10 Wrestlers Who Proved Their Worth In A Crisis
Atlas flexed.
All Elite Wrestling promoted an unfathomably excellent professional wrestling show under such dreadful conditions on Wednesday night.
The mood of the entire planet had darkened. An unprecedented global crisis, a threat to our very liberty, unfolded in the age of total convenience; a generation of people, almost overnight, had to adjust to a wavelength of living they had only ever read about on Wikipedia, which was easier and more convenient than reading a textbook.
Of drastically lesser importance was the task faced by AEW: promoting a wrestling show in front of no fans, an entertainment event meant to afford an escape where it has become impossible to engage in that mode. Outrageously, they succeeded, by applying its greatest resource to its most inspired - and let's face it, flagrantly irresponsible - idea.
To underscore the weirdness of it all, MJF was at the heart of it - MJF, the moneyed sociopath who would remove the dignity of and lash a man, just to watch him wince, provided the soul of the broadcast. MJF was so fantastic throughout that he inspired this very list.
He wasn't the only one...
10. MJF
MJF surveyed a void keenly felt by all wrestling fans, a void that made the very premise of wrestling untenable, and filled it with two hours of absolutely incredible motormouth wit and physical charisma.
As part of an inspired show-long conceit, MJF and Shawn Spears gambled on the outcome of matches, which effectively crystallised AEW's entire 2020. In an excellent year of process refinement, the company through adverse circumstances solved one of its few remaining residual issues: those ceaseless, cringeworthy crowd reaction shots. Instead, that camera captured MJF in full sh*theel mode as he thrust his head into Spears', repeatedly, in celebration of taking his money from him.
Even off-camera, MJF used every breath in his lungs and quip on his lips to not dominate the show but to enhance it. His chauvinism, heckling, and utter yob behaviour proved true his catchphrase; in an era in which too many fans attempt to get themselves over, MJF truly is better than all of us, and we know it now.
We'll never have another Bobby Heenan, but MJF's entire life is an awesome unscripted heel promo. He is the closest we'll get.