When MJF took to AEW chairman Tony Khan with a live microphone on Wednesday, his backstage colleagues were more convinced than ever that his pipe bomb was part of an elaborate storyline, Fightful Select reported.
The report states that the promotion was designed to garner polarized responses, and it did. Among the countless AEW talents that Fightful spoke to, reactions to the promotion ranged from “it’s always been a work on the MJF side” to “well, it’s definitely a work now”.
One particular talent said they would be “particularly upset for a number of reasons” if they found out the situation took longer than this weekend. The talent in question reportedly spoke privately with MJF and Khan to learn more about the perception issues, which are legal in all respects.
The report adds that Khan has shown several geniuses over the years that “working genius” is not what the locker room should expect in AEW. Additionally, there were some talents who ended up having to stay on and do extra work in MJF’s scheduled Las Vegas meetup to make up for the event that Salt of the Earth didn’t show up. These specific talents who fill vacancies are not informed of potential jobs – and are reasonably culled.
Another genius told Fightful that they generally try to steer clear of any stories involving MJF from interviews or social media because “it’s hard to decipher MJF’s motives”. This particular talent would rather just talk to MJF in the background.
However, the idea of ”MJF has been working” has been repeatedly debunked by several AEW talents. One particular genius was quoted as saying, “If he had been acting like MJF, he probably wouldn’t still be working here,” but did suggest they noticed he was more depressed this spring than in the past.
Meanwhile, an old friend of MJF claimed that MJF insisted to them backstage that the situation was not work. However, the talent also noted that the pipe bombs “spit on the screen an air of desperation, wanting to make things happen,” arguing that Khan would not allow the promo to be broadcast on live TV without a payoff or plan.
There were also six AEW wrestlers who “seemed frustrated” when they brought the subject up to MJF, but none of them knew the source of MJF’s frustration in the weeks leading up to Double or Nothing.
Several of the talents interviewed by Fightful also expressed sympathy for MJF’s initial frustration with the size of contracts for original talent compared to incoming ex-WWE talent.
For what it’s worth, no one can or will prove that “Khan has [been] Or at work,” though most of them do believe that MJF and Khan found a way to turn their problems into on-screen storylines in a meeting reported Monday.
As previously stated, all traces of MJF have been removed from AEW’s website and merchandise store. In addition, neither the official YouTube video nor photos released by Dynamite on Wednesday included MJF.
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