How Adam Would Book... The Year Of MJF
AEW Needs an Intervention and Adam Blampied is here to give it to them.
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AEW Needs an Intervention and Adam Blampied is here to give it to them.
More Fantasy Booking: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLvCO_flsEnJEnIrf3cPWy1LlBkd_Gluc
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
Buy wrestling merchandise here: https://www.wrestleshop.com/
Read more Feature content here on WrestleTalk.com: https://wrestletalk.com/features/
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00:00 Maxwell Jacob Friedman is possibly the best professional wrestler in the world based on
00:05 a certain understanding of professional wrestling.
00:09 First of all, he's good at moves.
00:11 You could tell when a wrestler's good at moves, because they could do a kip up.
00:15 But for real, his match with Darby Allin at Fallgate 2021 with Loki won the matches of
00:19 the year.
00:20 That's not why people love MJF.
00:22 Hi, I'm Adam, by the way, hailing from parts of the world known as AdamWood, brother of
00:25 the year of MJF.
00:26 People love MJF because he is committed, not necessarily to AEW, but to himself.
00:33 He has the clearest, most defined character in a company whose characters aren't always
00:38 hugely defined.
00:40 In the land of superkicks, MJF talks and works.
00:45 And it has worked since day one, no matter what you wanted from AEW.
00:50 If you were a fan of AEW's gritty, real sports presentation with its rankings and its points,
00:57 MJF was out there negotiating contracts, permalocking his competitors without a title shot.
01:03 If you like soap opera storytelling, then MJF vs CM Punk was one of the most nuanced
01:10 melodramas that wrestling has produced in years.
01:13 If you like silly, funny AEW, then MJF was out there cutting promos on virgin fans and
01:20 providing a sense of classic pantomime villainy.
01:23 MJF's always been this bright, shining, throwback wrestling archetype, elevated by two things.
01:31 MJF's own unbelievable charisma, and also that he has the most simple, comprehensive
01:36 kayfabe in all of wrestling.
01:40 It's so simple, but it runs to so many hidden depths.
01:42 He's better than you, and you know it.
01:45 He has never changed.
01:47 He has never done that about-face turn reveal.
01:52 Right now, he's over kind of as a face, but he's still openly not giving a s*** about
01:57 any of you.
01:58 I mean, even his initial heel turn was more of an inevitability than a surprise.
02:04 Everyone knew MJF was a snake.
02:06 They knew he was going to turn.
02:08 They knew what he was really like, and what he has always been really like for years.
02:14 Every feud he's had has A, gone on a little too long, if we're honest, and B, they all
02:21 feel real, relatable, and you always are desperate for MJF to get his.
02:27 Cody Rhodes, Darby Allin, Chris Jericho, CM Punk, Wardlow, it's all gold.
02:31 Every step of the way, MJF is consistent, and has been AEW's best original character,
02:37 him and Hangman Page, probably, which is why A, he needs to be the next AEW world champion,
02:44 and B, it needs to be all about how he's going to leave AEW.
02:48 See, everyone knows of the ructions between MJF and Tony Khan, but a quick recap context
02:55 for the rest of this story.
02:56 For months before Double or Nothing this year, outlets reported tension between MJF and AEW
03:01 management, largely built around money.
03:06 With MJF initially not being offered a large pre-negotiation pay rise, with his contract
03:11 expiring in 18 months, coupled with a raft of new, former WWE signings in 2021, each
03:17 being offered considerably higher starting salaries than MJF, starting between $40,000
03:25 and $70,000, which is for a wrestler, not very much.
03:31 MJF, whose character has always blurred the line between reality and kayfabe, started
03:36 going rogue.
03:37 He did interviews without AEW's say-so, became more and more outspoken online, with
03:42 it coming to a dramatic head around Double or Nothing this year, with MJF no-showing
03:46 a meet and greet at AEW FanFest for Double or Nothing, with it seeming suddenly a distinct
03:52 possibility that he might no-show Double or Nothing, AEW's version of WrestleMania,
03:59 and he might not turn up to his marquee match against The Diesel to assure Michael's
04:04 support.
04:05 Wardlow, whose rise to the top was tarnished by all this drama, did show up, did the job,
04:12 and then cut a "pipe bomb" where he called Tony Khan a "f***ing mark", begged him
04:21 to fire him, and then disappeared for months.
04:24 He was taken off the roster page, his merch was removed, like they really committed to
04:29 this bit.
04:30 He's returned to All Out, was handed the joker chip without wrestling, and has ascended
04:35 to a very strange position in that he is a prick who calls himself Salt of the Earth,
04:43 which was originally ironic, but in the wake of all this stuff that's come out about
04:53 AEW, Cody leaving, the EVPs getting into a fight with CM Punk, a top champion who openly
05:02 hates working for a company used to lavish with praise, in a time when AEW's in a
05:07 PR crisis, with a backstage system that's emerged as chaotic at best and toxic at worst,
05:15 then MJF's tenure with the company, and also the fact that he basically quit for a
05:21 bit rather than deal with all this bulls***, it's elevated him to being, unironically,
05:29 kinda the Salt of the Earth.
05:32 His consistency, and a sudden surge of feeling that about AEW, CM Punk, and himself, MJF
05:39 was right.
05:40 He's emerged as one of the last true bridges between the current, slightly messy, slightly
05:46 scrambling AEW, and the assured, confident AEW of years ago.
05:52 Ironically, for a man who's been the most vocally anti-AEW all year, he, along with
05:57 Jon Moxley, is the biggest AEW guy they've got.
06:01 He needs to be the next champion, needs to dethrone Jon Moxley soon, which is why it's
06:04 a good idea it's Jon Moxley, not Bryan Danielson.
06:07 He needs a long reign to bring stability back to the company.
06:11 2023 is gonna be the year of MJF.
06:15 How should it happen?
06:18 Let me have a go.
06:19 Because I'm better at booking than you.
06:22 And you know it.
06:24 He said.
06:27 MJF vs Jon Moxley for the title takes place at Full Gear.
06:33 Because of course it does, the pay-per-view is taking place in New Jersey, which is close
06:36 enough to New York, close enough to MJF's home people.
06:40 And the feud is simple.
06:41 Moxley is the champion that AEW needs.
06:44 MJF is the champion that AEW deserves.
06:48 Why are you even here, Mox?
06:50 MJF asks.
06:51 You should be on vacation, bud.
06:53 You should be on a beach somewhere, smashing a coconut into your skull, because God forbid
06:57 you spend a day without bleeding.
06:58 Renee, happy about all this, Jon?
07:01 With you bailing Tony out again and again and again?
07:06 I'm gonna take that AEW championship off you, Jon boy, because over your shoulder, it's
07:12 a shame.
07:13 It's a quick fix.
07:14 It's a happy face sticker plastered over a widening crack in a foundation.
07:20 AEW needs to suffer for what it's done.
07:24 And I'm going to make it suffer.
07:27 Tony got scared.
07:28 Tony realized he was losing control of his locker room.
07:31 So Tony invited the devil into his house.
07:36 And he'll wish he never did.
07:38 You're not a hero, Jon.
07:39 You're an enabler.
07:41 And I am the intervention.
07:44 Remember that word.
07:45 All right, so quick thing before we talk about full gear.
07:48 Let's talk about the firm.
07:49 I do.
07:50 I just.
07:51 On one hand, I think it's an interesting idea.
07:55 After the inner circle and the pinnacle sort of just ending, MJF having a faction on tap
08:02 that he pays for, who will do what he wants, but he's not really in.
08:06 That's it's interesting.
08:08 On the other hand, the firm kind of sucks right now.
08:12 Existing solely to help another man is cool for that man, but it's kind of lame for everyone
08:18 else in the group.
08:19 Like I know they've said what they all want that I actually wait.
08:23 No, I actually have no idea what W. Morrissey wants and evidently neither does Stokely Hathaway.
08:29 But they're all so disparate.
08:31 It feels lifeless, uncohesive and not really much to do with MJF.
08:36 So I'm not going to use it.
08:38 Sorry, firm.
08:40 In the lead up to full gear, the firm beat up Jon Moxley, but Mox managed to get them
08:44 banned at ringside by beating W. Morrissey in a match.
08:47 So they feature in the story.
08:49 But after that, we move our separate ways.
08:51 MJF versus Moxley is one on one.
08:53 You want this belt, Mox says, you'll have to beat me like a man.
08:57 Also side note, before full gear, MJF shouldn't wrestle a single time.
09:02 At full gear, MJF wins, but he wins cheap.
09:05 The ref goes down, Mox hits the Death Rider, visual win.
09:09 But Mox grabs the diamond ring from his tight, hits Jon Moxley, but only gets a two.
09:14 He grabs Mox up, puts him on his shoulder and hits him with a go to sleep.
09:19 Covers Mox, pull up one, two, three.
09:23 MJF wins the AEW Championship.
09:27 MJF cuts a promo with a belt on Dynamite, where he establishes, because I imagine people
09:31 will cheer for his win at full gear, that he's still very much a heel.
09:35 He did not do this for all the AEW smart marks.
09:39 He did it for the one thing he actually cares about.
09:43 It's f**king money again.
09:45 And to see Tony's face when he sits across the negotiation table, when MJF tells him,
09:50 you either pay me the most money out of anyone in this company, scratch that, anyone in this
09:58 industry.
09:59 If you don't, I am taking your belt to the Fed because I will never lose this title.
10:09 Mox and MJF have a rematch.
10:10 You want to fight dirty, then welcome to my world, says Mox.
10:13 Winter is coming.
10:14 MJF versus Jon Moxley lights out.
10:17 Typical death match, but towards the end of the match, two giant men enter the ring through
10:23 the crowd.
10:24 They in turn reveal themselves to be Lance Archer and Brian Cage.
10:30 Two men who can also claim to have been passed over by AEW in favor of former WWE guys.
10:38 Two men who have been made promises that have since been broken.
10:42 They kill Jon Moxley.
10:44 They literally write him off TV, break his arm, break his neck, something truly horrible.
10:50 Probably not break his neck.
10:51 Wednesday, the 4th of January, 2023.
10:55 Dynamite.
10:56 MJF introduces himself and his heavies.
11:01 Once upon a time, I was happy to be the pinnacle of AEW.
11:06 I realize that's the same as being the world's most hygienic wrestling fan.
11:11 It's a statement that amounts to practically nothing.
11:15 We are no longer content to be the pinnacle of AEW.
11:18 We are the intervention that AEW so desperately needs.
11:25 He announces this will be the year of MJF.
11:29 This is my last year in AEW.
11:33 On January 1st, 2024, my contract expires and Tony has until then to fundraise.
11:41 He has until then to stump up the kind of cash that I deem to be acceptable.
11:46 He has until then to run to his daddy and ask him to up his pocket money.
11:50 You Tony, you my dude, took the best thing going in the industry and you shuffled him
11:57 down the car, didn't you?
11:59 The devil never forgets.
12:02 This is my updated contract.
12:05 This entitles me to set my own terms for the duration of my stay in this amateur promotion.
12:11 So this is a message to the locker room.
12:13 Speak a number, boys, and try your best.
12:16 But here's the sitch.
12:18 You get one shot at the champ.
12:21 One.
12:22 You tell me when you're ready, but if you lose, you are done.
12:26 You don't get to challenge me again for as long as I am AEW champion.
12:30 Oh, and one more thing.
12:33 This offer, this title match offer, it's open to whomever I deem to be AEW talent.
12:42 I refuse to defend this title against someone from over there.
12:47 Because if one of you idiots actually lucks into a W on the best thing going, then it's
12:50 going to be an AEW guy.
12:52 Because somehow, some way, I care more about this place than Tony does.
12:57 I'm going to hold this title forever.
13:00 And if my demands aren't met at the negotiation table at the end of the year, I'm going to
13:05 take it, and I'm going to defend it in the main event of WrestleMania.
13:11 Because I'm Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
13:15 And I'm better than AEW.
13:17 And you know it.
13:19 And that is the brief for MJF's title run.
13:22 You get one chance.
13:23 No one can challenge for the title more than once.
13:26 He is going to burn through all of AEW's homegrown talent in a weird love/hate relationship he
13:33 has with the company.
13:34 One that kind of mirrors the idea of MJF.
13:37 He hates AEW, yet he gives the company his best work.
13:42 He wants to prove he is better and worth more than every AEW guy.
13:48 But if he's going to be beaten, he doesn't want it to be by a former Fed guy.
13:52 He is a complicated man.
13:55 He's the salt of the earth.
13:57 First up, MJF versus Eddie Kingston at Revolution.
14:00 Off the back of MJF crippling Moxley, first up to feud with him is Eddie.
14:04 Not necessarily an AEW original, but someone who did indeed rise to a more mainstream level
14:10 because of the promotion.
14:13 Someone who's occasionally taken on the mantle of AEW locker room leader.
14:17 Also Eddie Kingston, MJF promos, yes.
14:20 Yes, yes please.
14:22 Yes.
14:23 Yes to all of it.
14:24 MJF retains at Revolution with the intervention of... the intervention.
14:28 Do you get it?
14:29 First up at Double or Nothing, MJF versus Wardlow.
14:33 One year on from their exhibition squash, one year on from all that drama, MJF agrees
14:38 to face Wardlow for the title on one condition, that he vacates the TNT championship.
14:44 Because when MJF beats Wardlow at Double or Nothing, he's going to be left with nothing.
14:50 Because without MJF being in Wardlow's world, that's precisely what Wardlow is.
14:55 Nothing.
14:56 So MJF retains through a series of shenanigans.
15:00 Lance Archer and Brian Cage hold Wardlow and MJF just hits him over and over and over again
15:08 with the diamond ring.
15:09 Ten times in fact.
15:10 One for every powerbomb MJF took the year before.
15:13 Earlier in the show, Brian Cage and Lance Archer win the tag team championships.
15:17 The intervention has all of the original titles from when AEW began.
15:23 Next up, after conquering Wardlow in the latest foreshadowing and parallel between MJF and
15:28 a certain second city saint, and if you haven't seen these parallels already, then I don't
15:34 know how many more pipe bombs MJF needs to cut for you.
15:37 MJF, he declares a summer of MJF.
15:40 And he's going to prove what he's known all along.
15:43 He's going to do a victory lap.
15:44 He's going to defeat every single member of the four pillars of AEW.
15:50 A concept he created, a concept he's going to destroy.
15:55 He defeats Sammy Guevara at Fyter Fest.
15:58 Jungle Boy Jack Perry at Fight for the Fallen.
16:01 And then on the road to All Out, he feuds with Darby Allin.
16:04 MJF tells Darby that he's only been relevant when he's faced MJF, CM Punk, or by tagging
16:10 around with that walking skeleton Sting.
16:13 Now at All Out, Sting helps to run off the rest of the intervention when the ref goes
16:18 down and after a full year away from AEW, Cult of Personality hits and CM Punk returns
16:26 in Chicago.
16:27 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:29 Punk returns to the pay-per-view where he debuted against Darby Allin, to the pay-per-view
16:33 where MJF stood up the ramp from him and prophesized doom a year before.
16:38 And he picks up Darby Allin on his shoulders, hits him with the GTS.
16:42 MJF retains with the help of CM Punk.
16:46 The next dynamite, Punk and MJF come face to face in the ring.
16:49 The first words that Punk ever said into a mic against MJF were the words, "I am so
16:55 disappointed in you."
16:57 Punk's first words into a mic to MJF after a year off, "I am so proud of you."
17:04 Punk and MJF form an alliance.
17:05 CM Punk will gladly be part of this poison pill because he finally sees MJF was right.
17:13 Right about AEW, right about CM Punk.
17:16 This company sucks, says Punk, because if he's ever going to work for AEW again, we
17:22 can't really ignore what happened.
17:24 But it also goes deeper than that.
17:26 MJF is telling truth to power just like Punk did.
17:29 Punk left WWE in January 2014, 10 years later.
17:34 To the month Punk will help MJF do the same in AEW.
17:40 Because this company sucks, says Punk.
17:43 To the devil you know, we'll be out of here.
17:46 Thanks for the money, idiots.
17:48 With Punk at his side, that's when you run MJF against the next two people.
17:52 The kind of last two bastions of AEW.
17:55 Hangman Adam Page and Kenny Omega.
17:58 MJF versus Hangman Page at Grand Slam because now Page really is defending AEW from Punk
18:05 and MJF.
18:06 This will hopefully feel a little better in a year's time.
18:10 Hopefully.
18:11 I'm really sorry Colt Cabana about all the things.
18:14 So Page loses, then finally a feeling of last chance to loon at full gear one year on from
18:19 MJF, winning the title.
18:21 The last pay-per-view of the year.
18:23 This sentiment that's been building for this entire year.
18:26 We have to get the title off MJF.
18:28 The entire locker room is gathering around Kenny Omega.
18:32 The champion of AEW.
18:33 The man at the heart of it all.
18:35 The man whose match against Chris Jericho was the starting gun for all elite wrestling.
18:40 The man who, in all the horrible mess surrounding Punk at All Out, his chief contribution was
18:46 apparently saving Punk's f***ing dog.
18:49 MJF versus Kenny Omega.
18:51 During the match, the entire locker room swarms the ring to help take out Punk and the intervention.
18:57 They run the mop.
18:58 Omega hoists MJF up for the one-winged angel, but MJF nails him in the head with the ring.
19:04 Kenny falls.
19:05 MJF lands on him.
19:07 Pins Omega.
19:08 One, two, three.
19:09 The last chance has failed.
19:13 MJF takes to the mic in the middle of the ring.
19:16 He calls out Tony Khan.
19:17 I've done it all.
19:19 I've beaten them all.
19:21 All the AEW originals.
19:22 Now you'll have to pay me all the money in the world or I am gone and I am taking this
19:30 title with me.
19:32 Out comes Tony Khan.
19:34 Congratulates MJF.
19:35 But reminds him, they still have one big event left of the year.
19:39 Winter is coming and he's had to pull out all the stops because desperate times call
19:46 for desperate measures.
19:48 And this is where we get truly fantasy booking with it.
19:52 Bear that in mind.
19:53 I'm just doing what excites me the most from a storyline perspective.
19:57 As soon as Tony says that, the lights go out.
20:01 Silence.
20:03 Wrestling has more than one royal family.
20:06 Cody Rhodes returns to AEW and he's going to do it for one night only at Winter is Coming.
20:15 MJF, the man who betrayed Cody in order to enact this stipulation, argues that Cody can't
20:23 challenge for the AEW title.
20:25 That was under Cody's old contract.
20:27 That contract expired.
20:29 This is a new contract for one night only.
20:31 Cody Rhodes is returning to the promotion.
20:33 He started to save it from the devil.
20:37 At Winter is Coming, Cody Rhodes finally beats MJF.
20:43 He lays the AEW title in the middle of the ring and he gets to say a proper goodbye.
20:47 The goodbye to AEW that he never really got to make.
20:51 He vacates the belt.
20:53 He walks away, which opens the door for two things.
20:56 MJF, humiliated and beaten after a year long reign of terror, can resign with AEW because
21:02 his AEW career can't end this way.
21:05 Or he can leave.
21:07 Sign with WWE and there's an inbuilt feud with Cody Rhodes waiting to happen right there.
21:12 Do I think this will happen?
21:15 It's not impossible.
21:16 It's a big advert for WWE.
21:19 Paul's a clever man.
21:20 Is it likely?
21:21 No.
21:22 What's more likely is probably Bryan Danielson, which no one would hate, to be fair.
21:30 What could provide the best narrative closure?
21:33 Maybe Wardlow.
21:34 But that's not it.
21:35 This is my story.
21:36 My video.
21:37 And that's how I would cap off the year of MJF.
21:41 What do you think?
21:42 Did you enjoy it?
21:43 Let me know in the comments.
21:44 If you didn't, don't.
21:46 Keep that to yourself.
21:48 If you'd like to see more bookings, I've done loads.
21:50 I've done Gothamania, done Katie Vick.
21:53 I hated that one.
21:54 Make sure you subscribe to Parts of Unknown.
21:56 Let me know in the comments what you'd like me to book next.
21:58 Yeah, get on board, I suppose.
22:01 No, not get on board.
22:03 That is the tagline to No Rolls Barred.
22:06 Got board games on the brain.
22:08 Jam that jam.
22:10 And get on board.