Ethan Page may not have won the Intercontinental Championship from Penta tonight, but he looked fantastic in defeat. That could just be me thinking about today’s report about how well-liked he is backstage for how hard he works, and if that’s the case, he proved the hard-working part, at least in the Saturday Night’s Main Event ring.

Page gave it everything he had, and he looked to have the bout won at multiple points. He really heeled it up toward the end of the match, as well, when he used Penta’s mask to pull the champion down to get him into position to hit the avalanche powerslam. I don’t usually love mask spots like that, as they’re so overused in WWE anymore, but Page didn’t come close to fully unmasking him, and it just works so well for his character. The challenger was also dastardly in distracting the referee to pull off a near-victory. He took off one turnbuckle pad, then, while the ref’s back was turned, took off the opposing corner’s pad.

He just couldn’t quite get Penta, however, and despite dodging it earlier in the match, Page took a Mexican Destroyer for the loss after going into the turnbuckle he exposed. He put up one hell of a fight all throughout the match, however, and I thought it was one of the best bouts of the night.

I do think Page wins the Intercontinental Championship sooner rather than later, especially if he’s so well-liked in WWE, and I hated that this match wasn’t the main event, especially with Seth Rollins not showing up to confront Bron Breakker. I did, however, love the match overall and how strong it made Page look, even in defeat. He often had answers for Penta’s offense, which was impressive, and hung on until his own heelish ways got the better of him. I know I’m someone who loves all the recent “WWE NXT” call-ups (hey, it was a solid class), but I think even if I wasn’t watching Page before, I’d still be curious to see just what he’s going to do next.

Written by Daisy Ruth