In a few short days, MJF will wrestle what might just be the most important match of his AEW World Championship reigns in front of his hometown crowd in Long Island, when he goes toe-to-toe with one of the biggest, baddest dudes to ever do it in the business, Samoa Joe, at Worlds End.
If MJF can secure the win, a task made all the more challenging, considering he has a shoulder injury that AEW has tried to keep close to the vest, it will clear the path for a two-month rest for the champ, where he can regroup ahead of his next major challenge, hopefully The Devil, at Revolution in March. If he loses, well, things open all the way up for both the “Salt of the Earth” and AEW as a whole, with all sorts of different options suddenly on the table for Tony Khan as a booker.
Which path will Khan take as a booker? That remains to be seen, but in the opinion of Ric Flair, MJF has already set himself apart as one of the best performers in AEW, which is why the “Nature Boy” hopes he sticks around to be the face of the company long-term.
“We exchanged pleasantries in the lobby of the hotel. I shook his hand and said, not that it mattered to him, but I think he's pretty confident in himself,” Ric Flair shared on The Wrestling Classic via Fightful. “He doesn't need a pat on the back and that's what makes him a little bit different. He's good. I don't mind telling you, he's d**n good. he's confident. He's young. I tried to mainly reinforce to him that I hope he stays at AEW.”
Asked what set MJF apart from the rest of AEW and young wrestlers in general, Flair compared the young champion to Randy Orton, who is widely considered one of the best wrestlers in WWE history.
“I like the fact that I think he's confident and comes across as confident in real life as he comes across with his confidence in the ring,” Flair said. “He's got a great interview, he's got a great look, he's worked hard. I think he has the confidence in real life that he portrays on TV and I think the future is unlimited for him. He's really good. He could be the next Randy Orton. That's about as high of praise as I can give him.”
Could the day eventually come when MJF is widely talked about in the same conversation as Orton? Maybe yes, maybe no, but for that to happen, he needs to amass even more top-tier matches, which will require him to deliver fantastic efforts at Worlds End and beyond.
MJF reveals why his scenes were cut from The Iron Claw.
While MJF is hard at work preparing for Worlds End, he does have other activities to keep him busy, including doing promotional work for The Iron Claw, the A24 film about the Von Erich family that he both executive produced and acted in via a blink-and-you-missed-it cameo as Lance Von Erich, the fake family member who joined the WCCW when Kerry Von Erich became the Texas Tornado in WWE.
Asked about his scenes in the film, some of which were cut, MJF noted that he's happy with the final product but would be excited for fans to see a director's cut, as it would feature even more moments from each of the actors, himself included.
“There most certainly is [an extended scene]. I don't know where it's going to live. There was a scene where me and him were talking, but me and Sean both completely understood that listen, I want this film to succeed, and the film needed to be about the brothers. As fun as I had shooting that scene, realistically, it didn't add to the overarching story and the importance of the story between the brothers and what they were going through in dealing with the pressures that their father put on them. It didn't fit in the pieces of the puzzle,” MJF told Comicbook.com.
“I'm sure that you're going to find that there was a lot of stuff that got cut and it wasn't because it wasn't good. I think everything that was shot was absolutely fantastic. Not just my stuff, but every actor had stuff that got cut. It's just like there's only so much time. The story that's most important is the brothers. That's what it came down to. I couldn't agree with Sean Durkin more on the decisions he made. The film is an absolute masterpiece.
“There were a lot of other things that were cut in regards to their history. If there is a director's cut, I think people will have a lot of fun with it, but again, if there's not, the theatrical cut is good,” MJF said. “I'm not just saying that because I'm an EP. The story kicks you in the f–king balls, man. That's what you want. That's what you want in a drama. There's also moments of levity, and there's moments of comedy. It makes you want to cry, and it makes you want to laugh. I can't think of a better endorsement for a film than that.”
Would it have been cool to see more Lance Von Erich in the final The Iron Claw film? Most definitely, but as MJF pointed out, the film really is about the Von Erich brothers, and anything that takes away from that story is superfluous fat that deserves to be trimmed… at least for the theatrical cut. When the Blu-ray eventually comes out, however, there's better be plenty of MJF content, as, to paraphrase the Best Friends, you've got to give the people what they want.
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