MJF Explains Why Some Wrestling Fans Are Negative Towards AEW
MJF has given his thoughts on why wrestling fans are negative about AEW after some interesting comments made by his boss, Tony Khan.
As the longest reigning AEW World Heavyweight Champion and somebody who has been with the company during its entire five-year run, Maxwell Jacob Friedman knows what he’s talking about when it comes to AEW. Whether you like him or not, MJF isn’t shy about giving his opinions on any topic relating to the company.
Recently, AEW’s Owner, CEO and booker Tony Khan commented about how he feels like AEW is constantly under attack.
“To be AEW is to be under constant attack. You do a great show and the next day somebody’s saying something negative, you do five great shows in a row, somebody says something negative. You break the record for the most tickets ever sold for a wrestling show in the history of the world and somebody has something bad to say about it.”
While speaking to Jason “Solomonster” Solomon of SEScoops, MJF did his best to explain why some fans seem to hate AEW and even want it to fail.
“Yeah, well, here’s why. I’m actually going to relate this to Judaism, because I’m very good at my job. When you think about why people hate us and why we constantly get attacked, it’s because we’re different and being different makes people uncomfortable.”
“I genuinely feel the reason that a lot of the time you’ll find a lot of, and don’t get me wrong, there was most certainly constructive criticism online, genuinely, but you’ll find a lot of non-constructive criticism online. Just wild irredeemably messed up sh*t that people are saying that is either untrue or just mean, you know?”
“And I think the reason that’s happening is Monday Night Raw is the longest-reigning episodic television show of all time. We have only been around for what, four and a half years? That’s new, that’s different, and what’s different…different scares people.”
MJF Agrees With Tony Khan
As he continued to talk about wrestling fans being negative about AEW as a company, Friedman admitted he agreed with Tony Khan.
“So I actually do agree for once with Tony Khan’s assessment [AEW being the ‘challenger brand’ to WWE] and I think that’s the issue. I think the issue is that we’re fresh.”
“We’re new. We feel dangerous to people – and I kind of get off on that, because I get to be the World Champion of that danger and that change, just like I get to be a champion of the Jewish people.”
Next up for the AEW World Champion is a title defense against Samoa Joe at the Worlds End PPV on December 30th. In the same interview, MJF admitted he has had trouble raising his arm up in the air due to the torn labrum in his shoulder.