After taking part in a Collision main event so impressive that some professional wrestling fans complained that it shouldn't have been given away for free on television, MJF and Kenny Omega stuck around in the ring a little longer so the longest-reigning World Champion in the promotion's history could address the crowd, thank the “Best Bout Machine” for the incredible match, and ultimately, pontificate a little further on the “Bidding War of 2024,” where he might leave AEW for good in order to try his hand at WWE.
Unusual? Maybe a little bit but hey, when hasn't MJF matched to the beat of his own drum?
“I am wrestling way more than I ever thought I f**king would. Let me tell you something. This s**t is exhausting. I want to tell a very quick story, and it's about the man across the ring. For me, I was 19 years old at an independent wrestling promotion. It was literally the first wrestling promotion that I went to outside of my training school, Create-A-Pro Wrestling Academy. It was called Five Borough Wrestling. I had a match on the opening of the show, and guys that I aspired to reach the heights of in this sport were guys like Bryan Danielson, guys like Samoa Joe, who's kind of an a**hole, and most certainly guys like Kenny f**king Omega,” MJF said to the Collision crowd.
“Now that night, that night, you had no reason to stop and watch my match. I was a p*sspot, but you watched my match. You pulled me to the side, and you let me pick your brain that night, and you might not remember that, but I sure as h*ll do. Without Kenny Omega, without the Bucks, without Cody Rhodes, and without Tony Khan, who might be a f**king mark, but he's a visionary, All Elite Wrestling does not exist. Therefore, your World Champion, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, does not exist now. I'll be honest. I still don't know what I'm gonna do for the bidding war of 2024, but what I do know is that when I get the opportunity to wrestle ‘The Best Bout Machine' Kenny Omega, it tends to sway my opinions a little bit. So now I am going to let Kenny Omega do what he does best. I am going to let him do a goodbye the only way he knows how.”
While MJF's “Bidding War of 2024” is now fully engrained as part of his gimmick at this point, as even aligned as a babyface, he's still the “People's Scumbag,” it's odd that the AEW World Champion is still so willing to take about WWE regularity, especially considering the segment in question wasn't even supposed to make it to television but was instead posted online after fan cams shared bits and pieces of it at a lower resolution. Maybe Worlds End is a gimmick meant to highlight MJF's new contract extension, or maybe it really is the end of the line for the “Salt of the Earth.”
Kenny Omega hopes to see MJF lead AEW for years to come.
After listening to MJF put him over and reflect on his professional wrestling career, Kenny Omega took a turn on the microphone himself, letting the crowd and his former foe know that, after being downtrodden by his diminished athleticism, he's beyond excited to see a worthy successor pick up the ball where he left off and hopes to see him lead AEW off into the future.
“Now, I've got to be honest, and this may be partly a sad story, but trust me, it has a happy ending. For a lot of us, time is not our friend; the more time goes by, the more we have to say goodbye to things. My condition isn't what it used to be. I'm not even sure if I can call myself the best bout machine, and for a pocket in time, that was a very sad reality because there was no one left to take my place. But now, I can say goodbye to these things with a smile on my face because we do have people like MJF that are willing to not only take the ball but run with it and run with it further than I ever could,” Kenny Omega declared to the crowd and MJF.
“So, though I thought I'd be a little salty with you breaking my record, now I can be proud that the championship belt is in the right hands. So MJF, yes, Jay White and I go way back, and Jay White may not be willing to tell you, but there once was upon a time when Jay White washed my dirty laundry. So you think I'd be able to look upon him with some sort of fondness, but rest assured, I am cheering for you to get your belt back, I am cheering for you to lead this company into the promised land, and I am rooting for you to represent AEW and all of these beautiful people for years, and years, and years to come.”
Could MJF ultimately leave AEW after all of this pomp and circumstance? Yes, Jade Cargill has proven firsthand that no matter how much time Tony Khan puts into getting a Superstar over, if they don't want to stick around, they will leave for WWE to advance their career. Will that happen with MJF? Fans will have to wait and see.
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