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Hangman Page (2018)

138 PTS.



Before sitting down to write Hangman Page’s profile, I went back and re-read his profile from the 2017 edition. There wasn’t a lot of meat on the bone. The profile was only a paragraph long and spent more time talking about Page’s boasts of having a “huge rope” (codeword for massive schlong) than it did any of his actual matches or storylines in New Japan in 2017. It was also partially incorrect, stating that Yujiro Takahashi teamed with Page against War Machine in an IWGP Tag Team Championship match when it was actually Cody. The man who wrote the profile, one “Secretly Sassy” Rich Kraetsch (although he was not so secretive when writing it), ended the profile with one sentence about Page’s 2018 outlook:

Be honest, do you really care?

I’m not trying to throw shade at Rich for half-assing Hangman’s 2017 profile because he’s right. How many of us actually cared about Hangman Page for the first few years of his New Japan tenure? In 2016 and 2017 he was a lower-end Bullet Club dude best known for teaming with Yujiro in World Tag League and bragging about his (alleged) giant penis. He wasn’t having blow-away matches and the New Japan crowds gave him little reaction. A capable wrestler, sure, but not the kind of guy to whom you paid much attention. Hangman Page was just another guy.

Then came 2018. This was a very different year for Hangman Page in New Japan Pro Wrestling, a year of firsts in many ways. For example, he received his first singles championship match in the company. Early in the year he scored a number of falls in multi-man tag matches, including one over IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Champion Jay White at Honor Rising: Japan. This earned Hangman a title shot against White in the semi-main event of Strong Style Evolved in March, which he lost after a 25 minute battle.

Another first for Page this year was his first singles main event on a New Japan show. The emerging Bullet Club civil war storyline saw Page assume a more prominent role in the stable as Cody’s Virginian capo, siding with him against Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi. Cody and Page defeated Omega and Ibushi in a featured tag match at Sakura Genesis in April. Page also wrestled both of the Golden Lovers in two singles matches in the spring, first against Ibushi at ROH’s Supercard of Honor and then against Omega in the main event of the first night of Wrestling Dontaku.

Next came the G1 Climax. There was a lot of speculation as to whether or not Hangman would be in it based on how much focus he was given throughout the first half of the year. Lo and behold, Page was announced as part of A Block. Despite only winning three of his nine block matches, Page scored clean key victories over two highly respected New Japan veterans in Minoru Suzuki and Togi Makabe. To do so in his first G1 Climax appearance was a mighty accomplishment.

The most important first for him in 2018, however, was that this was the first year where it felt like the New Japan fans truly cared about Hangman Page. As the months went by, you could hear him getting bigger reactions from the crowd. His matches received better reviews than ever before. People started anticipating seeing him on shows instead of apathetically shrugging him off. The overall consensus on Page gradually changed from “He’s just another Bullet Club guy” to “He’s someone you need to watch.” Imagine saying that a year ago. Page got over with the New Japan audience to levels that he had never before reached and I believe the reason why was because of his effort. Whenever Page was put in a high profile situation-the Jay White match, the Ibushi/Omega singles matches, his G1 matches-he busted his ass to put on the best, most exciting performances that he could. You could tell that Page was putting in a concerted effort every night to better himself as a wrestler and to raise his stock in the eyes of the fans. And it worked. Page ended the year once again teaming with his pal Yujiro in World Tag League. They managed to score 10 points (the most they’ve ever scored in the tournament), but it was not enough to reach the finals. That didn’t matter though; as far as the fans were concerned, Hangman Page had finally arrived in New Japan Pro Wrestling.