Since the debut of AEW MJF has been involved in some of the better storyliness and cut some of the best promos. Go back and watch his stuff vs Cody, or Jericho, or his amazing back and forth with CM Punk. But last night the 26 year old laid one out for the ages.
Context, for months MJF has casually mentioned he might go to WWE once his contract is up in the rumored early part of 2024. It's a great way for a heel to piss off AEW fans. Then "rumors" started that he wanted a raise and had a falling out with Tony Khan. Work? Shoot? Work shoot? It's hard to tell though there's always kernels of truth in the best storylines, and wrestling is often at it's best when the lines are blurred a bit.
So late Saturday news broke the MJF skipped a fan event and had purchased a plane ticket out of Vegas but never boarded. So now there were questions about his PPV match vs Wardlow as it now seemed in jeopardy. Of course, when the PPV started MJF's music was the first to hit, making it seem like it was more work than shoot. Whether he really was angry over his contract and wanted out or not, MJF did the job and ate 10 powerbombs to the Goldberg-esque Wardlow and was taken out on a stretcher making me wonder if he'd be off TV for a bit, storyline or not.
Well, it was not. And MJF came out last night and cut a scathing promo which I personally described as part Loose Cannon, part Pipebomb. Hell, it was a nuke. And there's a moment here where MJF is yelling in to the camera that I see a twinkle of Ric Flair in his eyes and mannerisms. I'm thinking this is 70% work with 30% shoot behind it. And there was so much truth to MJF was saying that he almost veered himself right in to anti-hero territory. And then they cut his mic and went to commercial. And when they came back none of the commentators, JR, Tony, Excalibur, said anything about what just happened instead going back to comment on the opening match as if the whole MJF thing was a total shoot. AEW's twitter page, which had even started tweeting some of MJF's segment, quickly deleted the posts further adding to the real feeling of the thing. Heck, it's not even on AEW's youtube page despite the number of hits it would probably garner.
So MJF hits another "grand slam", and everyone around him are hitting all the right tiny details to help blur the lines here and it's fabulous. And now we can all just sit back and see where this goes...
26 years old. SMH.