Hangman Page Opens Up About Feeling “Inferior” In Bullet Club
AEW star Hangman Page sat down with Men's Health to promote AEW Full Gear and talk about his journey to his AEW World Championship match against Kenny Omega. Page talked openly about how he was the last of the Elite members to join the Bullet Club stable, and how his feelings of inferiority to his teammates stemmed from his early days losing with the group.
"I was the guy who was the last to join the Bullet Club, on a house show that wasn't even on TV," Page recalled. "I was the guy who was getting beat in all these multi-man matches in New Japan, I was the guy who didn't even have a winning record in New Japan's G1 Climax tournament. It feels like a fresh thing in wrestling to be that honest about how you feel in that situation. But what other truth could there be than to feel inferior in this group?"
Page's words came as a surprise to his former Elite teammates Matt and Nick Jackson, aka The Young Bucks. The duo, who were also featured in this interview, revealed they never felt like they were competing with him in that regard, and both praised Page as growing into one of the best wrestlers in the world.
"This is actually the first I've heard of that," Matt Jackson said. "When we met Hangman all those years ago, he was really just a new, unknown shy kid hiding under a baseball cap at ROH. Nick, Kenny and myself were already pretty well known, well-traveled, established wrestlers. I can see those original feelings he might've had when he initially met us, be something tough to shake off. It could be a little imposter's syndrome, which I'd love to tell him goes away, but by experience, I don't think it ever does. I hope he one day can look back from the beginning of our friendship and realize we were never competing, or sizing him up. We were welcoming him in to be one of us."
"He's never personally told Matt and I that," Nick Jackson chimed in. "I feel like he's crazy to think that way because he's one of the best in the world. I feel like the fans think the same way about him. He's become a superstar."