He will remain in the TNA/Impact Wrestling history book as the longest-ever reigning IMPACT World Tag Team Champions with Josh Alexander. Ethan Page had done great things there but he knew he had more things to do and to offer somewhere else. On March 7, 2021, Page made his debut as the mystery entrant in The Face of the Revolution Ladder match at AEW Revolution. And ever since, he has been making his way to the top with his new partner Scorpio Sky, as The Men of The Year.
The grudge between The Inner Circle and Dan Lambert’s American Top Team will come to a head at AEW Full Gear, where the two sides will square off in a Minneapolis Street Fight. As Inner Circle member Sammy Guevara retained his TNT title over Top Team associate Ethan Page, the Inner Circle got to choose a stipulation for the proposed 10-man match. Chris Jericho announced on the group’s behalf that the match would be a Minneapolis Street Fight. Page and Scorpio Sky were confirmed for the American Top Team side.
SteelChair Wrestling Magazine had the chance to talk to Ethan Page on Wednesday about the upcoming 5 vs 5 Minneapolis Street Fight at Full Gear PPV, The Men of The Year, teaming up with Scorpio Sky, his goals in AEW, and what the future may hold for him.
This Saturday, at Full Gear, you will compete against The Inner Circle with Scorpio Sky and ATT in a Minneapolis Street Fight. How do you prepare for such a match, for something unknown in some ways?
“Knowing that you’ve followed so much of my career, I think you’ve seen me have some pretty crazy matches before (laughs). I actually thrive in environments like that where there are no rules, I try to bend the rules in my favour, just in regular matches. When somebody tells me that I can do whatever I want, I can get more creative, more violent. I actually enjoy matches like this, especially when my teammates are some of the best fighters in the world who probably started out having some fights on the street, so you’re talking about people with the heaviest hands, the strongest kicks, and the toughest chins, and we’re going to go into this, even though, technically, it’s four on five because Dan Lambert may not be a pro martial artist or pro fighter, I still think it stacks in our favour and that the Inner Circle stands no chance against American Top Team and Men of the Year.”
May we expect to see the Karate Man get out of the woods?
“Probably not, I would say if ever he might visit on my YouTube page but I don’t think Karaté Man is All Elite now.”
“The Karaté Man was what it was meant to be, it was a kind of side project for that like comedy purposes, it was never intended to be on television, but we don’t get to control everything we do. I personally love the character, it was kind of my homage to Jean-Claude Van Damme, he played himself in a movie once so I thought well why not follow suit.”
What are your thoughts on your opponents, Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Santana, and Ortiz, what are your thoughts on them as a group and as wrestlers?
“As a group, it’s one of, if not, the most iconic group in AEW history. I believe they formed on either the first or second episode of Dynamite and they’ve been a force in the company from the beginning. Everyone has tried to go out of their way to kind of take them apart because I feel like alone they’re weaker than they are together and you can see that because Jericho and Hager tried to target us on their own and we beat them, then they had Sammy join the mix and we beat them again. Now, all five of them are together and they know that they’re stronger together than they are apart. I have all the respect in the world for Sammy Guevara after pinning me and being the first person to pin me in AEW. I’ve been here for about eight months and no one’s been able to put my shoulders to the mat for a three-count. The only other person that’s been able to beat me is Darby and he had to put me in a coffin and smash it with his body. So I have some respect for Sammy Guevara and what he was able to do, especially me being bigger stronger better looking more talented, you know all those things. So I do have my respect for certain members of the team, guys like Chris Jericho, but I truly enjoy punching them in the face and I cannot wait to do that this Saturday on pay-per-view.”
You have never teamed up with people from MMA before. Scorpio Sky has an MMA background. Does it change the balance of a team to have that different way of working?
“Honestly, no because I grew up in martial arts, I was doing karate from the age of four years old and I transitioned to taekwondo in my teens, I got my black belt in both martial arts and I left martial arts to join professional wrestling, so I’ve been in combat sports my whole life. I know what the people in it are like and I have the utmost respect for MMA fighters, especially former UFC World Heavyweight champions. Even what Dan brings to the table is priceless, his knowledge, his connections, his brand in ATT, all of it is valuable to me to Scorpio to AEW even though they don’t like to admit it. Everything is beneficial and I couldn’t be happier to be on the team with these guys. Like I was saying, I respect what they do but seeing the respect that they’ve shown to myself, to Sky, and to the locker room, I mean disregarding Inner Circle, they obviously don’t respect them (laughs) but other than that, they’ve come in here with a newfound respect for professional wrestling and they’re willing to do whatever it is to perform at the best level, put on a great show but also win, so I love it.”
You had a very smooth transition from Impact to AEW. Was it as easy as it looked like?
“AEW is the first company that I’ve ever worked for that has allowed me to truly be the version of Ethan Page that I’ve envisioned from the beginning, starting professional wrestling. I’m glad that it took me 15 years to get here because I had a lot to learn and a lot of growing up to do and maturing as a performer, so it kind of was perfect because I had all this experience leading up to this moment where I understood the value of this job this position, this opportunity and I wasn’t going to let any of it slip away, so everything leading up was necessary to be able to perform at the level that I am right now. I can’t avoid giving credit to Tony Khan and AEW just for allowing me to have the creative freedom to be the Ethan Page that I’ve always wanted to be. It’s easy to be yourself when people just let you do your thing.”
Almost immediately after your AEW debut, you started to team up with Scorpio Sky, a Legend on his own. Was it easy to create that team and team up with him?
“When it came to me and Scorpio teaming up, neither of us before the team was really close with each other and this was all an idea, I guess it formulated through Tony, so it was kind of pitched to us and we both looked at each other and we were like, “Yup, we could be friends,” without knowing that we actually could. I would say, after 3 or 4 weeks, we became fast friends. We have amazing chemistry, we think very much alike. I trust Scorpio very, very, very much, I admire Scorpio with how talented he is in the ring, and especially I can tell both of us are very comfortable with each other and it allows us to be more open charismatically and we can have fun on-screen, we play with each other on-screen, like that we like we play off of each other. It’s something that I never expected to be this good but I’m so happy that it happened and I’m truly having the best time in my career and I think he’s become, I guess, my best partner just because of how well we gel together and the similarities compliment each other but the differences also complement each other. I think we’re fantastic together, it’s not something that I expected but, like I said, I couldn’t be happier about it.”
“I can even say too like when I came into AEW my full intention was to be a singles competitor, so when they put me with Scorpio, not that I was upset, I was just like, “oh well, in my mind I envision something else but I’m going to trust the company, they’re doing amazing things,” and they were so right and even though myself and Scorpio have become the Men of the Year and we’re a fantastic team, we have an amazing tag team record, I’ve also had very awesome singles moments. I had my match with Darby in the coffin match which main-evented Dynamite solo. I just wrestled Sammy Guevara for the TNT title solo, so I’m getting the best of both worlds. I have a team member and a teammate that I can trust, that I have great chemistry with, and I’m still allowed to have the spotlight shine on Ethan page in a singles aspect as well so I’m getting the best of both worlds and, like I said, not to exaggerate, I mean it, I’m literally having the best time of my career and I’m creating memories that I know I will have for the rest of my life, I’m trying to cement my name in professional wrestling forever.”
Who found out the name of Men of The Year?
“It was actually me. I said it as a joke backstage. I actually used to use the name on the independents with another wrestler in Chicago and it kind of went nowhere but I loved the name because I thought, “oh that’s so silly,” like how could two people be the men of the year and we could literally just vote for each other all right. Who’s the man of the year? Well, Ethan Page is going to vote for Scorpio and Scorpio is going to vote for Ethan Page, and the only votes that matter are our own.”
Did you set some goals for yourself in AEW, people you absolutely want to wrestle with, matches you want to do, and titles you want to win?
“I’m very goal-oriented, I’ve always been that way. I literally travel with a book that I write on every night to keep track of everything, growth of my personal businesses like my YouTube page or my Patreon, I have goals with that. In AEW, I have Championship goals, obviously, and I feel like every title in the company is so valuable that I have no specific goal as far as which belt I want to win. I believe that if you’re a champion in AEW, you’re one of the greatest wrestlers in the world. The TNT title has been proven to be the main event championship, the world title is one obviously, but so few people have held that TNT title, the value in it is immense, I think it’s one of the most prestigious titles in the world and the tag team titles AEW has the best tag team division in the world so any of those three belts I would be more than honoured to hold to win and to represent the company with.”
“Personal goals as far as main-eventing and stuff like that, it bothered me a little bit that I wasn’t on All Out the pay-per-view, we had an amazing pre-match promo where I stood next to MMA legends, Jorge Masvidal, Junior Dos Santos, Andrei Arlovski, that was a great start to what you’re seeing today with ATT versus Inner Circle but to go from debuting in a ladder match and getting to work with Jake The Snake on Revolution pay-per-view then to wrestling sting and Darby at Double or Nothing, to kind of sit out All Out gave me a chip on my shoulder and now I’m more motivated than ever and you see that now. We’re going into Full Gear and Ethan Page is back in the spotlight in one of the most hyped matches of the pay-per-view so my goal is to always be featured on our four big pay-per-views every single year. Sadly I missed one of the four this year so next year my goal is to be on all four, I want Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky to be can’t-miss towns in AEW.”
I read that your dream match was Christian Cage but when someone like CM Punk made a comeback in AEW, do you feel like, “oh that would be interesting?”
“Personally, Christian being from Canada, outside of the Toronto area, I think there is a level of respect that I would love to earn, wrestling someone that’s like a local legend and I’ve been a fan of him and Edge for years and years and years. Getting to work with Jericho, although I think he’s obnoxious and I hate him and the Inner Circle, it’s very cool to put that on my resume as well, him being from Canada, so there’s a sense of pride when it comes to being a Canadian that Christian just fits that list perfectly. I also obviously was a big TNA fan, so that’s where he was given the opportunity to become the world champion material that everybody knew he was. I would love to put that to the test and I think he’s one of the smartest professional wrestlers to ever lace up some boots. Just to learn from him, to share a ring with him, all of it would be fantastic. But, if you’re asking me if I want to punch CM Punk in the face, yup, I would love it (laughs).”
“I agree it’s very cool that CM Punk is here but, if you’re talking about him, I feel like this weekend you have to talk about Eddie Kingston and I think that Eddie Kingston is going to take CM Punk to his absolute limit on pay-per-view and if I’m a betting man, I’m betting on Eddie. Eddie is an old friend so.”
Have you read his piece on Players Tribune?
“I’ve read it but I’ve heard it in person a million times. There were points where Eddie would tell me that he was ready to retire and become a welder and he would say, “oh as long as I can watch the Giants play football and make money, I’ll be happy” and I was like, “Dude, you can never leave wrestling, you’re one of the diamonds in the rough, a gem that people haven’t found yet” and the world has found him now and I couldn’t be happier for Eddie and for the fans because they get to experience him and see what we’ve seen for the last 20-plus years.”
Follow Ethan Page on @OfficialEgo.
AEW Full Gear is live on Pay-Per-View this Saturday at 8 pm ET (1 AM GMT) from the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, order it here. The Buy-In pre-show is available for free at 7 PM ET (midnight GMT) on the AEW YouTube channel and Fite TV. A special Countdown to Full Gear will air live tonight after Rampage at 4 AM GMT, you can watch it for free here.
All pics courtesy of AEW