MJF (@The_MJF) is a professional wrestler signed to AEW and the reigning World Champion. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Las Vegas, NV to discuss winning the AEW World Title for a second time and how this reign is different from his first, how he defied the odds to make it in professional wrestling, how much interest there really was from WWE, his rivalry with CM Punk, starring in Happy Gilmore 2 with Adam Sandler and beating up Eminem in the movie, why his scene from The Iron Claw was cut, his ultimate dream match, and more!
You said that we would do another interview when you were the AEW champion, and here you are.
“I don’t remember any of that, but it sounds like me. When I set a goal, about 110% of the time I achieve it. For example, when I was five years old, I was on the Rosie O’Donnell Show, and I said I was going to be a professional wrestler, and here we are. “
You said opera singer or professional wrestler
“I’d say one out of two ain’t bad. But to be fair, I was told to say opera singer for the cameras. That was not something I had any interest in whatsoever.”
What do you remember from that day with Rosie O’Donnell?
“She was a big woman and she smelled. Outside of that, I was given Shrek ears, WWF Restaurant tickets. The restaurant shut down before I could go, which was typical Rosie O’Donnell. I want something. I want money, and I was given a lot of strawberry Dunkin Donuts, my mom must have told her those were my faves, because they were at the time.”
So you’re the type of person where if I tell you can’t do it. You look for a way to make happen?
“Yes, I look for a way to make it happen. I live on spite and hate. It drives me. I’d love to sit here and pretend I’m just saying that for the cameras. No, it’s a very real thing. I don’t know if it has to do with my upbringing or what, but I think I’ve been driven to go down as legitimately, one of the all-time greats, simply because people wanted to deny a dream.”
At what point in your life do you feel like people were trying to deny this?
“Oh my God, in my entire childhood, up until the time I was 18. Pro wrestling right now is pretty, pretty hot. It’s white hot, you know, between us and WWE and Impact, and there’s, a lot of great independents now. When I was a kid, it was a bit of a cold period. Cena didn’t get the ball exactly yet. You saw a lot of tarp and drape, you know what I mean. So, people in my friend circle and I would bring it up, it was something to be made fun of for, being severely neurodivergent and having probably the world’s worst attention deficit disorder, which I still have to this day. But I’ve learned how to use it. It didn’t help that caused a lot of bullying in school. Being Jewish certainly caused a ton of anti-Semitic bullying in school. Coaches, because I was on the smaller side, especially when I was younger, didn’t expect me to be able to excel in sports. Teachers didn’t expect me to be much of anything in the classroom, so I pretty much just had doors slammed in my face from the time I was born all the way until the time I jumped into this, and then when I jumped into this, it got even worse, because I busted my ass to become a legitimate premier athlete in high school that had multiple Division One scholarship offers.”
Which sport?
“Football, I was a middle linebacker. I broke the record in tackling in my high school. I was an all-state middle linebacker. At the time, five nine, which was unheard of, but again, that’s because people looked at me and they said, ‘Oh, you’re Jewish and you’re short. This isn’t gonna happen.’ I was like, Okay, I’ll f*cking bite. I will bite people if that means I’m tackling them to the ground, because you just said that. If you have the ball, I’m going to hurt you. Then when I entered wrestling, I’m a loud dude. I’m unapologetic about how great I know I am, and people don’t care for that. People like humble. Humble bores me. Humble doesn’t feel right to me. Humble to me has always been worse than being cocky. I’m honest about what I think about myself every time somebody goes, I’ll watch interviews with famous athletes, and they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s the team, and they’re the ones that threw up 50 points in the game.’ Is it the team, bro? You’re annoying me. Just be honest, you’re carrying them to the promised land, no different than how I’m carrying AEW to the promised land since I’ve won that championship. Ticket sales up, ratings up, intrigue up, the level of competition in the world title scene up. We’re hot right now, man. People are talking about All Elite Wrestling in a very positive way. And there was a period of time there where everybody was saying, ‘Restore the feeling, restore the feeling.’ I am the feeling. I’m the feeling, I’m the face, I’m the main character, I’m MJF. When people think of AEW, they think of me. The reason I have a chip on my shoulder when I say that, and the reason I’m not going to be humble about it, is because people constantly want to deny me of what I’ve accomplished in the sport, and you can’t do that because I’m a proven draw, I’m a proven top act, I’m a movie star, I’m a top guy. I’ve had some of the greatest matches, moments, promos, rivalries in the modern era, hell, probably in the history of the sport. I do all of that because I think some people chase the hug. That’s not why I do it. I think what I’m chasing is vindication and validation for the child that was told, who do you think you are?”
What’s this version of you look like compared to the version of you who first won that AEW Championship in 2022
“I was a child. I was immature. I wasn’t ready. I was ready to talk the talk, and at moments, I walked the walk. But I slipped and I fell and I had a long cry over it, as opposed to picking myself up, dusting myself off and going, No, I’m still the best. Nobody’s better than me in the ring, nobody’s better than me blow for blow on the mic, nobody’s better than me outside of the square, that’s me. That’s not just MJF, that’s Max Friedman talking. I’ve been doing this for over a decade now. I’ve been doing it since I was 18 years old. I got signed to my first contract at 19 with MLW. Then I got signed. I had an opportunity to either go to WWE or AEW when I was 22. I went to All Elite Wrestling, and during this entire time span, I’ve proven over and over again that I’m the most complete professional wrestler in the world. There was three months that thankfully now, when I look back on them, I could laugh. I could not laugh when Adam Cole broke his ankle. I could not laugh when my friend betrayed me. I could not laugh when my left hip and my left shoulder were essentially Jell-O pudding. I could not laugh when people went from talking about me as being the guy to talking about me as being the problem. It took a lot of hard work, a lot of effort, and a lot of shining a mirror up to wrestling fans’ faces, and going, oh sh*t, no, he is everything he said he was. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that those three months didn’t suck a bag of donkey dicks. They did, but I feel what I’ve done now has more than made up for it. What I’ve done for the whole span of my career has more than made up for it. I’m noticing now people are talking about me in the same reverence that they did before those three months.”
You turn 30 next month in March. How would you describe your 20s?
“I can’t sit here and pretend I wasn’t the fastest and youngest rising star probably in the history of the business. If I did, I’d be full of sh*t. My 20s put me on the map, and made me a genuine household name, which a lot of the time if you want to be a household name in pro wrestling, people don’t think of those three letters. They think of WWE. I’ve proven that’s not the case by being in the most-streamed movie of all time, by having Violent Night 2, where I have a huge role in that’s coming out in December of this year, by doing Stranglehold, by being executive producer in Iron Claw. I get stopped wherever I go. You know who else does, whether I like it or not, Hangman Adam Page, Swerve Strickland, Kenny Omega, Jon Moxley, Samoa Joe. If we’re just naming the guys that haven’t ever worked for WWE that have become household names just based off of those three letters, you have me, Darby Will Ospreay, Hangman, again, we’re changing the narrative. Now, am I the biggest star out of all the homegrown stars? Yeah, it’s not even close. I mean, people talk about me in the same reverence as top acts across the board in this sport, right? I have Hollywood, I’m getting auditions left and right, and there’s a lot of interest there. And there’s interest there because of what I’ve done on this platform, because our platform matters, and our platform is an incredible alternative, and it’s not taking anything away from WWE. So what I would say to a WWE fan, you don’t even have to necessarily be disenfranchised by your company that you call your home base being WWE, if you’ve not watched us yet, I truly don’t understand what you’re waiting for. I feel that we make gourmet food and we work very hard. I think our pay-per-views are the best. It’s not even close. I think our matches are the best, and we have the best promo guy in the business who’s sitting right here. So if you’ve not watched our product before and you’re watching this interview, we’re on at Wednesdays at 8 pm on TBS and HBO Max. We’re on Saturdays on TNT and HBO Max at 8 pm both Eastern Standard Time. Give us a watch. And if you don’t want to give us a watch because you somehow feel indebted to one company. A, you’re weird. And B, I feel bad for you because you’re missing out on me. That is the biggest crime of them all.”
Do you think you’re the best wrestler to never wrestle in WWE?
“Yeah, it’s not even close. It’s not even close. Before me, the answer would have been Sting. And then he wrestled there.”
Kenny Omega?
“Omega? No, stop it. I love Kenny to death. If you put our names into a search engine, I can assure you, more people are looking my name up than his. Now, is he gonna go down as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time? Yes, but that’s not the question you just asked me. The question you just asked me is outside of the wrestling bubble. Kenny Omega has done some awesome voiceover work. He’s been involved in some massive video games, but he’s not MJF, and by the way, that’s no shade. I’m sure people are going to try to clip this and make it seem like I’m talking sh*t about Kenny Omega. Kenny Omega is great. I’ve talked about Kenny Omega’s greatness when we wrestled on Collision a couple of years ago. I can’t say enough nice things about Kenny Omega, but he’s no MJF.”
When the bidding war was happening, when your contract with AEW was coming to an end, how much interest was there from WWE?
“You know the answer, there was a lot. I had some nice calls with some nice folks who are high up on the chain, and they were interested in me. They’re still very much so interested in me, and I understand why. But for all my faults, one thing I am not is unprofessional. If you put a contract in front of me with the right amount of money, I’m going to do this. I’m going to broadcast how important those three letters are. Those three letters are just as important as these, because you’re paying me to say that. Now, do I believe it’s true? You’ll never know, and that’s the beauty of it. No matter what promotion I’m working for, I’m going to shamelessly shill what’s going on. Now, can I look in the camera and say I really do believe everything I’ve said prior to this? Yes I can, but they’ll never know.”
Give me your top five MJF matches of all time.
“Bryan Danielson, Iron Man match. CM Punk, dog collar match, I’m gonna throw MJF versus Hangman at Revolution. I believe that was last year. Darby versus me Full Gear, we were the opening match. This is where it gets hard. I will throw in the Mistico match as well. We can do this all day. I can do a top 50, because I’ve had it. But I think those are the ones that, when people think about my career, that’ll come up. The match against Kenny Omega on Collision also. These things can be swapped and switched. The match against Samoa Joe at Grand Slam was insanity. My match with Adam Cole in front of 82,000 people, we pretty much broke the sound barrier that night. It was absurd. It was the loudest I’ve ever [heard], my ears hurt. Both of my matches with Will Ospreay. But the difference between me and somebody you ask this question to, I get frustrated naming these matches because I didn’t win all of them. Sure, they were great and they were entertaining, but I didn’t win all of them, and that p*sses me off. I won a good amount of them that I said, but not all of them.”
Do you think the wrestling now compares to the wrestling when you grew up?
“Listen, I think you’re always going to look at things with rose colored glasses. For example, I loved CM Punk growing up, and now if he was dying in front of me, I’d do nothing but laugh. So the things that you loved as a child are not going to be things that you love now, I think the style of professional wrestling has changed immensely, but that happens after every decade. At one point in time, they thought Harley Race was like a clown. They were like this guy wrestles like a buffoon. Why is he doing all of these things? This is dumb. If somebody wrestled like Harley Race today, people would be like, this is tame. What’s going on? Why is this plodding and slow? Whereas I love Harley Race matches. Don’t get me wrong. I like CM Punk matches too. I just think he’s a piece of sh*t. So the sport evolves, much like how football, the way they run plays now, and the way a defense has to check audibles and the way a free safety is now utilized as opposed to the way they were in the 80s and the 90s, it’s an entirely different game. Basketball is played differently. It’s a three-point game now. When I was growing up, people were going hard in the paint. You look at a guy like Shaq, for example, that was before my time, but you look at a guy like Shaq, for example, like the Magic dominated. I think if you put that exact team with him and Penny [Hardaway] now I don’t know how they do because it’s a three-point game. The game’s changed. The way the game works has changed. I’m a raging traditionalist. I approach my opponents in a very old school manner to get the W. I’m not looking to be flashy. If something flashy happens, it’s because I see an opening to take my opponent out in a unique way. But outside of that, I’ll pull your hair, I’ll bite your face, I’ll scratch your eyes, I’ll do whatever I have to do to win. And I think that’s been lost a little bit on my generation.”
How old were you in that now famous photo when you’re a kid meeting CM Punk?
“I believe it was the year after my Bar Mitzvah. I think I was just turning 14.”
So fast forward 10 plus years later, you’re in the ring, yeah, toe to toe, yeah, cutting promos with him. But it’s like you had met your match.
“Match? No. I mean, watch the tape. You tell me who got the better of who verbally during that entire rivalry. I hope he’s able to enjoy what he’s accomplishing over there. I have no idea, because the things that he said in my company do go against the things that he’s saying now. Some people might say that’s hypocritical. That’s not my place. All I know is since I’ve jumped into pro wrestling, I’ve been saying the same thing since the jump, my tune has not changed. I’m Maxwell, Jacob Friedman, and I’m better than you, and you know it. I also won’t sit here and lie to you and tell you that I didn’t learn so much through my hatred of that man. I learned. I learned the difference between good and great.
That’s what I learned. Now, do I like him? I’ll reiterate, no, I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire to put that fire out. But I’m not going to sit here and pretend I didn’t learn from him.”
Do you still keep in touch with Cody?
“Absolutely. Look, I’m not sitting here without Cody Rhodes. Cody Rhodes booked me for All In, which got me in front of Tony Khan, which got me signed to a contract. Like Punk, I hope whatever he’s doing, he’s happy right now. I mean, you would think he would be.”
So when you say you were close to it was either signing with AEW or signing with WWE?
“Are we referencing when I was in MLW and it was time to make a choice? [Yes] I wouldn’t say I was close. So the version of pro wrestling that I love, now it does [exist], but it didn’t exist. The only option I had was WWE, until I got older and I heard about Ring of Honor and I heard about PWG and Evolve and so on and so forth. When I talked to Tony Khan for the first time, we were on the phone together for two hours, two hours with a kid who was 22 turning 23 and all we did was discuss the territories and our love of territory professional wrestling. It was a no-brainer for me. I know I would have been successful if I went over there. I know I’d be successful if I go over there now, that’s why they’re still interested in me. I respect what they’re doing. I respect their product. I know that they respect our product because about a million times they’ve tried to counterprogram us, slash us any way they can, hurt us any way they can, which, by the way, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, that’s smart business. Try to kill me. Try to kill me before I kill you. It’s f*cking smart. I’m not going to take that away from them. But I knew I would have a better opportunity, and I would be given more of a leash. Now there’s no leash at all because I’m just stupidly over and I just do whatever the hell I want, but I know I’d be given more of a leash based on the way my now boss was talking about what his vision is for professional wrestling.
I’m already annoyed at Twitter because somebody’s gonna make it seem like I was sh*tting on Cody or Punk or WWE when I’ve literally sat here and whatever, it is what it is, that’s the fun of the app. I’ll just go on there and I’ll just probably make it even worse.”
With how busy you are. You’ve been in so many movies recently, you’re the AEW Champion. Do you think about how much longer you want to wrestle?
“No, because I’m young, the idea hasn’t even entered my head, like when I was watching that John Cena retirement, or the AJ Styles retirement.”
Cena has got 20 years on you:
“So does Cody, so does CM Punk, so does LA Knight, so does Jey Uso, so does essentially every top guy, Roman, all these dudes are 40s to 50. I’m 29. So yeah, I do think it’s silly to even go there to Oh, when am I going to hang them up? I’m a baby, you know what I mean? I’m a top act, and it’s very rare for somebody my age, if ever, to be in the situation that I’m in. But I’m also very cognizant of the fact that I’m just getting started, I don’t know what my prime is going to be. I don’t think I’m going to have a prime. I think I’m just going to be great for at least the next 20 to 30 years, and it’s crazy to say that out loud, because when you hear 20-30 years, you’re like, Oh, that’s a lot of time. 30s, 40s, 50s, it’s all ahead of me. It’s all ahead of the viewers. I personally feel that year over year I’ve only evolved and gotten better. And I’m very curious to see what I look like as a wrestler when I’m 35 when I’m 45 or when I’m 50.”
So how did Happy Gilmore 2 come together?
“I had an audition. I actually auditioned to be the evil golfer that would have been beside Becky’s character. Becky rules, by the way, if you don’t like Becky Lynch, go f*ck yourself. Anyway, so I auditioned for that role, and Sandler saw it. I didn’t find this out until later, and he was like, this kid is funny, and he kind of looks like me. Can we try him out to be one of the sons? So he specifically out of God knows how many people that auditioned were like him. Then when I got to work with him, it was so apparent to me, obviously you already know how talented he is, but how much of a good, down-to-earth human being he is. Whatever happens to my career now is because no different than Cody and Tony taking a chance on me is in my career in LA is because Adam Sandler took a chance on me, and that’s something I’m never gonna forget. When I make it big, which I will, it’s something I’m never gonna let him forget.”
I think one of the biggest things that’s not talked about in Happy Gilmore 2 is you beat up Eminem
“I did beat the sh*t out of Eminem, yeah. Marshall Mathers, he rolls deep. He showed up on that movie set with a big crew, probably 10-15 dudes, and they were all easily as big as Luchasaurus. It’s like massive human beings, and I get it because he’s seen some sh*t. So I’d imagine it’s no different than when a wrestling fan might see me out and about, being next to who is arguably the greatest rapper of all time was one of the only times in my life where I was star struck was that moment.”
What was your scene, or scenes in Iron Claw supposed to be?
“I had a five-minute talking scene with Zac Efron, who I became really tight with on set, and I would hang out with him in the trailer. He was the nicest guy. When I brought my belt onto the set he was like, let’s take a photo, which was hilarious. His work ethic was insane. He got rhabdo on set because he was working out so hard and hitting the rope so hard and wrestling so frequently.”
So at what point are you told I’m so sorry, your scene’s not in the movie?
“As an EP [executive producer], I wasn’t even upset, and I know no one’s gonna believe me, but this is the honest-to-God truth. I just wanted the movie to be true to the Von Erich story, because I’m a huge World Class fan. When I got the call from the director, who’s a mensch, by the way, he was like, ‘Max, I’m so sorry…’ I’m like, Dude, this movie is too long, and this scene, while incredibly entertaining, does not help the length, and also is like a sub story. It’s not part of the A story. So I wasn’t upset at all, and I would like to think the movie came out pretty damn well, and I was really proud to have my name on it.”
What would be on the top of the list of I can’t believe I said that on TV. The line to Jeff Jarrett is a pretty good one.
“That was hilarious. I’m gonna say when I called my boss a f*cking mark, and then we had to cut to a commercial break in the middle of me talking, and they cut my microphone. So I’d say that’s the only time my microphones ever been cut. So I think that’s probably the right answer for the time I crossed the line. Yeah, it’s a pretty good one. Yeah, that’s probably numero uno.”
Give me your dream match. If we could make any match possible. Doesn’t matter what company they work for.
“Piper. Or is this alive? Piper is always going to be the answer.”
Give me someone who is alive:
“I think this answer is going to shock people, because also, I will say I can’t pick people that are retired. John would have been my answer, but he’s retired, so I’m gonna say Kevin Steen.”
Not Kevin Owens?
“No, I want Kevin Steen, the one that I watched in Ring of Honor. Not saying Kevin Owens isn’t spectacular. Kevin Owens is one of the best wrestlers in the world, and it sucks that he’s hurt right now. It kills me. But Kevin Owens can’t exactly say some of the things that Kevin Steen was able to say back in the day. So I want Kevin Steen. That’s a dream match for me. I think that would probably go down as one of the greatest matches of all time and one of the greatest promos of all time. I think I also have to say Seth Rollins, for sure.”
What is MJF grateful for?
“My wife, my house, my jobs.”
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