10 Best Promos In AEW History

Many fans are critical of worked shoot angles, understandably so. When a wrestler comes on screen, dropping people’s real names every other line and telling us, “Nevermind those other guys and their BS storylines, this is the real sh*t, brother!” It might be exciting in the moment but it, undermines both the wrestlers who are sent out afterwards and the fans ability to invest in them.

The beauty of this angry, visceral howl of a promo, is while it was informed by what we knew-and thought we knew-about MJF’s real life problems with Tony Khan, “The Salt Of The Earth” never really breaks character. If you want to lean in to the real world stuff, it’s right there.

But onscreen, a bitter MJF has seen all his plans fall apart, been humiliated by his former employee and watched his nemesis win the World Title. If you’d rather head canon it so that it’s just kayfabe MJF who is upset, angry feeling undervalued and looking to take it out on Tony Khan and the fans, nothing he says contradicts that.

He claims to be better wrestler than the guys who drop people on their heads, because that’s not his wrestling style, he’s a side headlock takeover guy. But he doesn’t mention botches or match layouts. Friedman didn’t need to break kayfabe for this promo to make this promo feel convincing.

Plus it doesn’t matter who your AEW favourites are. When you saw MJF screaming “I’m the the best in the world because I’m the only guy who makes you feel!”, in that moment, you believed him.