MJF has penned a lengthy letter on The Players’ Tribune assessing his career in AEW and his health issues going into Worlds End.
The AEW champion addresses the state of AEW and its contribution to the overall health of the industry by adding an option for performers and thus, creating more leverage.
AEW = opportunity in every sense of the word. If you’re good, it’s an opportunity to show that. If you’re mid, it’s an opportunity to show that. If you’ve still got it, it’s an opportunity to show that. If you’re washed as f*ck, it’s an opportunity to show that.
MJF shined a spotlight on Tony Khan, Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Jon Moxley, and Chris Jericho as the key people involved and added that it was Jericho who gave legitimacy to MJF and the company:
I respect Tony and the EVPs a lot. (See above.) But if AEW at the start had just been those guys, plus a ragtag group of indie wrestlers with zero TV exposure (myself included)?? Sorry…… but no. We would have been dead in the water. Chris gave us a legitimacy that people take so f*cking for granted now it’s insane.
The performer noted his frustrations that whenever he had something big occur that there was something to override that momentum with references to injuries, someone “eating a f*cking muffin” or “let’s have someone else do some other dumb sh*t”. He did note that he wished that person eating the muffin “the best”.
His favorite title defenses over the past year were listed as the ones with Bryan Danielson at Revolution, the four-way at Double or Nothing with “the pillars”, Kenny Omega in Uncasville, Adam Cole at Wembley Stadium (“Oh, look, another example of me doing something incredible and the big story afterwards being “old man gets in fracas.”), and the Grand Slam match with Samoa Joe in September.
On his health status, he stated that his hip is a mess, he cannot lift his arm above his head, and is on painkillers for the injuries.
He also noted that he understands some people are fatigued with his character with MJF stating that, “No one stays hot forever.”
An issue he has been forced to grapple with is his openness to celebrating his Jewish heritage and asking himself if some fans are being turned off by it amid the conflict between Israel and Palestine:
Allow me to say this, straight up, point blank: I don’t support terrorism, Zionism, genocide, war, bombs, genocidal governments, dead innocent Palestinians, dead innocent Israelis. I don’t support people — any people — dying because of hate. I’ll tell you what I do support, and what I definitely am: I’m anti-hate. I’m sick to my stomach that people are calling for the death of Jews over something that’s happening on the other side of the world. And I’m sick that Hamas, a literal terrorist organization, has fans on this side of the world — as on a daily basis I’m having to read antisemitic sh*t from all kinds of people: celebrities (hi, Kanye), strangers, even people I know. It’s just very sad. We’re all human, man. We all deserve rights, we all deserve freedom, we all deserve happiness and respect. (I really wanted to clarify these things and I hope I have. These are the serious conversations I have with the very hot woman I’m in love with, who by the way is Palestinian.)
He ended the open letter by promoting the match with Samoa Joe at Worlds End as an event his life has been building toward and coming home to Long Island to defend the AEW championship, promising to “tear the f*cking house down against Joe or I will LITERALLY DIE TRYING.”
