AEW World Champion MJF made it clear he is tired of fans acting like wrestlers are disposable crash-test dummies.
While speaking on Shut Up and Wrestle, MJF said wrestling companies, especially WWE over the years, have trained fans to believe wrestlers should sacrifice their bodies just to keep the audience entertained. In his view, that creates a problem when wrestlers finally start looking out for themselves.
“You’ve got to know your worth. That’s the thing… wrestling companies over the years, particularly WWE, have created this mindset in the fans that wrestlers are there basically to sacrifice their bodies for your entertainment.”
MJF said once fans get used to that idea, the wrestler becomes the villain the second they say no, protect themselves, or put their own health first. Then he went full MJF on the fans who complain that he does not wrestle more often. He said those people have no clue how painful the job actually is.
“What it does is it sets up the wrestlers as the bad guys. Because then if a wrestler looks out for his own interest and says no to things, or wants to put his own interests first, the fans look at him as a jerk. Not at all, which is I always laugh, especially earlier on in my AEW career when fans were like, why isn’t MJF wrestling more? F*** you, you take a bump, p**sy. It hurts. Do you have any idea how much it hurts? Everything we do in there hurts.”
MJF wasn’t speaking in theory, either. He said his knee was swollen and hurting during the interview itself. That is why he has no patience for younger fans who treat wrestling like it is all just fun and games. MJF said every entrance through the curtain comes with a physical price.
“Like while you’re interviewing me right now, my knee is f*****. You know what I mean? It’s swollen to s***. I’m in a s*** ton of f****** pain. There is this new wrestling fandom of these younger kids that think this is all funsies and they don’t understand how much we’re putting on the line physically. Every time we go through the curtain, it takes a toll.”
And even though he is only 30, MJF said he is already feeling the damage. His message to fans was simple: every bump hurts. Not just the scary ones. Not just the apron bumps. Every single one.
“Dude, I’m 30, I’m in pain and I’m only 30. I can’t imagine what I’m going to feel like when I’m 40 or 50. I just wish wrestling fans understood more that every time we go out there, it’s painful. It’s not like it only hurts when we take a bump on the goddamn apron. It hurts every time we take a bump. No matter what. No matter what, it hurts.”
Bottom line, MJF is not here for fans demanding more matches while ignoring the damage wrestlers take every night. He says wrestlers need to know their worth, protect themselves, and stop letting entitled fans guilt them into wrecking their bodies.
What do you think about MJF calling out entitled wrestling fans? Drop your thoughts below and leave your feedback.
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