AEW's MJF Recalls Meeting Cody Rhodes At Indie Show Booked By Ethan Page

Early in his AEW tenure, Maxwell Jacob Friedman was aligned with Cody Rhodes, serving as his protégé before turning on him at AEW Full Gear 2019. Rhodes and MJF have a history that actually predates the formation of AEW, and during an interview with "Shut Up and Wrestle with Brian Solomon," Friedman recalled how they met.

"The very first time I met Cody Rhodes was at Alpha One at Canada, and he had told the promotor – who may or may not have been Ethan Page – that I was hitting on his sister, which I wasn't!" MJF claimed. "Ethan Page walks up to me, he goes: 'Hey man, are you f**king hitting on my sister?' and I say: 'Trust me, if I was you'd know; she'd be my girlfriend by now.' And then we got into it a little bit."

Friedman further claimed that he eventually figured out that Rhodes had told Page this story, so he went up to find "The American Nightmare" and confront him. "I said: 'Hey!' and he's looking at me in disbelief. He goes: 'Hey?' I go: 'Why the f**k did you tell the booker I'm trying to bang his siter?' And he was like: 'I don't know what you're talking about.' I go: 'Dude, please don't let me bring Ethan down here, and he'll corroborate,' and he starts laughing," MJF further recalled. Following this interaction, the two men hit it off and Friedman claims that Rhodes gets a kick out of him, so they quickly bonded.

"I credit him to this day, even though it pains me, because I feel I've lapped him, and I've already beat him in the ring," the AEW World Champion quickly pointed out. "But I gotta give him, credit man."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Shut Up and Wrestle with Brian Solomon," and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.