If you’re an AEW fan, then this feud will not have escaped your attention. Why? Because it is fucking awesome, that’s why!

We have a series of wild matches between these two, which will be reviewed soon, however here, we focus on the match at All Out in Chicago 2024. This PPV was just 2 weeks after All In London, so they needed something big to sell the PPV. So what do they give us? Swerve vs Hangman of course! But how could they possibly sell this in just 2 episodes of Dynamite? Well how about one of them burning down the others childhood home? Yeah, that’ll do it!

Oh and let’s throw in a steel cage while we are at it. This is one if the most brutal matches I have ever watched. Let’s get to it.

Swerve Strickland vs ‘hangman’ adam page steel cage @ all out 2024

Chicago, September 7, 2024

There’s a thin line between storytelling and genuine psychological warfare, and somewhere in that NOW Arena steel cage, Hangman Adam Page and Swerve Strickland didn’t just cross it—they burned it down along with everything else.

Wrestling fans love to throw around words like “personal” and “intense,” but this wasn’t your typical worked shoot intensity. This was a year-long descent into madness that culminated in Page shoving a syringe into Strickland’s mouth before knocking him unconscious with what can only be described as attempted murder via steel chair. And somehow, it all made perfect sense.

The backstage talk leading into this match wasn’t about workrate or five-star classics. It was about whether AEW had finally gone too far. Page burning down Strickland’s childhood home on the go-home Dynamite wasn’t just a shocking television moment—it was the kind of segment that had people in the back wondering if they were watching wrestling or a crime drama.

Keeping it real

Here’s the thing though: Strickland reportedly had many of his own AEW colleagues fooled about how real this feud actually was. The man is such a method actor that wrestlers who work with him daily weren’t sure where Swerve ended and the character began. That’s either incredible commitment or concerning behavior, and honestly, both options are equally fascinating.

Strickland himself has been refreshingly honest about the psychology behind their year-long war. “You don’t want to just see two guys just bludgeoning each other with objects because anybody can do that,” he explained post-match. “I wanted to make sure all the weaponry made sense for why we were doing this.” The man had a point—every violent escalation felt earned, even when it felt uncomfortable.

And uncomfortable is the right word. This wasn’t Mick Foley falling through announcer tables for cheap pops. This was two wrestlers systematically destroying each other’s sense of safety and sanity. When Strickland invaded Page’s home and got uncomfortably close to his family, he wasn’t just crossing kayfabe boundaries—he was rewriting them entirely.

crossing the boundary line

The home invasion angle remains one of the most polarizing storylines in AEW history. Strickland later admitted the whole thing was a calculated risk. Talking to Page’s child on camera wasn’t meant to be as creepy as it came across. “That was an ugly baby, I never got that across,” he joked later. Though the joke didn’t land much better than the original angle.

But here’s where it gets interesting from a business perspective. Strickland believes that his feud with Adam Page reignited the art of the rivalry in the world of pro wrestling. He’s not wrong. In an era where most feuds feel manufactured and temporary, these two created something that felt genuinely dangerous. Whether that’s good for wrestling’s long-term health is debatable, but it sure as hell was compelling television.

the match

The match itself was everything you’d expect from two men who spent a year trying to psychologically break each other. Swerve hitting a Cop Killa on Hangman onto a cinder block is inarguably awesome. The problem was everything felt so loaded with real animosity that you found yourself watching between your fingers. Not because of the violence, but because you weren’t entirely sure it would stop when it was supposed to.

It was a chair shot to the head by Page that led to his victory by knock out—the kind of finish that would’ve been routine in the Attitude Era but felt genuinely shocking in 2024. Wrestling has spent decades moving away from unprotected chair shots to the head for good reason, but Page’s final blow felt less like a wrestling move and more like an execution.

unfiltered violence

The visual of Strickland’s blood being spat into the air became one of those moments that wrestling fans will reference for years. It was gross, it was visceral, and it perfectly captured the absolute hatred these two had built over months of escalating personal attacks. Strickland later described it as a violation that matched his home invasion: “I violated Adam Page’s home, he violated me by spitting my blood in the air.”

Strickland was expected to take time off after the match, which speaks to both the physical toll and the emotional exhaustion of maintaining that level of intensity for nearly a year. This wasn’t just about needing time to heal bumps and bruises—this was about needing time to remember how to be human again after spending months as a wrestling character who lived in other people’s nightmares.

The aftermath photos Strickland shared on social media were telling. Beaten, bloodied, but somehow satisfied, with the caption “What did you expect?” It was the perfect encapsulation of a feud that asked uncomfortable questions about how far performers should go for their art.

the aftermath

Looking back, this match represents both the best and worst of modern wrestling’s relationship with reality. When it worked, it was transcendent—two performers so committed to their characters that they created something genuinely unforgettable. When it didn’t work, it felt exploitative and genuinely concerning.

Page got his revenge, Strickland got his comeuppance, but wrestling fans got something else entirely: a reminder that when performers care this much about their craft, the results can be both beautiful and terrifying. Sometimes the best stories are the ones that make you question whether you should be watching them at all.

REWATCH VALUE: 16/25 You’ll watch the finish and the syringe spot again, but the match is too uncomfortable and brutal for casual rewatching. It’s the kind of thing you appreciate having seen without necessarily wanting to experience again. Historic, but not enjoyable.

STORYLINE: 25/25 Absolutely perfect storytelling from start to finish. A year-long psychological warfare campaign that built to exactly the right conclusion. Every escalation felt earned, every moment of violence had meaning. This is how you build a blood feud in the modern era.

MATCH QUALITY: 17/25 Brutal and effective, but not technically outstanding. The violence served the story perfectly, but as pure wrestling, it was more about hatred than athleticism. The cage was used well, the weapons made sense, but workrate fans weren’t the target audience.

FAN REACTION: 20/25 Chicago was into it, but you could feel the discomfort in the crowd during the more extreme moments. Social media was split between calling it a masterpiece and being genuinely concerned. That division is probably exactly what they were going for.

THE VERDICT: 78/100