10 WWE & AEW Wrestlers Who Have Benefitted From The Empty Arena Era

Young Maxwell Jacob Friedman was really only getting going when the pandemic brought everything to a grinding halt, so you could forgive the guy if he lost a little of that momentum when the crowds were dismissed. Instead, AEW’s chief antagonist has merely continued that upward trajectory, proving himself to be an inventive, adaptive performer and one of the best heels in the biz, audience or no.

A fearless performer, MJF has never met a crowd he couldn’t agitate, and he’s continued to rub folks up the wrong way even if they can only boo from afar. 2020-2021 has been an eventful period - he won his second Dynamite Diamond Ring, joined the Inner Circle, failed at a coup attempt, then debuted his own faction, The Pinnacle, who’ve been at war with Jericho’s crew ever since.

And that’s without mentioning Le Dinner Debonair, Friedman’s wildly entertaining musical number alongside Jericho that simultaneously showed off his impressive pipes and triggered a rage induced coronary in Jim Cornette. For MJF, the sky’s the limit - there’s no slowing him down.