Having been the one to thrust the referee from the ring in first place, there was no one to make the winning count for Page. He had been cost by his own desperation, and found that he had tipped the balance so far that it was not going to have time to settle in his favor. It almost immediately cost him, with Joe locking in the Coquina Clutch in the middle of the ring. Once more, Strickland broke it up with a Spiral Tap, and then once more Page started wailing away at a referee purely to prevent Strickland from winning. Page hit another Buckshot to Joe, but then Strickland used a Buckshot of his own to drop Page and follow up with the JML Driver.

The crowd noise had met its crescendo, everyone off their seats just waiting for the fall to crown Strickland. And then Joe sucked the air out of the room, throwing Strickland out of the ring and locking in the Coquina Clutch on Page.

At this point, Page wasn’t looking likely to win the title. He might not have been put away by Joe in that moment, he may have been saved by the one man he truly hated within the match. But that meant that Strickland could still win the title. This was the one and only time in the match that Page had 100% of the say in who won the match. And Strickland could only watch on as Page tapped out, failing to win for himself but succeeding in spiting his rival – a win in its own way. It was this loss that heightened the desire to see Strickland become the champion, as he eventually did at Dynasty 2024. And thus, in effect, it helped lay the foundations for the upcoming world title match at Worlds End.