Bully Ray believes there’s still an opportunity to put more heat on Hangman Page before AEW makes him World Champion.
On a recent episode of Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray and Dave LaGreca discussed the AEW Full Gear main event title match between Kenny Omega and Hangman Page and debated who should walk away with the title. Bully explained why he thinks AEW should hold off on doing a title switch and said there are still some things to consider if they truly see him as a long-term champion for the company.
“I still think Hangman could be made a little bit more,” Bully Ray said. “What is after Full Gear, and what is AEW’s biggest event of the year, i.e. their ‘WrestleMania’?
LaGreca said most would consider All Out or Double Or Nothing as the major event for AEW. Revolution is the next pay-per-view, which is normally in late February or early March, but currently doesn’t have a confirmed date at this time.
Bully then asked if they could agree that AEW fans obviously want to see Hangman win, at least the majority of them. LaGreca said yes, but noted there’s still a sizeable portion of the audience that likes Kenny Omega as well. Bully then posed the question that
“Do you think that there’s room in this storyline for heat that we haven’t seen yet? How much heat have we seen put on Hangman Page since he’s returned?” Bully asked.
LaGreca noted that a lot of what fans have seen since Hangman returned was overcoming adversity and trying to win the title, which he also did at the inaugural Double Or Nothing event in Las Vegas in 2019.
“Where’s Don Callis been? Maybe it’s time for Callis to come back and cost Hangman the victory, keep this story going. Maybe get some good heat on Hangman, thus getting the people even more invested in him. I’d rather see — the slow burn with Hangman has worked from day one. He probably is the most ‘slow and steady, wins the race’ character that they have, personality/wrestler, in AEW, even a more slow burn than a Darby [Allin] or an Orange [Cassidy] or MJF. Do you do it now? Well, here’s the first question,” Bully explained, “if you beat Kenny and Hangman is your champion, are you doing it for a short-term championship run, or a long-term championship run? Who are your top three heels for Hangman Page?”
LaGreca said it’s probably Omega, Bully said he’d put Miro in the conversation as well, but he didn’t need a hard answer right now because that’s still the question that Tony Khan has to ask himself.
“If he knows he wants to put the strap on Hangman in ten days, nine days, who [are] my 1, 2, 3 heels for Hangman? Because if you flip-flop that strap, you’ve gotta have guys lined up. If it’s a short-term title run, don’t change up the championship. They’re not exactly busting down the doors with the ratings. I know they flip-flopped to Saturday for a few weeks, came back last week to Wednesdays and did about a 940,000 [for October 27]. I personally think they should be over the one million mark consistently every week. They maxed out at that 135 [million] and I think they’re in their zone, and I’ll say it’s a good zone,” Bully pointed out, “but it’s not a great zone. With the amount of firepower that they have in AEW, the heavy-hitters, the names — I could make the argument for last night’s show as ‘WWE Lite’ — a shitload of former WWE talent on that show last night. I know we got Darby and I know we got MJF in a great segment, but that whole segment was a lot of ex-WWE stars. If Hangman is your guy, are more people tuning in — AEW knows that they have their diehards tuning in every week — are more eyes tuning in to see Hangman Page as your AEW Champion?”
Bully Ray closed by saying that it’s his personal opinion that AEW should stick with Omega as champion right now. He noted that if Hangman wins, he’s not going to say they made the wrong call because booking is all about feel and there are always variables that go with it.
“Do I feel that it’s the right time for Hangman? I’m going to say in nine days, no. I would like to see Kenny get more heat on Hangman, or [AEW] come up with a way to get more heat on Hangman,” Bully stated, before offering a possible scenario that he’d like to see play out, noting the relationship between Hangman and the Dark Order. “I’d love to see — top of my head, Kenny calls upon the Elite and they kill everyone in the Dark Order and leave Hangman standing. Make him watch the entire Dark Order get decimated, do it old-school mafia-style, kill the family and they let you live.”
He said it’s just one idea to get a little bit more heat for Hangman because it doesn’t feel like the perfect time to pull the trigger on it him yet.
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