Last month one of the biggest stories in pro-wrestling was AEW superstar MJF and his contract dispute with president Tony Khan, a real-life incident that later morphed into an angle on AEW television. The Salt of the Earth's last appearance was the post-Double or Nothing edition of Dynamite in Los Angeles, where he cut an epic promo asking for Khan to fire him.
In a recent interview with TalkSport top AEW superstar Chris Jericho spoke about the MJF situation, which included the Demo God questioning the former Pinnacle leader's motives for a future deal with AEW, and how he believes that the 26-year old still has a lot to learn.
“He has a lot to learn. He’s not as good as he thinks he is and like I said, it really is nothing to do with me but I’m sure he’ll be back. 18 months is a long time to stay at home and that’s Tony Khan’s prerogative. You’re under contract, you want to stay at home? You can stay at home and not get paid and that’s what happens. We see it happen in other companies and that’s just how it goes. If you didn’t expect that, then why did you sign your contract in the first place?”
MJF has been teasing for months that he may jump ship and go to WWE. Jericho would be asked how he thinks MJF's raw uncut character would be portrayed in the fed, a move he believes would be a bad decision but understands since he has switched companies multiple times.
“Oh absolutely [his character would be watered down in WWE]. He’s better off staying in AEW. But, again, don’t stick your finger in the light socket. You tell a little kid not to do that and they’re going to do it to see what happens. I’m not going to tell anybody not to go elsewhere because I did it. I did it for years. I did it to come to AEW. I walked away from WWE. When I signed my AEW contract Vince McMahon said ‘Can you get out of it?’ – No, you told me to go here!"
The Wizard ends his rant by saying that contract disputes happen in professional sports all the time, but that if a team wants to run smoothly they need to have talent that wants to be there.
“if they want to go elsewhere, that’s kind of the way it goes. That’s pro sports and that’s what pro wrestling is. It happens in the NFL, in the NHL, the Premier League – guys come and go. You got to have the best team possible with people that want to be there and if you don’t want to be there, it’s just not going to be conducive to your own performance anyways."
Jericho and MJF feuded for a large portion of 2021, which included Jericho putting his career on the line at ALL OUT 2021. Since his Dynamite promo MJF has been noticeably absent from AEW programming, and even removed from the AEW intro. graphics.