Rob: Hot Potato For AEW World Champion Hangman Page vs. Bryan Danielson

Hangman Page has his big title defense against multi-time WrestleMania main eventer Bryan Danielson on Wednesday, and Rob thinks it’s put AEW in a precarious position…

Next Wednesday “Winter is Coming” to AEW as their December special episode is indeed named, and the big match of the night features “Hangman” Adam Page defending the AEW World Championship against Bryan Danielson.  And as it approaches there have been some murmurs on my Twitter timeline about the possibility of Bryan winning the title a mere two months after the two year story arc of Hangman Page’s journey to becoming AEW World Champion reached it’s conclusion.  I wouldn’t call it wave but that it’s even spoken of at all is quite something.

Look, it’s pretty simple:  somebody who never thought they’d get to hook up with a supermodel just got a text from one asking ‘wyd?’, but they already had dinner planned with someone they were talking about committing to.  And now a decision has to be made, with some of your boys telling you to stay true to what you promised and some more of your boys telling you that you better jump on that chance while it’s there.

It’s Wednesday, you know what that means: #AEWDynamite coming up @ 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT TONIGHT LIVE on @TNTdrama! Ahead of tonight’s show, NOW it’s official 12/15 in Dallas, #WinterIsComing Dynamite: Hangman @theAdamPage vs @bryandanielson for the @AEW World Championship! pic.twitter.com/ubvbdQamwq

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) December 2, 2021

If I were Tony Khan with the roster he has, then yes I would want to crown Bryan Danielson as my world champion ASAP.  In fact, Khan absolutely should have started drawing up the plan to get him there before the ink was even dry on the contract.  Danielson by all accounts is the best performer they have going there right now so he should be wearing that title at some point.

But do you completely nerf Hangman Page after a two year story for that?  Do you give in to the temptation to hotshot book to pop a number or get a quick boost in business and throw away your principles in the process?  Do you take the risk of people looking at you as if you’re no different than the old man in Stamford?

(Before I go any further to that let me take a gratuitous shot at any of the fans calling for this.  If after years of indicting the WWE for cutting babyfaces legs out from under them, changing story directions midstream to the point that it turns people off, hotshotting angles and hot potato-ing titles you are calling for this then you need to just come home to Titan and admit that you were lying to yourself and everyone else all this time.  Admit that you weren’t really tired of Big (Vinny) Macs, you just wanted your Big Mac in a Burger King Bag instead.  Because if they do this then they are no different than that company you like to talk about all the time even though you claim to have moved on from them.)

Now that being said, what do I think should they do?  It depends.

A lot of unexpected things have gone down since the Hangman story started.  CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, and Adam Cole were not on the market to be signed.  Kevin Owens was not on any list of people that were possibilities to come over.  All of those guys are on the table as more appealing options than continuing the Adam Page story was a year ago, and there’s a real possibility that putting the belt on Bryan may get a bunch of angry tweets in the moment but those people will be right back the next Wednesday.

The unspoken thing over the last year about AEW is that the business model has changed as circumstances have changed.  What I mean is that however sincere they may have been at the time about growing their own talent and not just scooping up every WWE person they can get, when certain WWE people become available you get them if you can and book things accordingly because at the end of the day you need recognizable names and faces for your TV more than you need talent developed ‘the right way’.  So now that they have indeed embraced that approach then it’s time for second part which is booking accordingly.

So does that mean Bryan should win the title?  That’s Tony’s call.  Bryan Danielson has main evented two WrestleManias, he is and always will be a bigger deal than Adam Page unless Page himself goes on to main event multiple WrestleManias.  But pulling the plug on Page so soon will send a chilling message to the locker room in that no matter what they do a WWE guy or gal will get to cut the line if they are important enough, which runs contrary to the very mentality that Khan has been touting for two years.  The mask will be off and everyone will know that he is indeed a wrestling promoter first and a swell guy second or third at best.

In other words is it worth it to expose your reputation to scrutiny over booking and maybe even alienate some of your roster?  That’s the question.  Khan has a pretty cozy relationship with wrestling media so I don’t expect much noise on their end, but who knows?  Khan and AEW have been operating on a lot of goodwill that quite frankly was earned by not being Vince McMahon and WWE.  Making that kind of move will be a real test of that going forward, because the more he starts to look more like Vince well……why go with imitation Vince instead of the real thing?  From where I’m sitting it comes down to whether or not he feels it’s the best move for business and whether or not he can convince the locker room, starting with Hangman, that it will all work out for the better.  You know, be a carny wrasslin promoter.

It’s decision time for ol’ TK.  Do you stick to what you’ve preached for the last two years or do you do what the old man would do?  If it’s the latter then there’s no turning back and everyone will need to wake up and see this for what it is, particularly the wrestlers in AEW.  It could cause a fundamental shift in the business at a time where that seems to be happening all over the place.  A general across the board smartening up of the AEW locker would literally alter this entire competition if that’s what you want to call it.  If I were him I’d have an eye on that as much as I would whatever benefit may come with Bryan as your champion.

So Winter is Coming, and with it who knows what else.