AEW gave itself a long-term problem for some serious short-term gain.
The company ended a tremendous, but nearly five-hour-long Revolution with an incredible (but again long at 45 minutes) Texas Deathmatch that concluded with MJF leaving “Hangman” Adam Page unable to challenge for the AEW world championship again. It’s the same stipulation Cody Rhodes put on himself after losing to Chris Jericho in 2019, and it tanked his AEW run before he went off to headline WrestleManias.
If all things stand, they cut off the promotion’s Day 1 and Batman vs. Joker story with MJF celebrating his 30th birthday and Page just 34. Hangman vs. MJF is the story that’s supposed to go on for years and years and years before it reaches an ultimate conclusion – and that shouldn’t be the antagonist beating your main character in his signature match by hanging him over the ropes in the way he won previous Texas Deathmatches.
Where exactly do you go from here? AEW has now left its hero to stew in the Batcave while Robin, Nightwing and Red Hood are left to try to foil the super villain’s vice grip on the promotion.
