If there's one complaint fans might have from MJF's World Championship run in AEW, it's that his reign was a little too much Sports Entertainment and not enough professional wrestling.
On paper, it makes sense, right? MJF is by all accounts a massive fan of wrestling's past, basing much of his presentation on old-school legends like Ric Flair – his robes – and Hulk Hogan – his intentionally minimalistic in-ring style – but when Adam Cole destroyed his ankle at Arthur Ashe, the decision to go all-in on video packages and goofy, Retribution-style masked men led some fans desperate to see a change, with Samoa Joe now serving as a breath of fresh air at the top of the card.
When MJF eventually returns to AEW, will he take things in a more serious situation? Or will the one-time Dynastic bro instead keep up the same exaggerated storytelling, even if he likely won't be throwing dodgeballs at children with Cole any time soon unless The Devil storyline takes a profound change?
Discussing MJF's ability to entertain a crowd on his Oh You Didn't Know? podcast, Road Dogg boldly declared that, though the “Salt of the Earth” is great, he believes he's a better sports entertainer.
“The fact that I've taken this long should make everybody mad. Are they pissed, you think, by now?” Road Dogg asked via 411 Mania. “I don't know, dude, he's great. He's a really great promo. He's not a great wrestler, in my mind, but I wasn't even a good one, so I don't compare that to. Let me just give this to you plain and simple. The Road Dogg is a better sports entertainer than MJF. That is no disrespect to MJF, I've met the individual, very respectful young man, very smart young man. Smart in the way he eats, the way he trains, surpasses me in everything, but I wanted to make the one line that everybody will read very clear; I'm a better sports entertainer than MJF. I get it. Then, I'll trend. Thank you guys for that. If they listen to the whole thing, as a human being, I think the dude is a good dude. Spent some time with him at a… sat with him and Billy [Billy Gunn] while we watched Grado work at the convention we were at, and had a blast. Great guy. Great at what we do. Would be tremendous in WWE. Never say never. I hope I get the opportunity to work with him. Again, let me make it very simple for you guys; I'm a better sports entertainer than MJF.”
Huh, so Road Dogg believes he's a better sports entertainer than MJF because… why exactly? Well, I guess if you don't provide any supporting evidence to your claim, there's no way to critique it, leading to his efforts doing nothing more than generating buzz online, which, in a way, is actually a pretty good example of sports entertainment, so you have to give it to Dogg, he knows what he's doing.
Matt Hardy believes MJF will be even more over when he returns.
After watching MJF suffer not one but two incredible losses at Worlds End in front of his hometown crowd, both of his AEW World Championship and of his best friend, Adam Cole, one person who was all about the final AEW match of 2023 was Matt Hardy, who thought the effort turned out great considering the outgoing champion's laundry list of injuries.
“I dug it. I think MJF did a phenomenal job as champion, I thought he turned in a solid performance,” Matt Hardy said on his Extreme Life podcast via Fightful. “Who knows truly how much he was hurt, he seems to be a little injured. They had a great match, he ends up losing the title to Samoa Joe. One thing that I did like a lot is that Samoa Joe got the title, exited, and then the angle happened afterward so he wasn't wrapped up in that. I was a big fan of that specific booking. I love the fact that the guys show up and the whole way that they go into the Adam Cole thing, I thought it was very cool when they're holding him and MJF still, until the very last moment before the reveal happens, he's like, ‘Don't you hit him, don't you hit him you piece of shit, hit me, hit me.' This guy has already lost everything and then he loses his best friend.”
When his co-host, Jon Alba, noted that he thinks MJF will actually get hotter from the situation when he eventually returns to the ring, Hardy agreed, suggesting that he believes that Cole's betrayal should make the “Salt of the Earth” even more over… assuming he doesn't sign with Impact or MLW instead.
“I did too. I thought the match told a great story. I think there was such a blurred line on how much is Max truly hurt, or he is truly hurt? Is he hurt, is he not hurt, I don't know!' Hardy noted. “I don't think anyone knows and he does a really good job at blurring the lines when it comes to stuff like that in storyline aspects. That made me think about how the match was going to play out, and considering that we knew he was hurt, he was beat down from having all of these championship defenses, I love the fact that the majority of the match was Joe and it was him dominating and it showed him fighting from underneath like a baby face the whole while and he still gets to be MJF, he still gets to be a scumbag in many, many ways but he still has that sympathy because he's fighting back from underneath. They go through the finish, they do the deal, choke out, Joe is out and then we go into the next thing. I think the betrayal of Adam Cole to MJF is going to do something amazing for his character. I'm very excited to see how he eventually plays off of that, that is if he returns to AEW. His contract came up, apparently they took him off the website, is that correct? Who knows, he might show up in MLW, he might show up in IMPACT.”
Would it be cool to see MJF show up in MLW, reuniting with Alex Hammerstone and Richard Holliday before returning to AEW? Sure thing, but frankly, that feels pretty hard to imagine. No, unless MJF signs with WWE as part of the “Bidding War of 2024,” the next place fans will see him is in AEW, either on television or a Pay-Per-View, as Tony Khan wouldn't be ponying up the big bucks to retain the “People's Scumbag's” services only to allow him to wrestle for a smaller promotion instead of his own.
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