8 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (May 20)

6. Schoolyard Bully

Played to perfection was MJF vs. Marko Stunt (or "Marko Runt," if you're the kind of person who finds witless tripe like "Oldberg" funny), in which 'The Salt of the Earth' was the quintessential schoolyard bully.

While not as brutish as the Lance Archer squash, this was similarly effective, with Stunt enjoying only fleeting openings thanks to his speed and evasiveness. All slithers of offense were slapped down almost immediately by an MJF in prime !*$% form. It was a sharp, realistic portrayal of a wrestler who has no business believably "hanging" with a guy like Friedman, and didn't. 'Mr Fun Size' got his ass kicked outside of a couple of hope spots.

MJF was posing, preening, and talking trash. He controlled the ring throughout and strutting across it a la Jeff Jarrett. At one point, he grabbed Marko's hand and used it to slap Stunt's own face, then shoved a digit up his nose. Wardlow interfered on his behalf because he could, not because he needed to, enhancing the c*untiness, before MJF eventually decided he'd had enough, downing Marko with a Shoulder Breaker followed by the Salt of the Earth.

Grabbing the stick for a quick promo afterwards, MJF had the Dynamite Diamond Ring slid onto his finger then made Stunt "kiss it" via punch to the face.