Hangman Page Reveals How He Came Up With His Wrestling Name

In an interview with his alma mater Virginia Tech, AEW World Champion Hangman Page spoke about his pro wrestling career so far and revealed how he came up with his in-ring name. Here are highlights:

On how he balanced teaching, attending college and becoming a wrestler: “I think I slacked a lot in my studies at Tech to be honest, so I’m maybe not the poster child for balance. I’d gotten my associate’s degree through my high school’s dual-enrollment program, so I was able to finish my communication B.A. in two years with the help of my counselor, Marlene Preston. I hope she’s doing well; she was nice. She must have thought I was crazy when I told her I wanted to hurry up and graduate, so I could pursue wrestling. Same for Paul HarriIl, who taught a lot of my film classes. He was cool.

My heart was in wrestling. I stuck with the film program regardless and somehow it helped me land a job with HCHS teaching multimedia classes when a teacher quit four days before classes began in 2011.

The teaching job was excellent for wrestling, though: weekends and summers completely free to travel to shows and seminars where I’d eventually start working for Ring of Honor (ROH). I had a great support system at Halifax, though, and a principal in Albert Randolph who was willing to look the other way when I took three sick days to wrestle Vader in Los Angeles one week. I got away with a lot more than I should have, and I wasn’t always the best teacher I could have been. I did put a lot into my classes, though, and love to keep up with a few of my former students who’ve pursued studies and now careers in journalism and design. The pay for teachers can be pretty laughable, but it provided me the security to chase my wrestling dreams and the unparalleled pleasure of watching students really get into their work.”

On how he came up with his ring name: “I was trying to come up with a fake wrestling name when I was younger and just mashed together a bunch of names. I ended up with Adam, the first name of my ACW foe and real-life best friend, and Page from Jimmy Page, guitarist of Led Zeppelin with whom I was obsessed as a teenager. Hangman came a bit later when New Japan told me that would be my name to fill the role of then-departing Luke Gallows.”

On why it’s important for AEW to feature serious subjects in its storytelling: “I really think of a lot of the stories addressing substance misuse, mental health, etc. isn’t really a product of AEW’s doing as much as it’s the byproduct of AEW allowing their wrestlers to be themselves and tell the stories they want to tell. That’s certainly the case with me. Wrestling is very much an art and is subjective as such, so I think whatever fans feel they take from the story is best. I definitely have some emotions and themes in mind when I approach something, but I’m always surprised by the things fans end up taking away from a story that is often just my real life played out for an audience.”