MJF was in “The Iron Claw,” but viewers were lucky to see the AEW World Champion only for a second.
Friedman played the role of the fake Von Erich cousin, “Lance Von Erich,” but you only just saw his face briefly in a tag match with Zac Efron, who was Kevin Von Erich in the film.
Wrestling fans were shocked that so little was used of MJF, but speaking with
ComicBook.com, the champ kept a good perspective on it, primarily hoping for the film to be successful.
“I want this film to succeed, and the film needed to be about the brothers. As fun as I had shooting that scene, realistically, it didn’t add to the overarching story and the importance of the story between the brothers and what they were going through in dealing with the pressures that their father put on them. It didn’t fit in the pieces of the puzzle.”
MJF actually was an executive producer on the production as “The Iron Claw” released everywhere on December 22. There were several other wrestlers involved in the film. Ryan Nemeth of AEW actually played Gino Hernandez while Chavo Guerrero Jr. portrayed The Original Sheik. Other popular independent names like Will Allday, Luke Hawx and even Shane Taylor helped do stunts for the film.
According to Dave Meltzer, “The Iron Claw” is estimated to make $5.06 million the first weekend at the box office, and was estimated to finish at $7.5 million after Christmas evening. Overall for theaters nationwide, the movie came in sixth place overall with the breadwinner being Aquaman.
From a ratings standpoint, “Iron Claw” got 87% positive reviews and an audience score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.
