10 Awesome WWE & AEW Wrestlers We Can't Wait To See Live Again
2. MJF
The heel and face dynamic of professional wrestling was devised for live crowds.
The intent of wrestling’s pre-television days was to entertain those who’d bought tickets and hook them into the next show. In transitioning to TV and streaming, crowd reaction is still important to influence viewer’s response – serving a similar function to a sitcom laughter track. The importance is evidenced in WWE’s common practice of editing crowd noise following live events.
In the landscape of professional wrestling, there is no better heel than Maxwell Jacob Friedman – a man whose heat couldn’t even be dampened when footage of him singing on the Rosie O’Donnell Show aged five emerged.
Though MJF’s rise to top heel has been wildly entertaining, he has been robbed of the vitriol of an arena spewing raw hatred at his arrogant and mocking actions. In the territory days, MJF would have incited riots and likely been attacked by a crazy wielding a sharp object.
Sure, MJF, by living his gimmick, has been killing it on social media, but you can offend people online with an almost too blurry to read Family Guy meme. Given an audience, prime heel MJF has the potential to surpass even himself.