2024 Ongoing MOTY List: Darby vs. Hangman

 

12. Darby Allin vs. Hangman Page AEW Dynamite 7/31/24

ER: I don't buy Hangman Page as a character. I don't buy the wild card persona that they push on commentary, I don't buy this threats to the referees, I don't buy his emptiness any more than I buy into the emptiness of any man. I don't think his strikes fit his villainous turn. He needs better shitkicking kicks. When he throws a kick to the ribs of a grounded man, his body language is far too flowy, too West Side Story High School Production. If Page is indeed a Bad Guy, I want to see him kick Darby in the ribs. Darby will do worse things to his own ribs in every match, and I need a Villain to not pull his kicks like a background fight scene Jet. 

But it doesn't really matter whether I but Hangman or not, because I fully buy Darby Allin. I buy into the level of punishment Darby is able to absorb, because he is literally right there absorbing all of that damage in full view with no smoke and mirrors. Darby absorbs inhuman punishment and he walks through the fire, and it's the most entertaining act in wrestling. He makes up size like nobody else and he does things that nobody else will. And while I might not buy into Hangman Page: The Character, I do think he works great as a Darby Opponent. Now, I also think that nearly everybody works as a Darby Opponent, but Page seems to understand even better just what he can do to Darby in a match, and knows how to take his offense in cool ways. 

I was really impressed how Page made his catches not feel like catches. When Darby Coffin Dropped off the entrance...circle?...Hangman didn't wait for him with his arms out. He stood there wobbly with his shoulders in, leaning forward into it the Drop like he was trying to counter it or block it, but at the same time he's making a perfectly absorbed catch. When he gets his ass knocked off the ring steps with a battering ram tope, a real weapon, he sticks with it and takes all of it. Darby does not need Page to lean into his offense to come off dangerous, but it sure doesn't hurt. You know he is going to make Page's offense look as great as possible - those three weirdly Too Sexual powerbombs he took on the apron and violent post-coital breakup fallaway slam into the edges of the ring steps, and how he didn't have to take the Death Valley Driver as vertically as he did, getting turned inside out attempting a Buckshot lariat - because that is who he is. But it's his dedication to making everything look good is what sets him so far above the rest. 

Darby Allin understands Walk and Brawl better than almost any ECW wrestler. Nobody tries to make Walk and Brawl look good, most just, well, walk. When Darby walks Page back to the ring with a tight headlock, his free hand pulling at Page's upper jaw, it looks fully believable that a guy Darby's size would be able to force a larger man to walk with him, like he is giving him no choice at all. He takes spots that others sleepwalk through and makes them matter. Look at the way he works a 10 count on the floor. There's no rolling around until 8 and then sprinting back into the ring. This man took real damage, he's selling that damage on the floor, but when he needs more than 10 he slowly rolls in to break and then slowly rolls back out, still selling everything he should be selling, no miracle  resurrections. He is small, but knows how to make his offense look effective against men of any size. His shotgun dropkick, back elbow, coffin splash, all of it lands like a heavyweight, and the way he lands lower on the hips always makes his Code Red set up look like he understands the physics of all his offense. 

I didn't love the finish and didn't love the set up for the majistral, but I buy into Darby, and love how he makes me buy into others. 

2024 MOTY MASTER LIST