When AEW World Champion MJF, then in his second reign with the title, made “Hangman” Adam Page agree that if he lost their title match, he’d never challenge for the AEW World title again, it was a major deal. Page just lost at Revolution in a Texas death match, and hasn’t been seen in AEW since. While the argument may be that the pay-per-view was almost four months ago, using that same stipulation again, this time with MJF facing Kenny Omega, still feels way too soon.
Before Revolution, that hadn’t happened since Cody Rhodes lost his ability to challenge for the title way back in 2019, and when it happened, it was hated by many fans. Some even cited it as one of the reasons why Rhodes left AEW to return to WWE. Now, we’re doing it again, and it just feels very rushed, and almost like MJF is making it his gimmick. As we’ve seen, he’s not soon to run out of challengers, but eliminating major competitors from challenging for the company’s top gold ever again, not just challenging while he’s still champion, doesn’t feel like the best move. It’s a dramatic stipulation that shouldn’t be thrown out there constantly, and should remain reserved for grudge matches like MJF and Page.
Of course, this could all just be leading to Page’s return at “Dynamite: Beach Break” next Wednesday to either cost MJF, awarding Omega the championship, or to get the match thrown out, for Omega to challenge MJF again at AEW Redemption. AEW has started to hype next week’s show up and make it seem like a big deal, which is great, and I’d welcome a Page return, but I don’t know if this is how I’d go about getting there. There’s so much going on at the top in the company right now, his involvement may make things feel even more crowded than they already are.
We certainly seem to be heading down the road toward Omega vs. Will Ospreay for the AEW World Championship at All In: London, and we’re taking a pretty unpredictable route to get there, which is good. I just really wish we could have kept this stipulation away from Omega, after it was just used so recently, and went straight to booking this match at Redemption.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Read the full article here
