MJF has heard all the criticism. The difference is he doesn’t spend time getting upset about it—in his mind, every negative tweet is just another reason to work harder.
While speaking to Pro Wrestling Illustrated, MJF was asked how he separates genuine criticism from people who simply enjoy taking shots at AEW. He said it usually isn’t hard to tell who’s offering an honest opinion and who’s just piling on because that’s all they ever do.
He even pointed to social media accounts that seem to spend more time talking about AEW than the company they actually claim to support. That’s not the kind of criticism he’s interested in. If someone genuinely wants AEW to succeed, though, MJF says he’s happy to hear what they have to say—even if he still thinks they’re probably wrong.
“I think it’s really easy to tell what’s good faith and what’s bad faith criticism. If somebody’s talking about my company and they have like an avatar of, God bless her, like Alexa Bliss, and like every single tweet from here down… it’s not even about WWE. It’s just them shitting on AEW, then it’s like, okay, maybe that’s not the best person to listen to. But if it’s somebody who’s genuinely a grassroots fan of our company and somebody who wants to see our company succeed, I do believe that it’s important to hear people out. Now, are these people right? No. I’m always right and most people are always wrong.”
MJF then admitted something that probably won’t surprise anyone who’s followed his career. He doesn’t mute the negativity or avoid reading it. If anything, he goes looking for it. He revealed that while he’s training, he’ll pull up negative tweets about himself and read them over and over again. Instead of getting distracted, he says they push him to stay in the gym longer, hit new personal records and squeeze even more out of every workout.
“What I do like to do… is I’ll read a negative tweet about me while I’m in the gym, and I’ll just keep reading it over and over again, and I’ll hit PRs. I’ll break records for how long I’m on the treadmill or the StairMaster, how long I can stay in the sauna. I use negativity and hate as fuel.”
That same mentality carries over once he steps back into an AEW ring. MJF says fans who complain about him online aren’t discouraging him at all. If anything, they’re convincing him to lean even harder into whatever they hate.
“So, if you find yourself being upset with the way I am on television and you post about it, just know all you’re doing is feeding the monster because I’m going to read what you’re writing about me. I’m not just going to double down. I’m going to triple down and you’re going to find yourself in a world of pain because you’re only making me stronger. The more negativity you speak about me online, it’s essentially what you’re doing is you are feeding me your negativity and it’s just making me grow and grow and grow. So, thank you.”
The interviewer jokingly suggested maybe she deserved some credit for MJF ending up at No. 1 in the 2026 PWI 500, but MJF had somebody else in mind. He said the people he really wanted to thank were the members of the IWC who’ve spent years telling him he isn’t as good as he thinks he is. In classic MJF fashion, he sarcastically claimed the only acceptable opinion is that he’s the greatest wrestler to ever step into a ring.
“Absolutely not. I’m thanking dumb people in the IWC with… if you have ever had a take that is anything other than MJF is the best thing that I’ve ever seen in the history of this profession, thank God he’s alive, he’s the reason that I feel comfortable going to sleep and waking up, he gives me purpose.”
The former AEW World Champion made it very clear that the critics aren’t holding him back—they’re giving him exactly what he needs every time they hit “post.”
“But the people who haven’t, those are people that I feed off of their negative energy and it only makes me stronger. It’s a chip that I put on my shoulder.”
Love him or hate him, MJF doesn’t seem interested in changing how he does things anytime soon. If anything, he’d probably tell you to keep posting, because in his mind you’re only giving him more fuel.
Do you think MJF has the right approach to criticism, or is he giving the trolls too much credit? Let us know in the comments below.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
