MJF is only 26 years old and he already is one of the most popular stars in the wrestling world. He had started gaining attention even before his signing with AEW. So much so that even WWE had shown interest in bringing him on board, but the former MLW star chose to sign with Tony Khan’s promotion instead.
The Pinnacle leader explained the reasoning behind his decision during an interview with veteran MMA journalist, Ariel Helwani.
WWE Interested in MJF
MJF claimed that the biggest question in his mind was which company would let him be his authentic self. After talking to Khan, he realized that AEW was the better fit for him:
“I knew there was serious interest in me in WWE, but again, I thought to myself, ‘Are they gonna let me be me?’ That’s my biggest thing. Because I’m not fake. Everything about me is real. Are you gonna let me do what I do best? Let me be me. Then I got to talking to Tony Khan.” recalled MJF, “I was linked up with him by my good friend Cody Rhodes. Hope you’re doing good buddy. And we talked for hours on end over the phone, me and my BFF TK, about mid-south [wrestling], about AWA, about Buddy Landel, about Butch Reed.
The Long Island wrestling prodigy continued, “And I immediately thought to myself, ‘Okay, this guy gets it, and he gets me.’ That’s what was the most important thing to me. So at that point in my career [it] was a no brainer. Now, you bring me anywhere, I’m gonna be a top guy in your promotion so it doesn’t really matter. But at that point, I needed to make sure I had the perfect launching off point in my career.”
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