PARKS’S TAKE: Ultimately, the arson angle with Hangman and Swerve was about increasing interest in their match

With All Out just two weeks after All In, AEW needed a big, trending angle to get people to pay a premium price for another major event so soon afterward. That angle took place on Dynamite on Wednesday night when “Hangman” Adam Page burned down the childhood home of his rival, Swerve Strickland.

This has drawn divisive reactions online from fans over the last 24 hours since it aired. Some feel that this was great, with Hangman upping the ante in a blood feud that has been built around home invasions since Strickland pried his way into Page’s abode. Others believe this breaks the suspension of disbelief that a wrestler could commit such a crime and not involve the police in any way. For those people, this crosses that imaginary line of believability.

I can see it both ways. Sometimes, stories are so well-conceived and executed that fans are willing to overlook aspects that they wouldn’t otherwise overlook (such as the criminal element). Personally, I thought the angle added great heat (I promise that’ll be my only pun of this column) to Hangman vs. Strickland at All Out.

On this past Sunday’s “Wrestling Night in America” PWTorch Dailycast, I was critical of Hangman’s mic work the last time he went face-to-face with Swerve. This time, I thought Hangman did a really nice job of letting his crazy simmer right below the surface in his promo. Strickland’s mere presence clearly drives Hangman mad, and that culminated with this act of arson.

Best of all, it came after Strickland posted the video and news earlier in the day about his purchase of his childhood home. Knowing the direction the storyline had gone, you had folks posting on social media, “wouldn’t it be cool if…” Few may have actually thought AEW would actually take that direction. To see it come to fruition made it more special and more memorable.

Strip away all the other discussion points, analysis, and hand-wringing, and it comes down to this: Did the angle make me want to see Swerve vs. Page even more? It indeed did. I know I’m not alone. And ultimately, that’s what it’s about.

(Greg Parks is a long-time PWTorch Newsletter columnist, longtime host of “Wrestling Night in America” on the PWTorch Dailycast line-up, and produces “Greg Parks Outloud!” every week on the PWTorch VIP podcast line-up.)

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