MJF thinks professional wrestling is making more money than ever, but that doesn’t mean he loves everything happening between the ropes. His biggest problem is that too much modern wrestling has started tasting like the same flavor of ice cream.
Speaking to Bleacher Report, MJF was asked about the state of professional wrestling across the board. Financially, he doesn’t see much of an argument that the business is struggling when television deals and live gates are bringing in historic amounts of money.
“I don’t know if you can say it’s not in a good place when in the history of pro wrestling, this is the most amount of money that’s ever been made off of pro wrestling ever between TV deals and gates.”
MJF also pointed to his own career as evidence of just how much money exists in wrestling right now. At only 30 years old, he says he has already been part of more million-dollar gates than plenty of wrestlers who ended up in Hall of Fames.
“I’m a 30-year-old man and I’ve already sold more million-dollar houses than most Hall of Famers. I think wrestling is in a really good place. Now, do I think that much like any sport or platform, there’s a way that it can improve? Absolutely.”
That’s where MJF’s criticism comes in. He believes wrestling has developed a “homogenized standard” for what constitutes a good match, resulting in too many wrestlers chasing the same bell-to-bell style instead of giving fans something different.
“Personally, I’m getting really sick of there’s like a homogenized standard of what good is bell to bell, and I would love to see more styles.”
MJF compared the problem to eating the same rich ice cream every single day. It might be great at first, but eventually even something you love becomes exhausting when there’s nothing else on the menu.
“It’s like cake batter ice cream. I had cake batter on an almost daily basis, over and over and over again. But eventually, because the flavor was so rich, I kind of got sick of it. And I yearned for the days of vanilla. I couldn’t handle anymore. And I think that’s happened with wrestling.”
That doesn’t mean MJF wants wrestling to completely abandon the style that’s popular today. His argument is that there should simply be more variety, with different wrestlers offering different kinds of matches instead of everyone working toward the same idea of what “good wrestling” is supposed to look like.
MJF also thinks that’s been one of the biggest reasons he stood out so quickly. While other wrestlers were offering one flavor, he believes fans gravitated toward him because he gave them something they weren’t getting elsewhere.
“It’s a good thing to have options. If there’s one thing I can critique pro wrestling for, while also stating the reason that my rise was so meteoric, is because I gave people that different flavor of ice cream they’ve been yearning for. So that’s my take.”
So MJF certainly isn’t joining anyone claiming wrestling is dying. Business is booming, money is flowing and he thinks professional wrestling is in a genuinely good place. He’d just like everyone to stop serving cake batter all the time.
What do you make of MJF saying modern wrestling has become too homogenized? Let us know in the comments.
