An emotional and bloodied “Hangman” Adam Page addressed the media after his monumental victory over Jon Moxley in a brutal Texas Death Match to become the new AEW World Champion at All In: Texas. The new champion discussed his motivation, the physical toll of the match, his thoughts on his next challenger, and a surprising moment of redemption with his old rival, Swerve Strickland.
“I Had to Win”
Page explained that after losing the World Championship over three years ago, he felt his career was on a “downhill trajectory.” He revealed the immense pressure he felt to win back the title to prove to himself that he could still reach the pinnacle of the sport.
“I needed to know for myself that I was still going to be able to live up to the potential… and I knew that this championship was my potential as a person,” Page said. “I had no choice tonight… I cannot imagine the heartbreak that that would have been for all of us if after this gigantic show, Jon Moxley and the Death Riders had kept this championship. That responsibility was on my shoulders, so I had no choice.”
The Horrors of a Texas Death Match
When asked what it takes to get into the right headspace for such a violent match, Page was brutally honest about the mental and physical toll. “I probably have slept a combined eight hours in the past three or four nights,” he confessed. “I’ve been an absolute mess this weekend. I have man, I’ve cried so much this weekend. I don’t care. I’m proud of that.”
He described the visceral nature of the match in graphic detail. “You cannot get into the headspace it takes to be successful in the Texas death match until you can smell another person’s blood spilling out of their body,” he said. “You can smell it… I dug a fork into his head, and I could, I could smell it, and maybe a splatter too. I tasted it.”
On Swerve Strickland and MJF
The match featured a shocking moment when Page’s bitter rival, Swerve Strickland, appeared and helped Page secure the victory. Page admitted he is still processing the moment. “He ruined my life for so long, and I did the same to him, and tonight, he chose, on his own, to make my life better,” he said. “I don’t know if that is for me, or if it’s for this company, or I don’t know if that’s for himself… But it does feel good to be able to let go of a little bit of the past and to be excited about the future.”
Looking ahead, Page addressed his next likely challenger, the winner of the Men’s Casino Gauntlet match, MJF. “I fully expect it,” Page said of the challenge. “I just beat Jon Moxley and the Death Riders and The Elite. I’m not terribly afraid of MJF and The Hurt Syndicate… There’s nothing that he or they could do to take this away from me.”
As the new AEW World Champion, “Hangman” Adam Page is set to usher in a new era for the company. He will undoubtedly address the AEW fans and his future challenger, MJF, on the next episode of AEW Dynamite this Wednesday.
