Jon Moxley, Hangman Page, and promises made.

Featured image by @JJ Williams

None of it works without Jon Moxley.

Over the course of a 273-day record breaking fourth reign as the AEW World Champion, Moxley has become something of a divisive figure. While many saw greatness in the early days of the reign, especially the title win against Bryan Danielson, there’s been a vocal online pushback against Moxley. Some considered the choice to have him end Danielson’s full-time in-ring career as an abrupt and redundant one, with many feeling a distinct sense of dissatisfaction to the bleak circumstances with which American Dragon ended his reign. Despite strong in-ring showings in the title win, then in his major defense against Orange Cassidy, the perception of Moxley’s reign continued to take a downturn after a confused build to a limp four-way at the end of 2024, which was then followed by an interminable rivalry with professional hanger-on Cope to start 2025. For many fans, Moxley’s persona went from cryptic to incomprehensible, his in-ring from grounded to boring.

To the credit of his critics, not every choice Mox makes is perfect. In moving towards an anti-pop heel persona, Mox does sacrifice some intensity in matches with the likes of Swerve Strickland or even Samoa Joe. Even then though, Mox is a grounding force during the Swerve match, trying to make the most of a pairing that’s never had natural chemistry going all the way back to their meetings in the first C2, and the Joe match remains one of his more thrilling title defenses thanks to the innate charisma and physicality both men bring even outside of their best day.

At every turn though, it feels like Mox has been placed in less than ideal circumstances. His title matches got booked to heavily feature interference which some viewed as a crutch. At the height of the public turn on Moxley, these finishes in his matches received unfavorable comparisons to the worst of WWE’s Bloodline main events. It’s an unfortunate circumstance given that I never read the interference in Moxley’s matches as the point of those bouts, the way they might be in the most sleep inducing Solo Sikoa performance. They always felt deployed in the classic pro wrestling sense, as another tool in a toolbox. However, the regularity with which interference played a role in Moxley’s reign did create a conditioning effect on the crowd. Much like in the WWE, it became clear to many that no finishes of consequence could really happen until the Death Riders dipped their toes in. As such, in spite of Mox’s efforts to create and drama tension before all that, many found it difficult to ever buy in until the match YUTA or Claudio showed up.

I can empathize with the frustration with Mox to a certain degree, but in my eyes he’s only ever really slipped when the decked was stacked against him. There’s a reason that the calls for “Mox Forever Champ,” lovingly shortened down to Mox FC, became something of a rallying cry for a subset of fans. Memory is a powerful thing, and for many of us, we’ve seen this play out before. This is when you turn on Jon Moxley? We’ve seen far worse than this. This isn’t 2019 Dean Ambrose wearing a Bane-style gas mask to the ring. Through all the bullshit, it’s still Jon Moxley, Terry Funk-loving, wound-working, ace of the goddamn universe Jon Moxley. Are we to discard so much over a bad Cope match and an overbooked Swerve match?

For once though, Tony Khan’s bullheaded commitment to riding a plan out really does pay off.

Heel tactics especially those in a drawn out reign like this are implicit promises. It’ll feel bad now, but imagine how good eventually. Given time, the Death Riders showed that these promises would be fulfilled. With a crowd conditioned to dread outside interference, the first signs of real honest to god hope for the heroes hits like fresh oxygen for the suffocating. The trios title win by The Opps, the Death Riders falling in Anarchy in the Arena, all positive signs pointing to the fact that the tides can shift. It’s not half as satisfying for Mox to tap out in Joe’s choke if he hasn’t spent months getting away with highway robbery. And it’s not nearly tense a match up to have Hangman Page standing before him if there wasn’t the genuine fear that the champ could get away with another fast one. Was there a smoother route to get to All In Texas that involved better matches and better booking? 100%.

But take that up with the boss who holds the pen. Leave the pro wrestling to Jon Moxley.

It’s easy to root for Hangman Page. For better and for worse, the character of Hangman Page wears his heart on his sleeve. Sometimes that means cutting an impassioned promo in full Spanish in front of the uproarious Arena Mexico crowd. Sometimes that means setting another man’s childhood home on fire. Either way, there’s a reason that Hangman’s been such a key component of AEW’s booking since the company’s inception. On top of a seemingly exponential improvement starting around the turn of the decade, Page has always felt sincere and earnest in a way that few can pull off.

In 2023, I thought Hangman became The Man after nearly hanging Jon Moxley to death. And yet, the follow up to that moment follows a similar pattern to Moxley’s latest run. After what many considered career best work, Hangman gets relegated to playing a supporting character in a feud with his buddies in The Elite. Because he remained a babyface, Hangman had the luxury of escaping online ire as there was no confusing onscreen waywardness with bad booking. Unlike Jon Moxley, Hangman got to stay loved–until losing himself to the hatred of Swerve Strickland later in that year.

Hangman takes the long way round to redemption, sinking as far as he can go before crawling his way back to the light. And all that’s missing is to get back to the pinnacle–not just the AEW World Champion, but perhaps more importantly, back to killing Jon Moxley. He promises us he’ll make it happen.

Which is to say, none of it works without Jon Moxley.

Say what you want about Swerve Strickland, Kenny Omega, or even Bryan Danielson, but Hangman Page has never felt more like what he should be than when he wrestled Jon Moxley. Mox brings out a grounded fire from the cowboy that has consistently led to some of the finest matches in both their runs. Mox himself has gone on the record as to the innate chemistry between them. Speaking to Phil Schneider for the Way of the Blade: AEW Edition book, Mox makes it very clear: “I love that fucking motherfucker. He’s easy as fuck to work with.”

Jon Moxley makes struggle look easy. This performance feels immense in the same way that his best work from his much lauded 2022 run did. In bouts from his most acclaimed run of the decade in 2022, Moxley tread the line between babyface and heel with performances that often felt stifling and high pressure. Here against Hangman Page with the old song and the white tights, Moxley crosses the threshold into sheer monstrosity and malice.

Moxley is seething with ill intent throughout this whole bout. It’s an evil energy to try and go for a piledriver onto glass, only to settle instead for just bodily dragging Hangman through it instead. There’s a calculated psychopathy to the way he manipulates a loose strand of barbed wire to carve up Hangman’s face or to jab at his eyes. See how he calls out to the crowd too, how he specifically riles them up as if those numerous “If Mox wins, we riot” signs were a threat he wanted badly to make good on. It’s a horrific visual to see his upper body caked in blood, arms out as if to occupy even more space in the ring, take more breath out of Hangman’s lungs. He feels unleashed in this bout in a way he hasn’t for much of the title reign. It reads like a fight or flight response to tasting so much of his blood again, that metallic sharpness in his mouth triggering an animalistic instinct from a previous life. Mox has noticeably scaled back his bladejobs during this heel run, making each sight of it mean more and more throughout the reign. Against Hobbs or Joe, it’s a reminder that gods do bleed. Here against Hangman Page, it’s a gruesome beacon lighting the path home.

That motherfucker’s going to bleed to pay for everything he’s done.

Mox gives so much here, and Hangman gives it right back in return. The escalation of violence on Mox’s part is met with some of Hangman’s most sympathetic selling ever. It’s in the way he eats a chair to the gut like a destabilizing blow, or how he checks if his eye is still in its socket when Mox goes at him with wire, or how he drags himself by the ropes to narrowly escape a count of ten. And all the while, Mox lurking, waiting to deliver another blow, covered in gore and writhing with cruel intent. I’d compare it to a horror movie if it wasn’t something better, if it wasn’t so fucking real.

It’s the blood and the sheer charisma of Mox that holds this thing together. He grounds the bout in reality when the inevitable run ins get started. He never looks like he’s loitering for too long. Even as the Death Riders surround the ring after a failed rescue attempt by Will Ospreay, it’s Moxley that milks their presence for its worth, dapping out Claudio at ringside prematurely each time he think he’s got Hangman beat.

But much like Danielson to start this reign, Moxley’s great gift is his own destruction.

This one is a much more comprehensive strike though. In October, Moxley destroyed a man’s body. Here in Globe Life Field, an entire legacy and facade gets systematically broken down. Jon Moxley’s crimes come back to haunt him–Bryan Danielson reborn in a Blue Panther mask, Darby Allin descending from the rafters as if rushing down from Everest itself. Many have drawn parallels to WrestleMania 40’s main event, and that’s a fair comparison to make. The match is at its weakest when it becomes a parade of comeuppance. And yet, they never slip too far down that path. These aren’t lights out, big entrance run-ins designed to manufacture photo ops. At its best, it’s a rush of violence, an urgent need to right wrongs in the way all the best pro wrestling is. Maybe next time, Darby can just rush down instead of playing a video though.

But Mox’s horror at Darby like he’s seen a ghost? Mox needing Marina to drag him up to his feet to beat a ten count? These are wounds to the illusion Moxley’s tried to spin. They reveal the champion for who he is. Tough, cruel, and vicious, yes, but like all bullies, a coward in the end. Nothing without his cronies to do his bidding, bloody and scared when the walls start to close in. We can taste the fear as it seeps out of him, first when he makes that mad dash to stop the first attempt to hang him by the chain. But then, when Hangman finally gets him over the ropes. Good fucking lord. Mox scrambles and panics and claws. It’s a final defiance–the literal last gasp of the monster in a way we haven’t seen since perhaps Umaga in 2007. All that talk, and the Death Rider stills fears death most of all.

Moxley taps out, the belt comes out into the light.

A promise made, and a promise kept.