Tony Khan Says This AEW Star Is 'Challenging' To Work With

AEW owner Tony Khan is playing up the hate for his world champion, Maxwell Jacob Friedman. In a new interview with 105.3 The Fan's "K&C Masterpiece," Khan said the promotion's top heel is "challenging" and a "very hard" person to work with backstage.

"He's one of the most dislikable people there is," Khan said. "He elicits that emotion from a lot of people. He's a very challenging personality and he's very hard to work with, but I do think he's a great professional wrestler." Khan went on to compliment MJF for what he called an "incredible match" with rising AEW star Konosuke Takeshita last week on "AEW Dynamite," a match that opened the show and saw MJF retain his title before bloodying his opponent by punching him with his Dynamite Diamond Ring. "The AEW World Champion MJF is a great wrestler," Khan said. "He showed it out there one-on-one against Takeshita."

Regarded as one of wrestling's best trash talkers, MJF has seemingly done everything in his power to draw the ire of the AEW crowd, while continuously weaseling his way out of matches and compromising confrontations with opponents. When his latest rival Bryan Danielson came to Takeshita's aid last week, MJF scurried out of the ring and ran backstage to safety. But there will be nowhere for MJF to hide at Revolution when he and Danielson face off in an iron man match for the AEW World Championship – a match Khan said would be "the ultimate test" for the promotion's despised champion.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "K&C Masterpiece" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.