AEW (All Elite Wrestling) Hangman Page vs Pac Match from last weekend’s WrestleGate Event
Double or Nothing came a little early for the fans. One of the big matches on the card for this Saturday was supposed to be Hangman Page vs Pac (Formerly known as Neville in WWE). That match will not be taking place. According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer due to creative differences, Pac has backed out of the match. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the match still ended up happening. Hangman Page showed up at a WrestleGate show in Nottingham, England last weekend to confront Pac. AEW released the match today at noon on its youtube channel. I just finished watching it. Page made an agreement to travel to England to perform the match so the fans would not be disappointed who looked forward to the match.
Pac is in the ring cutting a promo and all of a sudden Page’s music hits. Page gets a nice reaction from the crowd and the match is underway. Hangman is very aggressive early on in the contest. He hits a nice dive through the ropes on Pac. The crowd breaks out into a The Elite, The The Elite chant followed by an AE Dub one too. Hangman is more over than Pac in this match and Pac is in his home country.
Pac knocks Page off the top rope to gain the momentum back. Pac hits a dive over the top rope and follows it up with a 450 splash once Page is back in the ring for a near fall. Pac hits a missile dropkick and follows it up with some ground offense to slow Page down a bit. Both guys exchange forearms back and forth for a while.
Pac misses a moonsault. Page hits one of his own and connects. Page hits a dropkick and a standing shooting star press for another near fall. Pac goes for a springboard which Page counters with a big boot. Both men exchange superkicks but neither man fully go down.
Pac hits a nice superplex on Page. He goes for the Red Arrow but Page moves out the way. Page comes back with a clothesline he calls The Buckshot Lariat. He follows it up with Rite of Passage. It’s like a piledriver kneeling back to belly combination. It looked pretty cool. Pac becomes frustrated and kicks the referee below the belt. Hangman Page wins by disqualification. I hate to see a good match end like that. It does continue the storyline if these two work together again.
Pac attacks Page after the match with a chair. He hits him in the back first. Then he puts a chair over his leg and smashes it with another chair. He grabs the mic and says his work is done. He will not be going to Vegas and he will not be at Double or Nothing. I hope down the road they can work things out and get Pac to come to AEW. This could be a good feud to set the tone for the new brand. Overall I enjoyed the match. I haven’t seen a lot of Page’s work so it was good to see him compete. He’s good and has a big upside.
Double or Nothing is this Saturday with a nice card of matches. Kenny Omega vs Chris Jericho, Cody vs Dustin in a brother vs brother match, The Young Bucks vs The Lucha Bros (Pentra El Zero and Fenix) just to name a few. Hangman Page is supposed to get a new opponent to face. His match with Pac is still listed on the card. That is something to keep an eye on. Maybe Jon Moxley (formally Dean Ambrose) will show up and take Pac’s place. That would be awesome. I wish those guys the best of luck. Double or Nothing should be awesome. I feel this is the start of something good for the wrestling industry. Especially with their new TV deal with TNT. That is huge to have a wrestling show back on that network again. They just gotta take it one step at a time.
