The Latest Episodes of INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet
Dec. 7, 2023

Ethan Page Is Absolutely JACKED Now, MJF Title Match, Why He Stopped His Toy Hunts, Darby Allin Coffin Match

Ethan Page Is Absolutely JACKED Now, MJF Title Match, Why He Stopped His Toy Hunts, Darby Allin Coffin Match

Ethan Page (@officialego) is a professional wrestler currently signed to AEW and Ring of Honor. He is previously known for his time in IMPACT Wrestling. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about getting into the best shape of his life, his AEW World Title match against MJF in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, the most painful part of his coffin match with Darby Allin, why he asked to be put on Ring of Honor, working with UFC Legend Junior Dos Santos, why he stopped doing toy hunt videos on YouTube, the return of his Alpha1 wrestling promotion, working with Matt & Jeff Hardy and much more!

Quote I'm thinking about:

How you do anything is how you do everything. - Martha Beck

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On taking a backseat with YouTube:

"If I'm putting something out, it's something that inspired me. And also, I've decided to kind of, once I realised that like the last time we did an interview, I was doing American Top Team stuff, things were going fantastic. Not to say that I'm not happy. I just noticed a change in my career. And I realised that I really needed to start focusing on professional wrestling more and dedicating myself to that, which is actually why I requested to do the Ring of Honor stuff, because our roster has grown so big that the opportunities to be physically active in the ring, come a lot less. And that's just the nature of the beast, Tony wants to have the best wrestlers in the world, and I commend them for it, we have them all. But the matches come less. So I wanted to be more active. And as I age, I started to notice that my body was starting to feel a little bit tighter. And when you're not wrestling as often your body is just adjusting way different. So I was like, okay, dude, you're either going to end your career by just getting stagnant and fatter and more depressed. And like, I could have definitely kept continuing to do the YouTube videos and selling ads through an agency and I was doing very well and things were great. But that was kind of my full-time job. And then everything else kind of took a backseat in the trajectory of that, if that makes any sense."

On the coffin match against Darby Allin:

"Oh, no, it definitely doesn't [help with longevity]. That coffin match was, I think it still is taking time off my career, that one was rough. It was easily the scariest moment of my career. So wild last night, I asked Matt Hardy, I was like, hey, what's the one thing that happened in your career that was easily the scariest moment? Like, what was that thing? And while he was thinking about it, someone was like, well, Page, what's yours? And I was like, oh, laying in the coffin. The coffin is closed the lid shut. I have no clue what's happening. If I'm gonna get hit when I'm gonna get hit. I'm just [thinking] thank God the matches over that was extremely painful. But also, I'm alone in this box, no one's talking to me. It's not like I have something in my ear. And then here comes this body crashing through this box and it's landing right on my knees and like I'm in the foetal position, which is not something you want to be in just to be cramped in the box. Anyway, that was the scariest thing for me. He said it was when Jeff Hardy jumped off in Orlando to Swanton him through the table that ended up turning him into a Broken Matt. He said the anticipation of how high he was in the air. He's like, I'm gonna die. He's gonna kill me and break my ribs. But yeah, being in that box was the scariest thing ever in my career, and probably will be ever."

On getting in better shape:

"I think I have three or four weeks left. Well, my plan was the Ring of Honor pay-per-view is coming up on December 15 on the Honor Club app, and that's where I'm wrestling now. So I had a goal and I don't want to assume them on the pay-per-view but in my mind, I'm trying to manifest the fact that I've gotten in great shape. I'm on a roll there, I'm having better matches physically better, mentally better. My confidence is up. So in my mind, I'm on the pay-per-view. So make sure you watch it. But that's going to be my last day for this diet. So that's my like, end goal. So whatever however long that is, that's what I have left."

On learning the science:

"One thing that I was really stuck on was this thought, if I don't eat food, I will lose weight. I get there's some truth to that. But I was not fueling my body enough. And then I was working out to just burn calories. So I was eating away at my muscle while storing fat, like this old nerdy science bodybuilding stuff, but I was not eating enough food, malnutrition, overworking and never resting. And now I understand the science of rest and working certain body parts on certain days. And this is all just, I don't know any of it. I'm being told what to do. And I just shut my brain off and I do it, I'm a robot."

On future fitness goals:

"I'll say in the interview, so I have to do it. Screw it. I'll probably do a fitness competition in 2024. Something happened, I don't know, maybe it's just kind of the way the landscape of wrestling or just my age or point of my career, I've kind of just come to terms with the fact that I can't control anything other than what I do with myself. So, career-wise, I mean, it's kind of in somebody else's hands. But my body, no one's gonna force me to eat a donut. So I can control that I can control what I eat, what I do, what I lift, how I train, how I sleep. And then that got me excited. And I just got obsessed with the fact that if this is a thing that I put my effort into, and I dedicate myself to, no one can stop me from succeeding in it. Whereas with professional wrestling, there's a lot of things that you kind of have to magically line up to get to where you envision. Whereas with this, it's just me and only me."

On how it feels to take a skateboard to the back:

"Not good. You got the trucks, it's just steel. That's sucked. And then not only that, when I take the skateboard to the back, I'm in so much pain that I'm flexing my shoulder blades just to like, extend my muscles. I fall into the coffin. But when I fall into the coffin, my back scrapes the side of the coffin and the way they built the coffin to make sure that there was enough support, I guess. So you had the actual outline of it. Then they put, I don't know, some support beams in there. But they weren't shaved down. So my back scrapes against all that. And I'm just laying in there. And I'm like, Thank God, it's over. And you could see literally, it's not the doors not even shut. You can tell by my body language. I don't care. The match is done. Shut the damn thing. It's over. Like if you see the footage. I fall in, I just gave up."

On American Top Team:

"I mean, we had Andre Arlovski, who was one of my favourite mine and my father's favourite UFC fighters. So that was like, mind-blowing to me. Dude, he was so jacked and he had the coolest mouthpiece with the fangs. He's such a badass. So we had him and then we had Junior dos Santos, and then we had Paige VanZant and all three ended up wrestling. All three brought something completely different to the table and a completely different perspective to the table. Out of all three, I have my fingers crossed and I pray every day that JDS gets back into professional wrestling. He is one of the most naturally charismatic people out of all three of them. And this is not a knock on anyone. He picked it up the fastest. The timing, the footwork, everything, the presentation and the fact that he understood that we were putting on a show. And the first time we all went, I think it was we jumped Lance Archer or on the stage or it was just all of us in the ring talking trash. I can't remember but Junior ended up coming to the back and he was ecstatic. What is this? He's like, they were yelling at me and I started yelling back. There's another booing me And he's like, then they gave it more back. He's like, this was the best. Like right away he got it and he was like, Okay, how do I do this? Okay, what do we do this? How do I do that? Well, I want to learn this. Like he was the best out of the three I hope he comes back to wrestling. He's a natural showman. And one of my favourite dudes, just the nicest, nicest dude."

What is Ethan Page grateful for?

“My kids, my wife, AEW and my trainer.”