Ethan Page believes he could make himself the most beloved wrestler in WWE within three weeks — but says being liked by fans isn’t why he’s there.
Page remained firmly in character during his appearance on TMZ’s Inside The Ring, using the interview to portray himself as the one person in WWE willing to admit how the wrestling business really works.
His argument began with the question of where WWE’s money ultimately comes from. “Customer. Now, how are you going to get this money from the customer? Manipulate them. You manipulate them,” Page said. “Look, if I want to be the most loved guy in WWE, you give me three weeks and I’ll figure it out. It’s manipulation.”
Page claimed he could use those same methods to win over WWE fans but deliberately chooses not to because merchandise sales and popularity aren’t his primary motivations. “I’m not trying to make people love me. That’s my point. I’m not here to sell T-shirts,” he said. “I’m here for my childhood fantasy of becoming the Intercontinental Champion, then going on to becoming World Champion, Universal Champion, Royal Rumble winner, King of the Ring winner, all that stuff. I’m gonna do all that stuff. That’s why I’m here.”
He then turned his attention toward the rest of WWE’s roster, accusing other performers of being motivated by money, attention and their own egos. “Everyone else is here for this, and to get this put on billboards. It’s very vain and ego-driven, ironically. And money is big,” Page said. “They’re gonna lie to you to sell T-shirts. They’re gonna lie to you to sell action figures. They’re gonna lie to you to sell tickets. Everyone here is a liar but me.”
Earlier in the conversation, Page argued that everyone in professional wrestling has an ego. The difference, according to Page, is that he’s willing to acknowledge his. “I think ultimately everybody has it. The only issue is that I’m very open about mine, and others are very closed off about theirs, and they pretend they don’t have it, or they present it as confidence,” he said. “I’m just the only one that wears it on my sleeve.”
Page applied a similar argument to wrestlers’ behavior on social media, questioning why performers often respond to criticism while ignoring fans who praise them. “You have wrestlers get upset when fans tweet them. They’re responding,” Page said. “What are you responding to fans for? Why don’t you respond to the ones that compliment you? Only the ones that hurt your feelings, that tell you the truth, are the ones you’re giving attention?”
Page claimed that his own willingness to say what he believes to be true has repeatedly caused problems for him. “Never worked for me. It’s always blown up in my face. No one wants to hear the truth, know the truth, understand the truth, because we all ultimately do,” Page said. “Deep down we all know the truth, but no one wants to live in that. Everyone would rather have this unspoken agreement that we’re going to ignore this one thing that we all know is true, but it’s okay, we’re not going to talk about it. We’re just gonna pretend it didn’t happen. That’s life.”
He argued that the issue extends beyond professional wrestling, adding, “It runs rampant. No one wants authenticity. No one wants genuine, honest, nothing, ever.”
Asked whether his approach makes him the problem, Page instead characterized himself as someone exposing the people around him. “I’m being chosen by a bunch of phonies to be the bad guy. But I am the villain to them. I put the mirror up, and they don’t want to see the reflection,” he said. “To say that someone being honest is the problem, that’s wrong. The problem is that I get off on doing it.”
Page admitted that resistance only encourages him to push harder. “The more I realise that people don’t want to see the truth, the more I’m like, no, no, no, we’re gonna make sure you see it, and everyone watches you see it,” Page said.
He also offered his assessment of trust inside modern wrestling locker rooms compared to previous generations. “I think trusting people now is probably safer than back in the day. More people are a lot softer now,” he said.
Page’s comments come shortly after Chelsea Green revealed on Insight that she permanently left X because her interactions on the platform were beginning to affect relationships at work. Green named Page as the person who held her accountable to that decision, saying he texted her to make sure she didn’t embarrass herself by returning to the platform again.
Page has been part of Raw since April and has been working alongside Rusev. The former NXT Champion, NXT North American Champion and two-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion has yet to capture championship gold on WWE’s main roster.
He recently lost a number-one contender’s match for the Intercontinental Championship to Dragon Lee on the August 31 episode of Raw — notably, the Intercontinental Title is the first championship Page named when outlining what he still intends to accomplish in WWE.
