MJF took shots at WWE's product while praising AEW's approach during an appearance on the Ross Tucker Podcast at Radio Row ahead of Super Bowl LX, which takes place this Sunday, February 8 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
MJF was one of several pro wrestling names spotted at Super Bowl media row this week, joining CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Big E, Tony Khan, Toni Storm, and Orange Cassidy. The reigning AEW World Champion drew a pointed food analogy to differentiate between the two promotions.
The other companies it kind of feels like McDonald's. They're giving you fast food. We make gourmet burgers. And I think that was a part of Tony Khan's pitch for sure.
MJF Praises Tony Khan as a 'Visionary'
Friedman credited AEW president Tony Khan for identifying the opportunity in the wrestling marketplace and building a legitimate competitor to WWE over the past seven years.
Tony Khan is a visionary. He's a mark but he's a visionary and he loved professional wrestling and he saw that there was an opening in the marketplace for an alternative to WWE where there is Coke you can have Pepsi, where there's McDonald's you can have Burger King.
Here we are seven years later and we're killing it. We've had events with 82,000 people in a stadium at Wembley that I main evented. We have pay-per-views almost monthly. We are always normally in the top five on cable and streaming for our shows for Dynamite and Collision.
AEW World Championship as the Most Important Title in Wrestling
MJF made no secret of his belief that the AEW World Championship is the most important prize in the industry right now, and that the competition for it is driving business.
The reason we're having so much success right now is because everyone's vying for the most important title. Me saying that is a shoot, as we say in professional wrestling. If you are a professional wrestler and you're in this sport and you want to be considered the best of the best, this is the championship to go for.
We have the top names in the industry are all vying to get this title. It's an exciting time. Everyone's coming after the champ. It's must-see television right now because of that fact.
MJF will put that championship on the line next against Brody King at AEW Grand Slam Australia on February 14, with Hangman Adam Page and Andrade El Idolo also fighting for the next title opportunity at AEW Revolution.
