AEW Revolution 2026 is lower than per week away, and baring any major changes on the eleventh hour, the major event of the show will see Hangman Page challenge MJF for the AEW Men’s World Championship in a Texas Death Match. Not only will one of the vital violent stipulations be in play for this bout, but Hangman has the added stipulation of never difficult for the AEW Men’s World Championship ever again if he doesn’t leave Los Angeles, California with the title around his waist.
The story between Hangman and MJF has been on the forefront of AEW for the reason that turn of the brand new yr, however it is a story that’s rooted in the inspiration of the corporate itself. Each men were involved in the primary match in AEW history, that being the Casino Battle Royal from AEW Double or Nothing 2019, and all the time appeared like they were going to be two men to hold the corporate on their backs for years to come back. They did cross paths a number of times in 2019 and 2020, including a singles match to find out who would win the first-ever Dynamite Diamond Ring, but from 2021 onwards they were two ships passing within the night.
That was until they each found themselves with a standard goal of becoming the AEW Men’s World Champion at the beginning of 2025, and since then they’ve encountered one another time and time again, which brings us to this match.
It’s hardly that the opening match of a pay-per-view finally ends up becoming the major event of the identical pay-per-view one yr later, but that is what has happened with Hangman and MJF as they were tasked with kicking off AEW’s pay-per-view calendar in 2025. Each men knew that a win would put them one step closer to achieving their ultimate goal, and given the animosity between them, they weren’t going to carry back either. So with Revolution 2026 just days away, and with us here at Wrestling Inc. breaking down a few of the biggest stories and matches from this yr’s show in addition to Revolution events from years passed by, let’s shine a highlight on last yr’s match between Hangman Page and MJF.
Counter For Counter
Looking back on this match one yr on, you get the sense that each men were refreshed after what they experienced in 2024. MJF finally, and a few would say mercifully, put his feud with Adam Cole to bed, and he had a renewed spring in his step knowing he was getting himself back on the earth title picture. As for Hangman, he looked to have turned the corner from a personality perspective as he slowly began noticing people cheering for him again after months of being booed out of the constructing for attempting to murder Swerve Strickland on a weekly basis.
One thing I like about this pairing, and that is why certain pairing in wrestling work so significantly better than others, is the counters in terms of ending moves. Hangman has the Buckshot Lariat and the Deadeye, MJF has the Heatseeker and the Salt of the Earth Armbar. All of those moves will be countered into one other one in every of those moves, and that was on full display on this match. MJF takes advantage of Hangman hurting his shoulder because not only does it help him arrange the Armbar, however it weakens the Buckshot Lariat. Hangman has to face on the apron to hit the Buckshot, but when MJF can cut him off, he’s already in the proper position for the Heatseeker. Nonetheless, if Hangman can outmuscle MJF, then he’s already halfway home in terms of hitting the Deadeye. There are such a lot of little pieces that each one come together to make this pairing so fun because every little thing looks so smooth and natural.
One other wonderful thing about this match is that Hangman was still technically in his “I’m so unhinged that I’ll burn your own home down” phase, which for me is the perfect version of Hangman up to now (sorry 2021 Hangman, you are cool as well). He hits every little thing with such viciousness and pain that even when he’s doing something that may be a babyface move, it’s just got a lot sauce on it. Take the Angels Wings he hits within the closing moments, it’s probably essentially the most painful looking version of that move in history because MJF genuinely looks like he’s been driven on his head. Nonetheless, that plays into having the recently retired Christopher Daniels as a mentor giving him advice on the way it’s okay to have somewhat helping hand everyone on occasion.
MJF screaming “WHY YOU? WHY NOT ME?!” does take me out of things somewhat bit. I get what he was going for, being upset that despite the fact that Hangman has done terrible things the people still love him but they hate MJF regardless of how hard he tries to be liked. With that said, I do not think this match was the precise setting for that type of melodrama. Perhaps we’ll get it this yr, but so far as their Revolution 2025, Hangman and MJF knocked it out of the park, and it’s up there as among the best pay-per-view openers in recent memory.
What To Expect From This Yr?
We have seen Hangman Page and MJF have straight singles matches, overbooked major events, and promo segments where you’ll be able to tell that these two guys are two sides of the identical coin. Nonetheless, a Texas Death Match offers up a really different story for each men to inform, and Revolution 2026 may very well be a really special chapter of their story, in addition to the broader tale being told across the major event scene.
For the match itself, it is going to likely as overbooked because the match they’d at Forbidden Door in August 2025, but with the shortage of rules of their upcoming match, rather a lot more of the nonsense will probably make rather a lot more sense. To anyone who thinks that MJF might look somewhat misplaced in a death match setting, the guy has taken his fair proportion of punishment in these kind of matches before. Not only did he roll around in thumbtacks with Mark Briscoe at All Out 2025, but he’s got the Dog Collar Match with CM Punk, the Iron Man Match with Bryan Danielson, the first-ever Blood and Guts, and a complete catalogue of matches in CZW to prove that when the red stuff starts flowing, MJF can and can hold his own.
Hangman’s case is self-explanatory at this point. He has been in six Texas Death Matches in AEW up to now, winning five of them including the entire bouts where the AEW Men’s World Championship was on the road. Hangman has mastered the art of getting in contact with the darkest a part of himself in these matches to the purpose where the stipulation has change into his signature match, which is an achievement in itself considering the stipulation was originally designed to be Lance Archer’s wheelhouse. With that said, there has never been more at stake for Hangman than on this match, and that can likely play an element in how he conducts himself. I do not think it might be smart to have Hangman lose in I’m being honest because of the stipulation of him never difficult for the title again, it didn’t work out well for Cody Rhodes and Hangman might be going to be in AEW for a lot of more years. Him not being within the major event, regardless of what number of persons are growing uninterested in him, could be an enormous error.
An enormous plus point whatever the winner is the big variety of challengers the champion can have down the road. On the heel side you’ve gotten Swerve Strickland and Andrade El Idolo, on the babyface side you’ve gotten Kenny Omega, Brody King, and Bandido. Will Ospreay still needs to come back back, members of The Don Callis Family can all the time be slotted into the title picture if needs be, and perhaps a revamped babyface version of the Death Riders if push involves shove. The world title scene in AEW is prospering right away, and whatever the result, the Revolution 2026 major event must be one to recollect.