AEW World Champion Hangman Page was a recent guest on the “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” podcast.
During the interview, Page commented on how much of himself is in his AEW character, when he first first realized he could become a full-time wrestler, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On how much of himself is in his AEW character: “All of it. Very much so. It’s very weird and difficult to do to reckon with yourself, but it is also cathartic to be like, ‘Yeah like this is shitty, but this is me.’ I have never been a perfect person, but I reckon with it and just put it out there. It’s cathartic to get through that.”
On when he first realized he could become a full-time wrestler: “When I started out with Ring of Honor, I was not making a living at it and that took a while. I was teaching during the week and wrestling on the weekends, but that money started to add up. I was like, ‘Oh wow, I can put a little in savings here.’ I think once I knew I was joining Bullet Club and I was going to start touring with New Japan, I kind of knew then. Before that, I think I was on a per-appearance deal, so I wasn’t making enough for a living. But I know that that point, my deal would be up at the end of the year. If I’m going to Japan, I will get a guarantee of some sort of a salary and it will be a living. This was in April or May of that year. So I figured I will wrap up the school year and tell them I’m done. We’ll see if I can get a salary to live on. Thank God I did or I would have been screwed.”
On mentors in his wrestling career and learning from Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks: “I don’t know that I’ve ever had much of a mentor. I guess for a while, I would said The Young Bucks while I was in The Elite and traveling with them in Japan. I looked up to them and respected them. I never felt like they were mentors as much as peers but in a lot of ways, I learned from them. So them in some ways – Kenny Omega in some ways. But I have never really felt like I’ve had a wrestling mentor.”
On the AEW matches he’s most proud of: “That’s hard to say. Maybe the 60 minutes with Bryan [Danielson] just because of the fact that I wrestled for 60 minutes. I thought I might die. 60 minutes is a long time to do anything. I thought I could actually perish, but I survived it. But then the one I’m probably most proud of is the match with Kenny against The Young Bucks. [Winning the title] is up there as well. Those are the three.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
