By Travis Williams
Stephen Woltz knows a thing or two about scaling the career ladder.
The 2011 Virginia Tech graduate also knows quite a bit about climbing literal ladders, as well as jumping off them onto opponents.
In November, Woltz, who wrestles professionally as Adam “Hangman” Page, reached a pinnacle of the wrestling world by winning the All Elite World (AEW) Championship at the pay-per-view event Full Gear held in Minneapolis. His first reign as world champion, the victory came more than two years after being defeated in the AEW’s inaugural world title bout and after three decades of climbing toward that dream.
“I was so tired,” Woltz said of that moment. “It was a very surreal feeling, though, winning the championship I had chased for so long. The sense of accomplishment has taken a bit longer to set in, but I’m eternally grateful for the fans who have stuck with me along the ride, who never gave up on me even when I had given up on myself.”
Woltz’s journey began during his elementary school years when he wrestled on trampolines for the upstart promotion, Aaron’s Creek Wrestling.
“Friends would come over, and we’d have fun putting on a show, jumping off of the deck railing for swantons and putting each other through cardboard boxes I’d co-opted from the fifth-grade book fair deliveries,” he said.
He began training professionally at 15 and wrestling independent shows at 16. He continued to progress while earning a bachelor’s degree in communications in Blacksburg and while teaching multimedia journalism at Halifax County High School in South Boston, Va., before turning his focus entirely to wrestling in 2016.
“I turned in my notice to HCHS that May of 2016 and bet it all on wrestling,” Woltz said. “It ended up paying off pretty well despite the weird looks I got when they announced I’d be leaving to ‘go fight in Japan’ at the year-end faculty meeting.”
Largely considered the primary competitor for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), AEW airs multiple shows on television and online each week and produces quarterly pay-per-view events each year. Under the moniker of the “Anxious Millennial Cowboy,” Woltz is a headliner for the promotion. He embraces a “work hard, play hard” attitude he believes parallels the blue-collar, service-oriented mentality he experienced at Virginia Tech.
Though it’s been a while since he’s been able to return to campus, Woltz said he always enjoys being able to soak up Blacksburg.
“When I do get the chance to come through, though, I love to just take a slow drive through campus. It’s all such a pretty view,” Woltz said. “And of course, the obligatory visit to TOTs [Top of the Stairs].”
