>>9731887Hangman is a complicated case. He was over as fuck in the summer of 2021, and then a month before All Out, where he was going beat Kenny for the title, he decided he needed to go on paternity leave and so the title change would have to be pushed back two months to Full Gear. While he was gone, AEW added Punk, Cole, and Danielson, and the latter in particular was thrown right into the main event scene so that, by the time Page came back, not only had he lost a fair bit of his heat, but the overall title landscape had changed. While many people still wanted to see him beat Kenny, many were also impatient to see one of the new arrivals get a title reign (especially Danielson and Punk, who due to age were reasonably expected to probably only have one more run in them), and so nearly all of the enthusiasm for an extended title reign for Hangman was gone. In retrospect, it might have been better to just let Danielson beat Kenny, and find a different way to resolve the Hangman vs the Elite storyline later.
It also didn't help that they had to prematurely turn Danielson heel in order to keep Page face for his first major feud as champ. TK being so obviously averse to short title reigns also didn't help, as it tends to make the first few defenses too predictable (he's doing the same thing to MJF).
>>9731903I kind of feel bad for MJF, because he was a victim of the Punk drama. It was pretty obvious that the original plan was for him to be the one to ultimately end Punk's reign, which would have been a much better springboard than beating Moxley in an over-booked mess that ended up with more heat on the departing Regal than on the heel champ. Part of it is his own fault, though, for apparently being unwilling/unable to work babyface when the crowd is pushing him that way.
