Real Reason MJF Is Off AEW TV At The Moment (AEW News)
Tony Khan has revealed why MJF won't be at AEW Redemption or wrestling Kenny Omega.
The Wrestling Observer has reported on comments AEW boss Tony Khan made during a media call to promote this weekend's Redemption pay-per-view. According to Khan, MJF won't be on the card because he's currently dealing with "major injuries". The All Elite kingpin didn't disclose exactly what they are, but did put Friedman over for working through some pain in 2026.
MJF dropped the AEW World Title to Kenny Omega at Dynamite: Beach Break on 8 July and hasn't been seen since. It appears that Tony has given one of his biggest homegrown stars some much-needed time off to rest up and recover from whatever injuries he's dealing with.
Interestingly, a hype video that previously aired on TSN suggested that Friedman would challenge Omega for the belt in a rematch at Redemption. When asked about that, Khan said he has to exercise "some sleight of hand in these things", but the AEW chief believes he and his staff made "the right moves" in the end.
Instead, Omega defends his newly-won gold vs. Kevin Knight in Montreal.
Tony claims that being able to put on such a strong pay-per-view lineup even without someone the calibre of MJF shows how deep/rich a roster All Elite has. However, there's no denying that Knight is nowhere near as strong a challenger as Max would've been in the same role - on the plus side, Knight vs. Omega is a fresh PPV match for the title.
There's no word on when MJF will be back on Dynamite or Collision at time of writing.