MJF Reveals The Moment When He Really Got Noticed In AEW
MJF was on the latest edition of the Talk Is Jericho podcast, which was recorded before his match with Chris Jericho against The Young Bucks. During the episode, MJF played a word association game. When Sting came up, MJF expressed his respect for the WCW legend, but he called out Sting for stepping over Jericho.
"Also, sorry, he stole your bat," MJF pointed out. "You invented have a bat in professional wrestling.
"Listen, let me ask you a question," Jericho added. "If you're at a concert and you're sitting on a great seat on the floor, and it's jam-packed and you get up out of that seat and split. Someone else sits down in that seat if it's general admission. You lose it. You lose your privilege to sit in that seat. You don't come back 15 years later and go, 'Hey, that's my seat.' Dude, it was once your seat. You split for 15 years. It's my baseball bat.
"That's your baseball bat now, but also, guys let me just explain something," MJF said. "Chris is being way too humble right now. There is a photo of Chris at eight years old holding a baseball bat. That was way before Sting was holding a baseball bat."
MJF admitted that he was not well known heading into AEW. He named the moment that people knew who he was, and he talked about his quick success in AEW so far.
"I'll just say it, I wasn't well known coming into this company," MJF admitted. "There are a lot of other guys in this promotion who were well known that came from the indies that had never been on a nationally televised show, and I'll never forget. Tony Khan, I think he kinda knew what he had with MJF, but he didn't fully, and when he gave me that microphone and Bret Hart was talking in the middle of the ring and I went out there. And the world got to get a taste of what I do best.
"I think that was when everybody collectively went, 'Who is this guy? My God,' and ever since then, it's been a wild, incredible ride. I think I can easily say, probably no one in the history of the business, outside of maybe one or two guys, probably just one guy, probably just Kurt Angle, has achieved as much as I have in such a short period of time, has been a top guy as quick as I have in such a short period of time. But again, I do attribute that to you honestly because you have been a mentor, you've been a friend and I think that's why me and you are going to hold those AEW World Tag Titles for a very very long time."
Jericho and MJF also addressed Sammy Guevara or "Gammy Suevara" quitting The Inner Circle. Jericho revealed what he was trying to do with Guevara and MJF and how The Inner Circle has more work to do.
"On top of that, I think The Inner Circle's just going to continue to grow and get stronger," Jericho expressed. "We've had some ups and downs, as any great team does. It's sad because I think the problem is more on Gammy Suevara's part than it is yours. Back in the day, Vince McMahon used to almost pit guys against each other. I know that because he did it with me and Triple H and what that would do is it would give you more incentive to go out there and have the best match ever with each other.
"You would push each other. 'I'm going to show this guy. Well, I'm going to show him,' and I wanted that with you and Sammy. I could see what you were doing, and he was doing it too. He's the one who exploded, and once again, listen, you can take a shot to the stomach. I've been punched by worse guys than him, but he quit The Inner Circle, and when you walk out on Chris Jericho and you walk out on MJF, you walk out of our lives forever. So the problem is gone if that's the way he wants to be, but there's a whole lot of work left for the Inner Circle to do, and it starts on Sunday with MJF and Jericho winning the AEW Tag Team Championships from The Bucks."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.