10 Major AEW Stars Who Publicly Savaged The Company

3. MJF

Jericho Honeymoon Thumb
AEW

A caveat applies here: what is the extent to which whatever is happening between MJF and Tony Khan a "shoot"?

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer appears to be of the "not very" opinion, gauging by his story in the June 6, 2022 Wrestling Observer Newsletter, in which he wrote "[the situation] likely was a work with Khan and MJF from the start".

Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp is under the belief that there's (slightly) more to this than Khan and MJF creating a modern spin on the Brian Pillman saga of 1996. While he did tweet on June 2 that he "absolutely" believes the situation became a work as of Monday May 30, Sapp subsequently reported, on June 6, that there were people "you absolutely do not work" involved that had "genuine concern" for MJF's safety.

Sapp at time of writing is still operating under the belief that a real-life situation was fictionalised to lend credibility to what is now a work, but also claimed that a source of his has taken the opposite tack; they now believe what was a work is now a shoot.

Bloody hell.

It's fascinating, if nothing else, and if it was a shoot at one point, MJF was indeed publicly and without compunction burying AEW for not paying him at a level commensurate with his drawing power.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!