MJF let wrestling fans get too close once — and according to him, that mistake will never happen again. The former AEW World Champion says the days of fans getting the vulnerable, emotional version of Maxwell Jacob Friedman are officially dead because he learned the hard way what happens when he drops his guard.
MJF opened up about that shift during an interview with Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Lyric Swinton after landing the No. 1 spot in the PWI 500. While looking back at his first AEW World Championship reign, MJF admitted the collapse of his friendship with Adam Cole changed the way he views trust inside the wrestling business. MJF said the biggest lesson he learned from that entire period was brutally simple — trusting people in wrestling gets you burned.
“I think the biggest lesson that I learned was trusting people uh has never benefited anyone in this profession. I think that every single time anyone in the history of their sport has let their guard down, they’ve been let down.”
For MJF, that wasn’t just about wrestlers backstage. He believes he made the exact same mistake with the people sitting in the crowd and watching him every week. MJF admitted he allowed fans to see behind the curtain and get closer to the real person underneath the character, something he now views as a massive screw-up.
“I let my guard down with the fans as well. I allowed them to I to I let them in, if you will. And I think that was a massive mistake. And it’s a mistake that I’m never going to make again.”
That more vulnerable version of MJF became a huge part of his first title reign as his friendship with Adam Cole exploded into one of AEW’s biggest stories. Things changed dramatically after Cole suffered his ankle injury, and MJF has previously admitted the situation messed with him on both a personal and professional level. Ringside News previously covered MJF admitting that he “didn’t know who I was” after Adam Cole’s injury
MJF has also blamed Cole’s injury for destroying what he believed could have become an even bigger program between the two. Their friendship eventually turned into betrayal when Cole was revealed as The Devil, giving MJF one more reason to stop handing out trust so easily. Ringside News covered MJF blaming Adam Cole for ruining their feud Now MJF says fans shouldn’t expect him to open that door again. As far as he’s concerned, they bought a ticket to watch him wrestle — not a backstage pass into his emotions.
“I don’t think wrestling fans deserve to have me open up to them at that level ever again. I think I like keeping them at an arms length. You get to watch me perform. That should be good enough.”
MJF didn’t stop there either. He immediately went back into full MJF mode, calling himself the greatest professional wrestler who ever lived and explaining that his focus now is wrestling, talking, selling tickets, drawing ratings and moving pay-per-view buys instead of worrying about whether fans actually like him.
The MJF who hugged Adam Cole, opened himself up to fans and allowed people to see something beyond the loudmouth villain clearly isn’t interested in making another appearance. He got burned once, and now he’s basically telling fans they can watch the show from the other side of the wall because he has no plans to let them back in.
Do you think MJF was better when fans got to see his vulnerable side, or does keeping everyone at arm’s length make him a stronger character? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback 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.
