AEW star Maxwell Jacob Friedman is happy to be back on TV with the promotion, as long as company President Tony Khan keeps paying him the big bucks.
MJF returned to AEW at All Out, winning the Casino Ladder Match as the Joker, earning an AEW World Championship opportunity.
Prior to this, MJF hadn’t been seen since the June 1, AEW Dynamite, where he cut a scathing worked-shoot promo on Tony Khan, daring Khan to fire him.
A New Deal
MJF has never shied away from teasing leaving AEW, even claiming during last week’s Dynamite that he could take the AEW World Championship to WWE.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani, MJF announced that he has a new deal with the promotion, one that is seeing him be paid more.
“I’m making a stupid, absurd amount of money now, and I didn’t have to sign a contract extension.”
MJF.
MJF had reportedly been against signing any new deal with the company which would have extended his current contract, which is set to expire on January 1, 2024.
Despite blasting Khan as a “f***ing mark” during his June 1, promo, MJF now says he loves the AEW President thanks to the new deal, but says he has Khan “by the balls.”
Double or Nothing
Before his three-month hiatus from programming, a lot had been said about MJF’s antics before May’s Double or Nothing Pay Per View.
Prior to the event, MJF had no-showed a fan appearance, and had not been responding to attempts to contact him by AEW management.
The self-professed ‘Salt of the Earth’ claimed that during his three months away, he vacationed across Greece with his girlfriend (now fiancee.)
MJF claimed that he told Khan “pay up or daddy doesn’t show up.”
Leaving AEW
MJF is pretty pleased with himself, and his new deal with AEW, but he may still leave when the time is right.
Speaking about the January 1, 2024, expiration date on his contract, MJF said that “the devil goes to the highest bidder.”
MJF reiterated later in the interview that his loyalty is to who will pay him the most in 15 months’ time.
“A lot of people think I’m leaning towards one place or the other. All I’m leaning towards is money. That’s all I live and die by. I go where the money is at. Whoever is going to offer me the most amount of money, that’s where I’m going to do. It’s that simple.”
AEW
MJF may still have one foot out of AEW (or at least wants people to believe that) but he did have some rare kind words for the promotion.
MJF put over some of AEW’s top stars, while still considering himself the brightest star of them all.
“[AEW] has a lot of great stars. Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, Chris Jericho, Brody King. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, the show had a big gigantic void, and I was that void.”
MJF.
When asked, MJF said he could not discuss the current situation with CM Punk, who is serving a suspension and could be fired for his actions following All Out.
