After AEW Dynamite went off the air earlier this week, with a main event between PAC and Jon Moxley ending in a time limit draw, the action didn’t cease. The last thing we saw was Moxley giving the Paradigm Shift to referee Paul Turner, as Mox shared the audience’s fury at the finish. As was shown in the extended replay two days later, after the broadcast concluded, PAC jumped Moxley until Kenny Omega surprisingly emerged to make the save. And then, as PAC made his way up the ramp, he encountered none other than Hangman Page.
https://twitter.com/AEWrestling/status/1187918823124602882
The challenge was made and it’s now considered official. The two will be squaring off, one-on-one, one last time at AEW Full Gear on November 9th.
PAC and Hangman Page have become storied rivals this year.
From nigh on the very beginning, starting at AEW’s inaugural rally in Jacksonville on January 8th, these two have been on a collision course. Hangman was noted as the first man to even bring up the idea of an AEW World Championship and stake his claim for contendership. That was when PAC came to interrupt him. At the time, PAC had just won the Open the Dream Gate Championship, the top prize of the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate. He proudly held his own title aloft as he argued that he should be the first in line for a title shot, and stared Page right in the eye.
Hangman Page took this as a challenge and was quick to tell the world that he accepted, jumping at the chance to face PAC. But that chance would not come quickly…
Originally the match was announced for AEW’s first-ever official show, Double Or Nothing. But due to issues that seemed to center around PAC not wanting to lose whilst holding Dragon Gate’s top title, the self-proclaimed Bastard ended up having to be pulled from the event and all future AEW events at that time. To explain this in story, the two men squared off at a Wrestle Gate Pro event, which ended in DQ after PAC attacked the referee. After the match, PAC would go on to Pillmanize Page’s leg, giving him a knee injury that he would sell throughout the first few AEW events.
PAC would finally make his official AEW debut at All Out on August 31st.
After pulling out of Double Or Nothing, PAC would ironically later step in for Jon Moxley after he pulled out of All Elite Wrestling’s second marquee event. After defeating Kenny Omega, PAC would be seen confronting Hangman Page once more later in the night. A match between the two was set to finally occur on AEW Dynamite’s premiere episode on October 2nd.
But that match ended with PAC sneaking a low blow in whilst ensuring legendary referee Earl Hebner did not see it. It was pretty clear that this was not the definitive end to this feud. Hangman Page would finally notch some redemption a couple weeks later, pinning his rival in a tag match, albeit off the back of Moxley turning on PAC beforehand.
Now, it seems, we’re finally heading towards the blowoff, after spending nearly the entirety of 2019 getting there. The lengthy build will most likely conclude with their match at Full Gear.
AEW Full Gear is a very appropriate place for this match to occur.
While not acknowledged on-screen thus far, the event takes it’s name from the Full Gear Challenge. This was a unique BTE storyline in which Hangman Page saw all his friends shaming him for his physique in comparison to the chiseled PAC. Page took the Full Gear Challenge, training rigorously to ensure that he would in fact be allowed to show up in ‘full gear’.
It’s taken on a bit of a different meaning as a PPV. AEW Full Gear will be the first pay-per-view event for AEW since debuting on TNT, and therefore the first that they would be able to promote in the traditional way. Indeed, AEW is itself now in full gear.
Given the lengthy build and the results we’ve seen thus far, it would make sense to me to addend a No DQ stip of some kind to this match. That may well be added later. But either way, it’s great to see this kind of long-term storytelling, even if it was largely brought up out of necessity. After following it all the way, I will certainly be there to see it reach it’s conclusion.
