News

MJF Praised By WWE Hall Of Famer For AEW Dynamite Match

By John Canton • Published 20th July 2024
MJF AEW

An incredible performance on AEW Dynamite has led to one WWE Hall of Famer praising MJF heavily for his outstanding work in the ring.

There is a perception among some people who watch, follow, and report on pro wrestling in 2024 that Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF) is an elite talker, but maybe not an elite in-ring performer. Over the last year or two as he was pushed to the main event level, MJF has had a lot of incredible performances in the ring that likely silenced his doubters.

The opening match on AEW Dynamite in Little Rock was a classic battle that went 58:58 (two seconds before the 60-minute time limit expired) as MJF defeated Will Ospreay to become the new AEW International Champion. It was a match that was rated five stars by yours truly while Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter went 5.75* for the match.

Bully Ray is a WWE Hall of Famer from his days as Bubba Ray Dudley. While speaking about MJF on his Busted Open After Dark show, Bully had good things to say about Friedman.

“Max finds new ways to impress me every single time I see him go out there.”

That also led to Bully talking about how some veterans in pro wrestling think MJF is overrated, which leads to Bully responding to them: “And I said ‘No, he’s not. He’s not overrated.'” Bully continued to talk about what makes Friedman so good.

“He might be a little pompous, he might have a little bit of a chip on his shoulder, he might have a little bit of a big head early on in his career; but every wrestler goes through it.”

The hour-long match with Ospreay was the second time that MJF has done an hour-long match. The first time was at AEW Revolution 2023 when Max successfully defended the AEW World Title against Bryan Danielson in a 60-minute match that went into overtime for another five minutes. Bully referenced that while saying that Friedman is underrated in the ring.

“He’s really, really good at what he does, and he’s very underrated when it comes to his in-ring ability. We have now watched MJF go 60 minutes with Danielson and Ospreay.”

MJF Defending International Title Outside Of AEW

The next major AEW PPV is All In on August 25th at Wembley Stadium in London, England. It’s not yet known if Max may face Ospreay there or perhaps Daniel Garcia, who MJF recently injured when he turned on him.

Before he gets to All In, MJF will defend the AEW International Title on August 2nd in Arena Mexico at a CMLL event.

H/T WrestlingInc