Hangman Page Believes The Pressure Of Being A World Champion Made Him “A Better Person, A Better Wrestler”

Hangman Page is no stranger to pressure.

During his AEW World Title reign, Hangman Page defended the title several times, defeating the likes of Adam Cole, Dante Martin and others in title defenses. Page would ultimately lose the championship to CM Punk at the end of last month at Double Or Nothing but it hasn’t stopped Page being one of the most over wrestlers in the company.

Hangman recently spoke to Wrestling Inc about his world title reign and spoke about the pressure he faced as champion:

“I never realized the pressure of being world champion and that might seem to someone watching, like, ‘Oh, you defended it once every three or four weeks, how hard could that be’?” Page said. “I don’t know that I handled [the pressure] of anyone who’s ever handled it, but it’s my first time. I think it made me, you know, a better person, a better wrestler.”

“I let [the pressure] get to me more than I thought I would,” Page stated. “I thought I would win the championship and I would be happy, that I would be the perfect version of myself, and I wasn’t, either. It’s not like I didn’t talk to [the Dark Order] every single week, because I did. But you know, maybe sometimes I was too busy or stressed to do those BTE bits every week. I let that pressure, I guess a friendship, a lot of friendships and I guess that’s, you know, the cynic in me wants to say that’s something that maybe comes with being champion, but I think as a personal thing, maybe that’s a bit of a failure or something to work on.”

Hangman Page to WrestlingInc

Hangman Page will be involved in a Fatal Four Way match at Forbidden Door for the IWGP Heavyweight title that will also feature champion Jay White, Kazuchika Okada and Adam Cole for the championship. It is certain to be a barnburner.

H/T to WrestlingInc for transcription

Follow Corey at @CoreyBrennanBS on Twitter

If you enjoy Bodyslam’s content, you can help donate to the site here. You can also visit our PWTees store and buy Bodyslam official merchandise here.

You can listen to all of Bodyslam’s podcasts by following us on Spotify and subscribing to our YouTube Channel,  or any of your favorite podcast platforms.ⓘ