AEW: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About MJF
He’s better than you and you know it - but not many people know these MJF facts.
A couple of weeks ago, on AEW Dynamite, MJF delivered a sincere, heartfelt promo worthy of his recently departed nemesis Cody Rhodes. He talked about his lonely childhood, getting bullied for his Jewishness and ADD, about his school football career and hopes of friendship dashed, about a meet and greet with his hero CM Punk and the betrayal and abandonment he felt when Punk walked away from wrestling.
In storyline, this gave CM Punk something of a crisis of conscience. He tried to be the bigger man, despite admitting to feeling gaslit even as he extended the hand of friendship. As it turned out, he was being suckered into a vicious, Pinnacle-assisted attack, a battered, bloodied body his thanks for believing Maxwell’s words. It was all a heel deception all along.
Except, that meet and greet really did happen. MJF was wearing the proof right there on his blood smeared chest. He had taken a piece of his personal history and used it to inform his rivalry with Punk. It’s this level of detail that makes a smug, cocky character that could, in the wrong hands, seem cartoonish feel very, very real.
It’s all the more exciting to get this glimpse into “The Salt of The Earth’s” childhood in an era when we seemingly have access to every little detail of any given celebrity’s life. Max’s old-fashioned dedication to always maintaining his character makes him feel unusually unknowable. Hungry for more?
Here you go then…
10. He Got His Start IN CMZ
MJF appears to be a standard bearer for traditional wrestling values, wrestling an old fashioned, or classic, style that he refuses to believe has ever really gone out of fashion. “The Salt of the Earth” is a gifted physical athlete and can pull off a jaw dropping move but he picks his moments. MJF only really pulls out a showstopper out of desperation, which makes it all the more meaningful when he does hit that big move.
All of which makes MJF that rarest of beasts, a wrestler appreciated by both the modern, Bucks and Omega loving fan and Jim Cornette. The MJF who graces our screens every Wednesday has no interest in wrestling ultra-violent, light tube strewn bloodbaths. Why would he, when he can hire Nick Gage to do that for him?
It might be a surprise then, to learn that Maxwell found his wrestling feet in the proudly ultra-violent hardcore promotion, Combat Zone Wrestling. It’s the kind of outfit Cornette would dismiss as “garbage wrestling” but MJF once held their world title.
While some feel the weapons, violence and chaos of CZW provide short cuts for those who lack craft, they’ve actually given years of formative experience to some great talent. MJF was able to hone his skills in CZW rings and the same violent proving ground gave us Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston.
Perhaps the violent spirit of CZW informed MJF’s gruesome dog collar clash with CM Punk…