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Former WWE Champion Should Be MJF’s Next Challenger, Claims Jim Cornette

mjf aew world title burberry

The new AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman aka MJF will have a lot of wrestlers coming after him for his title and Jim Cornette thinks a former WWE Champion needs one of the first guys to do it.

After winning the AEW World Title at Full Gear thanks to an assist from William Regal turning on former AEW World Champion Jon Moxley, MJF became the youngest man to hold the biggest prize in AEW.

On the November 30th episode of AEW Dynamite, MJF had a victory speech with Regal by his side. After Regal helped MJF unveil a new AEW World TItle with a Burberry strap on it, MJF turned on Regal to show that MJF is “The Devil” after all.

Following MJF’s cheap forearm shot (while wearing brass knuckles) to the back of Regal, Bryan Danielson made the save since Regal is Bryan’s mentor and a father figure to him. It will likely lead to Danielson looking for payback against MJF while Regal is reportedly gone from AEW to head back to WWE.

During a recent episode of Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru podcast, the legendary wrestling manager Cornette talked about how Danielson makes logical sense as an opponent for MJF.

“Obviously the next major opponent and it makes perfect sense is Danielson. He just, you know, MJF just laid waste to Regal so Danielson would be natural. And also those matches I’m sure would be very good and I don’t think Danielson would be as hard to work with mentally or physically as most of the other people that you know, you could choose from. Having said that, that is indeed the problem and you mentioned you know, booking Flair, booking and a heel, you know, champion.”

“You’ve got to have strong babyfaces which is what when Ric Flair was a heel and remember The Four Horsemen they always had [strong babyfaces]. And just the fact that, again I’m not knocking Ricky Starks, but to this point, he has not been portrayed at the single main event World Title level. They just had him win a tournament, and I’m not saying he shouldn’t get an opportunity but that’s not an answer for him. Ricky Starks is not the equivalent of Sting in 1989, right? Not in his presentation at this point.”

As he continued, Cornette talked about how AEW really needs to have some credible babyface opponents for MJF to face.

“And this is the one obvious babyface, Danielson is the guy that just came out and had to f*cking tell that tale of sorrow and woe and switch heel in front of half the crowd the other day on TV but at least yes they will get behind him in this incident for you know, going for revenge for his lordship.”

“But besides Danielson who’s been portrayed at a main event level, who obviously has a long history and track record and respect from the fans, that’s a money matchup that’s pay-per-view. Ricky Starks isn’t, not because of his talent because of his presentation. Mox, nobody wants Moxley again please God no. And explain to me who their other main event babyfaces are. Does anybody want to see MJF against twinkle toes? God please tell me no, please please tell me no.”

h/t Inside The Ropes