Voices of Wrestling 2023 Match of the Year: #6 (“Hangman” Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley)

A Texas Death Match bloodbath between “Hangman” Adam Page and Jon Moxley comes in at #6 in Voices of Wrestling’s 2023 Match of the Year countdown!

VOICES OF WRESTLING 2023 MATCH OF THE YEAR ARCHIVES

• Introduction & Honorable Mentions
• Matches #100-76
• Matches #75-51
• Matches #50-26
• Matches #25-11
• Match of the Year Statistical Analysis & Top 10 Early Reveal (FlagshipPatreon.com)
• Match #10: Bryan Danielson vs. Ricky Starks
• Match #9: Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Kento Miyahara
• Match #8: Fuminori Abe vs. Takuya Nomura
• Match #7: Tetsuya Naito vs. Will Ospreay

#6
“Hangman” Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley
03/05
AEW

Overall Points: 454
Total Votes: 73
% of Ballots: 33.03%
3 First-Place Votes

“This match ranks so highly for me for two reasons: 1) the extraordinary storytelling and build: this was a match that seemed to be built on an unreasonable over-reaction to an accidental injury. But for Hangman, it wasn’t so much the concussion as the disrepect of Moxley’s dismissiveness and patronizing. And 2) the amazing, state-of-the-art gimmickry that allowed the match to seem so much more brutal than it possibly could have been. Every time a thought like “if he were REALLY out for blood, he’d do ‘X,'” crossed my mind, they would shock me and ACTUALLY do “X”!” -Sergei Alderman

“I rarely rewatch matches, it’s just something I don’t do often. But I have rewatched this one several times. This is how the closing chapter of a blood feud should be: A big fight feel, entrances that get you hyped up (shoutout to Outlaws), memorable spots, guys willing to almost die because they hate each other so much. By the end, Hangman re-cemented himself as a bonafide main event star. Mox looked like an absolute killer as always. Just two dudes you build a company around. Someone once described this match as Moxley’s Mona Lisa. In that case, frame the shot of Hangman literally hanging Mox with the chain to win, put it in the Louvre, and tell da Vinci to go kick rocks.” -Andrew Rich

“This was the match that ALMOST returned Hangman Adam Page to true form and who he should be this deep into AEW’s existence. If you are a fan of violence then this is the match for you. From the entrances to the match, everything going into this was executed well and is my favorite match from AEW in 2023.” -FAR5222

“After much mulling over, its hard for me to not include this as my first choice for the past year. No other match made me feel emotions like this. So violent and emotional that I couldn’t look away.

Jon Moxley bleeds in general, so it was no surprises to see him and Hangman gush blood to this degree. Some say Mox bleeds too much and mostly unnecessarily. Mox bleeds so much that it sometimes feels like nothing because he does it so much and so often. But man was it not only appropriate here but the blood added so much to the underlying feelings of hatred both men shared for each other.

Everyone knew this match would be barbaric, but man was this match insane and just so damn good. Both men were willing to completely kill themselves and take the proverbial “years off their careers” in order to gain a decisive victory over the other. It felt real, it felt personal and man did I just feel exhausted after it.

The finish was fantastic. Both men needed the win and it seemed impossible to decide who would walk out victorious. It took the Hangman, literally hanging Moxley via chain from the ropes after a flurry of finishing moves and counters, to secure the victory when he got Moxley to submit. Mox and Hanger both get over and do their resumes no harm, while Page looks like he can hang with the most violent AEW have to offer and come out on top.

A wonderful display of pro wrestling drama and violence.” –Joe O’Doherty

“This somehow felt like a coming out party for a guy who was already made. Hangman has been the main character of AEW for a long time, but it was in winning this match that he truly felt cemented as one of the biggest stars in the world.” -Jeremy Sexton

“All Hail the King of the Deathmatch Hangman Adam Page! It’s fun to think back at the beginning of 2023 and how much the Hangman brand had been devalued by the whole Punk mess. But Jon Moxley had a plan and boy did it go off. A brutal series of fights between Mox and Hangman culminated in what for a short time was my favorite ever deathmatch. The closing image of Jon tapping as Hangman hangs him over the top rope with a chain is one of those images that will stay in the library of pro wrestling forever.” -Arturo Galletti

“Whenever I think of this match I settle on three words: no wasted motion. There was no pauses in the escalation of this match, no awkwardness in setting up spots. It is perhaps perfectly exemplified by a spot where Page and Moxley are fighting on the top of the turnbuckle only for Moxley to fall almost comedically into a chair in the middle of the ring. The audience laughed gently only to find out they (and Page) had been caught in a ruse, Moxley swiftly launching Page headfirst into a barbwire board held up by two chairs on the outside.

This match proceeded at a ferocious pace from the moment Hangman attacked his rival during his entrance. It never slowed , even as the violence increased. The violence never felt pointless either, there were callbacks to previous points in their feud, old partners and key moments. There were also some incredible visuals, perhaps no more so than the sight of Jon Moxley covered in splatters of Page’s blood after spiking his opponent’s forehead with a fork.

Many consider this Moxley’s Magnum Opus in AEW but it is actually a triumph for both men. It was the night that Moxley got to paint a beautiful bloody masterpiece just as Page really came of age.” -Trish Speirs

“This entire feud was fantastic, and this match was the peak of it all. Two guys who fucking hate each other wanting to beat the ever loving shit out of each other. You come in to this match remembering the fantastic “I am a man” promo by Page back in December where he busted him self open. You remember Mox concussing Page in the following world title match, and you remember all the great follow up matches they had too. They were all tinged with hatred and a desire to show who the better man was, who the tougher man was. And what a match to try and prove that in!

The repeated use of actual bricks in this match made my skin crawl in the best way.

The blood was flowing for sure, I’m sure you could smell the iron and the aggression in the air in the arena.

Page winning this match by literally hanging Mox is not only one of the sickest finishes to match I have seen in a long time, but also a wonderful bit of normative determinism and a fantastic cap on what was a fantastic series of matches and story between these two fantastic high level wrestlers.” -Steven Lehmann

“A match that when I watched the PPV live, I couldn’t believe it was actually happening because of how violent it got. Mox is a sicko but we found out that Hangman Page is a sicko as well and it produced one of the best matches of 2023.” -JML

“Blood begat blood as the will of sport reigned dominion. This match had the hatred and the respect and the rage that removes the visage of mindless violence and makes it biblical with every story beat. Bonus points for using The Outlaws’s “Ghost Riders In the Sky” for Adam Page’s entrance.” -Corey Michaels

“Two words – TEXAS DEATH. My favorite thing about AEW making this one of their signature matches this year might all be in my head, but I don’t care. To me, these aren’t Texas Death Matches. These aren’t even wrestling matches. THIS. IS. TEXAS DEATH. The feud of the year, capped off here with an incredible display of violence. Just a great, simple pro wrestling feud. Jon Moxley knocked Hangman Page out. Hangman is pissed off and wants to knock Moxley’s dick in the dirt. Moxley is pissed off and isn’t going to back down. Amazing promos from both men throughout too – go back and revisit them. They fight, then they fight again – but it isn’t enough. They need more. Moxley needs to stab Hangman in the head with a fork repeatedly until he is covered in Hangman’s blood. Beautiful pro wrestling violence.” -S. Dakota Jones

“I love this match and it speaks to the strength of my top 3 that I could only put this fourth. A fitting conclusion to one of the best rivalries in AEW history. The perfect blowoff match” -Lee Malone

“SO good. These men found new ways to torment each other’s bodies. Until the Swerve/Hangman Texas Deathmatch later in the year I didn’t think this could be topped.” -Anne from Tunnel Talk

“This was a worthy blowoff to the feud of the year in my book. Hangman Page and Jon Moxley had 3 exceptional wrestling matches across the first three months of 2023 and this one felt like a real plant-your-flag-in-the-sand moment for two guys looking to prove what it means to be The Man in a modern wrestling promotion. This match was brutal, nasty, and immensely fun. The Hansen/Brody tribute leading to the finish was so cool and organic in the moment. The finish itself was pro wrestling perfection and ought to be plastered all over AEW video packages advertising their institutional babyface in a signature moment, choking the promotion’s ace into submission.” -Casey Fiore

“Just a brutal bloody violent piece of business.” -Jarrett Seidler

“The bloodbath of the year. The feud of the year ends with a beautiful display of deathmatch wrestling as Moxley and Page shed blood for the business we all love. Sure, there are some iffy moments (the barbwire moonsault surely worked better on paper than in reality), but the positives massively outweigh the few flaws. Building upon the foundations laid in their three previous bouts, Moxley and Page bring the violence to a different level. The series of stabs with a fork, resulting in a arch of blood spraying from Hangman? Gruesome and painful handwork utilizing a pair of bricks? Using that same brick to hit your opponent upside the head? The finish, filled with righteous fury managing to end the rivalry on a near perfect note? This is extremely my shit. This is AEW at its very best.” -Semi Salmikannas

“It’s wild to think that this was a feud that started entirely by accident when Adam Page got a concussion during an AEW World Title match with Jon Moxley in October 2022. Once Hangman made his return, it was only natural that the story between the two continued. They traded wins on AEW Dynamite, but neither result was definitive enough to settle their issue. That led to a Texas Death Match on the Revolution PPV, and (to the surprise of absolutely nobody) they knocked it out of the park. We all know that Moxley thrives in this type of environment, while Page has really made the Texas Death Match his thing in AEW. Both men were a bloody mess, and they utilized weapons such as chairs, barbed wire, forks, chains, and even bricks to inflict damage on each other. The coolest moment of all, however, was the finish, as Page forced Moxley to tap out (which Moxley had rarely done in AEW, if at all). A definitive win for Hangman in what was an absolute war.” -Sean Sedor

“A fantastic use of the Texas Death Match ruleset that has been adopted by AEW. The tap out from Moxley (a first in this era of the TDM) was a perfect end. The match itself perfectly embodied this feud. Everything just got out of hand, it escalated quickly but the violence itself wasn’t violence for violence sake with the barbed wire used as a revenge act, memories from Jon’s past used in his assaults with the brick and an end which proved that Hangman was just as much a sick guy as his rival” -Peter Edge

“Nobody does Texas Deathmatches like AEW. Phenomenal in every sense” -Tyler Forness

“The final match of the AEW feud of the year. Two rabid animals ripping and tearing with every fibre of their being and using every brick, fork or chain they could get their hands on, in a fight for nothing but the pride of knowing they were the better man at the end of it all.

The ending of ‘The Hangman’ hanging the apex predator of AEW up to that point over the top rope with a chain is one that will be remembered for years in the promotion’s lore.” -Sam Brown

“Just an awesome way to pay off a phenomenal feud between two of the coolest, most kickass dudes you could want on a wrestling roster. Hangman dove down into Moxley’s world and came out a stronger man on the other side. Blood, barbed wire, bricks and chains — a perfect example of what AEW can do better than any other company going.” -TDE

“When Adam Page returned to AEW to confront Jon Moxley months after Mox knocked him out in their title match, a lot of people were questioning why. Sure he got concussed, but that’s part of the risks involved with fighting for a living, and surely it would be irrational to be angry with his opponent for inflicting an injury in a fight, but rationality rarely figures into professional wrestling, it certainly can’t temper the heart’s desire and Page heart’s fondest desire was to beat Jon Moxley into a bloody pulp. Jon Moxley for his part is someone who will never use calming words when a violent action will do, which meant the feud escalated until it reached this bloody apogee, twenty six minutes of two deeply irrational men committing unspeakable acts of violence on each other.” -Chris Gannon

“Hangman’s 2023 might have been… inconsistent from a storyline and tv time perspective, but man did he deliver in the ring on these big shows. Throw in Jon Moxley, one of the best brawlers of this century, and you had a recipe for a very memorable and bloody war that gave the fans every bit of violence and brutality they could’ve asked for.” -Liam Renner

“I loved absolutely every match in this feud and wish I could include more than one. This match was absolutely brutal and so satisfying. An extremely beast match, although not the most beast match Hangman would have in 2023. But sometimes, the most beast match is not the best match. Just usually.” -Mongo Underscore Ebooks

“GHOST RIDERS IN THE SKY. When Hangman Page entered the building with that song blaring, the tone was set for two dudes to absolutely beat the entire hell out of each other. This match defined aggressive male energy, non toxic division. Forks, bricks, moonsault barbwire flips and dozens of truly sick visuals emanate from this match. Moxley and Hangman, much like Ludacris in 2009, were in a battle of “How Low Can You Go.” However, the battle was over morality, and sickness during combat rather than knee strength. At the end of this match, I knew something special had happened, as Hangman added another chapter of excellence in what has become his signature match.” -Rich Latta

Voices of Wrestling 2023 Match of the Year
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