punk, the formation of Collision as the quote-unquote, “Punk Friendly Show,” the All In Jack Perry situation - it makes Hangman’s words feel almost like prophecy. Like he saw something coming that we couldn’t see. And that promo, paired with the character’s insistence that CM Punk would never have the championship, and his constant repetition over the years that “this is MINE!” (referring to the men’s world title), it feels only fitting that three years later, we find Hangman Adam Page once again at the precipice of contending for the championship, now as a favorite to challenge Jon Moxley, a man who, much like CM Punk did backstage outside of kayfabe, is killing the vibes of the promotion. Hangman losing to CM Punk made me lose not only trust in the booker, but hope. And Jon Moxley is doing much of the same to the audience in kayfabe, as month after month since Autumn we’ve had a series of hot babyfaces like Swerve Strickland and Orange Cassidy come up short against Mox and his cronies, making everyone lose all hope of coming out from under the Death Riders regime. But ever since Hangman entered the Owen Cup tournament, the tide has been turning. 

The truth of the matter is, Hangman Adam Page, to quote my good friend Kelsey, IS the feeling that needs to be restored. He never should have lost the men’s world title in the first place.

And with this “feeling,” we come to the point of Hangman’s current journey: going from irredeemable to redeemed.

In the fall of 2024, Hangman cut a promo backstage speaking to Jay White (his opponent at the time). In this promo, he declares that “there is no such thing as redemption. Not for you, not for me.” Anyone who has watched Hangman for long enough knows when he is telling himself a lie. It is a core component of his personality that he struggles and second-guesses every decision he’s ever made, and oftentimes will end up lying to himself because of it. When I heard those words, they immediately reminded me of the speech he gave to the people in Minnesota to send them home happy after he won the men’s world championship off of Kenny Omega:

I told myself all day that if this was the outcome, I would cry like a little baby. And I don’t know, they won’t come, so I guess I lied to myself about that. But that seems to be a thing with me. I’ll lie to myself… When I joined the Bullet Club, I thought I’d never measure up. I thought I didn’t belong. I lied to myself. When AEW started, I told all of you I’d be the first champion. I might have believed it a little bit… I lied to myself then, too. As time went on, the lies, they kept flowing. I said I shouldn’t try to hold onto my friendship with Kenny and The Bucks. That was a lie to myself. I said that these guys right here [points to Dark Order], they’ll never be my friends and let me tell you, honest to God, they are some of the best friends I’ve had in my life. And as we got closer to tonight, there was still a little bit of me that I don’t suppose ever really goes away, that said I wouldn’t win it, I lied to myself then too, didn’t I? So, if you’ll humor me, I’ll go for one last lie… to myself… I will hold this for the rest of my life.

So yeah, there’s another lie to himself: There is no such thing as redemption.

When Hangman defeated Kyle Fletcher last Wednesday, we saw something in his eyes that we haven’t seen in a very long time. Hope. Hope that despite everything he’s lost, everything he’s done, every lie he’s told, every person he’s put permanently on the shelf, every promise he’s made, isn’t “all for nothing.” Regardless of the worth we put on the title - and yeah, I know that this is a fake sport and it’s a fake trophy and a fake belt and a fake story and he shouldn’t equate his worth to a toy and BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH I don’t wanna hear it!! - the feeling I feel when Hangman Adam Page is on top is hope. Not just hope in the promotion, but hope in LIFE! Hope against all hope, that no matter what happens, goodness exists. Bad guys lose. Good guys triumph. Those of us somewhere in the middle who battle with our spiritual demons can and will be redeemed. Hope can be restored.

And much like Hangman said in the promo leading up to the Fletcher match: “...And I need that.”

Don’t take away his hope. Don’t take away mine. This. Is. It.

PS. Do you think that Will Ospreay can give this kind of drama to me? NO! No more lies, Tony. No more lying to yourself. No more hopelessness. No more ill-fated choices. No more setting us down the wrong path. You know who the winner is. Give me PEACE, HOPE, and LOVE in front of my EYEBALLS LIVE AT ALL IN TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!!