There is little argument as to how good a heel Maxwell Jacob Friedman is as he’s always on point and his friends reportedly feel they’ve been worked for his storyline with Tony Kahn.
Many have said MJF reminds them of Roddy Piper during the 80s, and he’s been rocking it lately.
He’s been so good, in fact, that many of us remain unsure how much of what’s happening is a work and how much of it is a shoot. Given the recent evidence, it’s starting to look more and more like a work and we’re good with that.
An interesting side not to this is it’s been reported that MJF’s friends even feel worked as what he said during his pipe bomb promo on June 1 was the same he’s told them in private.
To work or not to work
On PWTorchVIP.com, Wade Keller’s been talking about the different aspects, and recently about the uncertainty MJF’s friends have about being worked or not.
Special thanks to Wrestlingnews.co for the following transcript.
“I know of wrestlers who MJF was saying all the things that he said in that promo to, but in real life private conversations that didn’t in any way seem to play into a strategy to work the dirt sheets or work Tony Khan or whatever you think that the con and the game was – who are now [asking], ‘who is Max?, how much of what he was saying was just part of his elaborate web of trying to create this believable, long arc work that would elevate him to…some higher status that’ll give him an even bigger deal and a bigger legendary Andy Kaufman meets Brian Pillman meets CM Punk meets whatever, for a WWE deal.”
To make things more interesting, it appears that MJF also stepped on a few toes during his pipe bomb, as some wresters allegedly feel like they were called out and/or disrespected when he talked about them not getting fans to feel, according to Keller.
“There’s also wrestlers whose eyebrows were raised [on Wednesday] that I’ve heard from and about who are like, ‘oh, we don’t make people feel? Is that what Tony’s authorizing wrestlers to say on the air that all the stuff that we’re doing to our bodies doesn’t make people feel but a guy who in three years has worked 22 matches, on average about seven per year for this company is getting to go on TV and disparage what we do in a promo that led to fans cheering him because he got to sort of heel on ex-WWE guys.’ Like there’s a bunch of money being spent on external TV guys who are just thrown under the bus on a promo to generate a buzz. So even if Tony Kahn hasn’t lied to anybody’s face about this, within hours of that promo, there’s people in AEW talking to each other going ‘what? what’s going on here? Were we worked? Who’s side is Tony on? Is he the captain of the ship? Did MJF work him? Can we please know what’s going on here? And by the way, can you stop throwing us under the bus and making us look bad?’
Keller went on to say he was cautioned by some and to be wary of MJF as he’s always in work mode. Given how MJF is such a student of the sport, it’s no surprise he follows kayfabe to near perfection.
It’s a lost art since the late 90s when the WWE pulled the curtain back to show the wizard at the controls, and it only heightens MFJ even more as it leaves us all guessing.
Love him or hate him, he definitely makes things interesting.
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