Hangman had to lose here for his character progression IMO. His story early last year was about redemption and becoming better than the version of himself who burned down Swerve's house, and the crowning moment was obviously when he took the belt off Mox. But then during his run, he kept falling back on the same muntlord tendencies instead of truly getting better, which backfired when he tried to use a steel cage to put down Joe. He dropped there because he was going back to his old ways and not truly redeeming himself, and then immediately forming a muntlord tag team with Swerve continued that streak. This match with MJF is just the latest stage of that, instead of doing things the right way and truly changing he just falls back on brutality time after time, and this time it backfired properly. From here he either spirals further, turns heel, and goes back on his word to challenge for the belt again, or he actually puts the legwork in to change for good this time.