How MJF Succeeded Where Roman Reigns Failed
AEW's MJF may have done something unprecedented recently. Generational, indeed...
"MJF needs to turn babyface."
"You can't defy what the fans want; it's something WWE did for so long that it was the reason AEW emerged in the first place."
"They won't be able to do it anyway. MJF is too over as a babyface."
Virtually everybody echoed takes along those lines in the cursed period between All Out and Full Gear 2022.
MJF had turned de facto babyface because, ultimately, his Brian Pillman odyssey did not work: modern wrestling fans, overwhelmed with content, have become so accustomed to cheering a returning star, irrespective of their face/heel alignment, because the medium otherwise rarely allows them to miss or anticipate anybody. CM Punk's conduct at and in the lead-up to 'Brawl Out' didn't help MJF's 'Devil' character either. Punk's surly demeanour had bled into his performances throughout his programme with Jon Moxley - to such an extent that half the fans sided with Mox. Even in Chicago, the atmosphere, while raucous, wasn't remotely comparable to WWE Money In The Bank 2011. That was the idea, too: Punk didn't cut that ultra-regionalised promo, which everyone not from Chicago couldn't like as much, for nothing on the go-home Dynamite.
Punk was the guy who deprived fans, MJF was the man who, with no way of knowing this, filled the void. That wasn't the plan. It was the opposite of the plan. The heel MJF was meant to feud with the babyface CM Punk.
And, beyond all that, MJF was turned babyface because he's too entertaining and charismatic.
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