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It was a shoot!
MJF just dropped a pipe bomb!
It was the greatest promo of all time!
After MJF did what, from a pure performance standpoint, was an amazing promo on Dynamite last night, the reactions that I received to his work ran the gamut, with the three statements above being the most common that I heard.
Was it a shoot? No folks, it wasn’t. Anyone who thinks that MJF would have been given that kind of real estate and allowed to say all of the things that he did before he was finally cut off? Well, all I can say is that you are a promoter’s dream and they love that you are out there for them.
Did he drop a pipe bomb? To me, no he did not. He went out there and reiterated things that the smart fans in the audience already knew, whether they were actually true or not. He played to them. Maybe to the rest of the audience it came off as a pipe bomb, or maybe they were scratching their heads saying “What the hell is he talking about” since nothing he referred to had ever been addressed on TV before. I can’t say. But to me, a pipe bomb is a total shoot and this just isn’t to me. At best, it’s a shoot turned into an angle. But more and more I am starting to seriously wonder if it’s 100 percent worked from the get go, as you will read later in this piece.
Was it the greatest promo of all time? Obviously that is in the eye of the beholder, just like beauty. From where I sit, it was a great piece of work by MJF. His delivery was awesome. His passion was off the charts. He nailed it, 100 percent. But the flip side is that a great promo is about advancing a storyline and making money. I think back to Dusty Rhodes having Hard Times, for example. That was one of the greatest promos of all times to me because as a fan, that was a huge step in the journey of the character. I had watched all he had been through and knew where he was in that moment. That promo told me where he had just HAD to go at that point. That wasn’t the case last night so I can call it a strong piece of work by MJF but it’s a long, long way from the greatest promo of all time. It wasn’t part of a journey. It was the first step in the character’s on air storyline. Remember, what you read on this site is different from what the booker has shown you on TV. I am someone who is not a huge fan of the worked-shoot types of promos, but a large part of the fan base is. As I always say promoters shouldn’t booked to me, they should book to the masses.
So, what was it then?
Well, what it clearly was is proof that MJF and Tony Khan came to some form of agreement with the very real possibility that they were never that far apart to begin with, if they ever were at all. Obviously, reports of MJF’s being unhappy have been circulating for a while now. I think it’s very legitimate to wonder the degree of truth came from said reports, not that I am saying MJF didn’t ACT unhappy because he did do that. I think it’s very fair to wonder if this who situation is more work from Khan and MJF than it ever was truth.
Why?
Leverage. MJF had none. Zero. When he signed his deal with AEW he was known by very few wrestling fans, ironically much like Wardlow. In the time since, the exposure Khan gave him allowed him to become a star, much like Wardlow. During that time, Max outperformed the contract that he signed, but he only signed that contract because he didn’t have better options. I make the comparison to Tom Brady. He was a sixth round draft pick and signed a cheap deal. It was up to him to prove himself and then get paid on the next deal. That was MJF, provided that he is still actually working on that deal, which is also fair to wonder now. With 18 months left on his original deal, if he is still bound by it, he has no leverage. Khan could pay him that very amount to stay home and do nothing, taking a year and half away from him and cooling off much, if not all, of the momentum he has created. MJF is a smart guy. A smart guy doesn’t make a stupid move.
For Khan’s part, as someone who doesn’t mind talking to anyone about anything related to AEW (witness the seemingly still ongoing post Double or Nothing scrum), he made it clear from the get-go that MJF questions were off limits. The man has never ducked anything before this. He could have easily said, “I don’t want to discuss a contract situation at this time, thank you”. But he didn’t. Why? Khan will get nasty on Twitter with people with single digit followers if they attack one of his companies. He went berserk on Eric Bischoff in that very scrum. But he wouldn’t talk about MJF, who he was supposed warring with and who has supposedly given him some much angst the day before? It’s totally out of character for Khan, unless you look at something that is very much a trait of his.
It could very well be that the one thing he has prided himself on not doing is lying to the fans. If he was laying the groundwork for this angle, Khan knew MJF would need something to get his heat back after his squash against Wardlow and what better way to do it than last night’s promo? Khan wouldn’t lie to reporters if he just said nothing. And if the goal it make people believe that MJF went into business for himself last night, he definitely wouldn’t want to comment in any way before it would happen because he would cast a net that he would have trapped himself in. So, say nothing and there is nothing to come back and bite you.
Another thing to consider is that Khan has ripped up deals before. Matt Hardy made mention of it when his brother came in. I have always found it hard to believe that he wouldn’t have done that with MJF already, and after last night I find it even harder to believe. Let’s be real, if Khan and MJF already have a new deal, very few people would know. Neither would leak it. To me it now appears like a long angle, started with the infamous “I want to go to WWE” interview that supposedly started this thing. As I said above, MJF is a smart guy. He knows his strengths. He knows that guys under six feet tall don’t get the mega push in WWE, if they get pushed at all. He knows the freedom he has in AEW would be gone in WWE. He also knows he has 18 months left on his current deal. MJF is also really, really old school and would have had no issue playing the role off camera and working the boys. That is part of who he is and what he thinks the business should be.
Much like MJF, Khan is also a smart guy. He knows that MJF is an all star for his company. He knows the value Max brings to his brand. He knows he isn’t (or wasn’t) being paid to his actual worth. The guy who has taken care of talent from the beginning and through a pandemic? I find it next to impossible to believe that he would lowball Max. It’s totally out of character.
After MJF skipped the fan fest on Saturday and the flight was booked for him to return back east (and who know who actually paid for said flight), our site blew up with traffic. It has stayed that way through yesterday. People were talking so of course that led to the question, “Was Tony doing all of this to get buzz for the PPV?” My initial reaction was, “How would it help to have people wonder if they would plunk down $50 and not get to see the most anticipated match on the show?” But when it went on first, in theory that could have made people feel relieved and push the button to buy the show.
But even if the scenario cost him PPV buys on Sunday, if this ends up being a long term angle that will be money on television for months to come, it’s a trade off well worth doing. We will know more as thing moves forward and that is when we will know exactly what this promo was, being the genesis of a great storyline or a moment in time. If it is the start of a great angle, it was a great promo. If it was a moment on TV with no follow up, it was just that.
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