MJF Takes Shot At CM Punk While Recalling AEW All In Match
MJF has recalled his biggest matches of 2023 while also taking a moment to fire off a dig at his old rival CM Punk.
One of the biggest AEW rivalries in late 2021 into early 2022 was between current AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman and a former two-time AEW World Champion CM Punk.
The two men went on to have some legendary promos in the ring along with a few matches. The rivalry ended at AEW Revolution in March 2022 when MJF lost to CM Punk in a brutal, bloody Dog Collar Match. After the rivalry, CM Punk went on to become AEW World Champion twice in 2022 while MJF won the AEW World Title at Full Gear 2022.
MJF wrote an article for The Players Tribute about his life and his career going into the AEW Worlds End PPV. In the article, he wrote about some of his favorite World Title defenses this year. While writing about All In against Adam Cole, Friedman referenced CM Punk’s backstage altercation with Jack Perry.
“Cole at Wembley. Oh, look, another example of me doing something incredible and the big story afterwards being ‘old man gets in fracas.’ In seriousness: To main-event Wembley Stadium at all would have been something I was proud of.
But what meant even more is that 1. did it with Adam, who’s become a really good friend, and 2. We did it in a match that actually felt worthy of main-eventing Wembley Stadium. It SUCKS how Adam got injured — he was insanely good this summer and deserved to have it all play out. But I’m glad we got that match. It’s forever and it f*cking ruled.”
The “old man gets in fracas” was about the CM Punk fight with Jack Perry. One week after AEW All In, CM Punk was fired while AEW’s Owner Tony Khan said that he was in fear for his life due to something that happened backstage with Punk. CM Punk is 45 years old while MJF is 27 years old, hence the “old man” remark.
AEW Worlds End Will Feature MJF World Title Match
MJF will put the AEW World Title on the line against Samoa Joe in the main event of AEW Worlds End on December 30th in Friedman’s hometown of Long Island, New York. This will be the second time that MJF defends the AEW World Title against Samoa Joe. This time, MJF is going into the match with a serious shoulder injury. The lineup for AEW Worlds End is below.
* AEW World Championship: MJF (c) vs. Samoa Joe
* TNT Championship No Disqualification Match: Christian Cage (c) vs. Adam Copeland
* Finals of the Continental Classic Tournament: Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley
* AEW Women’s Championship: Toni Storm (c) vs. Riho
* Powerhouse Hobbs, Kyle Fletcher, Big Bill and Ricky Starks vs. Chris Jericho, Sting, Darby Allin & Sammy Guevara
* Swerve Strickland vs. Keith Lee
* Miro vs. Andrade El Idolo
* Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli, Bryan Danielson), Mark Briscoe & Daniel Garcia vs. Brody King, Jay White, Jay Lethal & Rush
* TBS Championship: Julia Hart (c) vs. Abadon
* Hook (c) vs. Wheeler Yuta (ZERO HOUR PRE-SHOW)
* 20-Man Battle Royal For Shot at TNT Title (ZERO HOUR PRE-SHOW)
* Willow Nightingale vs. Kris Statlander (ZERO HOUR PRE-SHOW)
For info on how to order AEW Worlds End on PPV, check out AEW’s website for info on how to watch it in your country. There are different options depending on where you live.