MJF Once Again References Bruce Prichard And Teases Leaving AEW For WWE
AEW star MJF was on a recent episode of Rasslin' with Brandon F. Walker where he talked about his homecoming to Long Island at the UBS Arena show and many more topics. On a recent episode of Dynamite, MJF referred to himself, Jungle Boy, Darby Allin and Sammy Guevara as "the four pillars" of AEW in reference to the AJPW "four pillars" in the '90s, Akira Taue, Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada. MJF explained on the podcast why he referenced himself along with Jungle Boy, Allin and Guevara.
"I think it was really important, and this is going to shock people, I care about the success of my company. I truly do," MJF stated. "I noticed that I wasn't really getting compared to them. I was getting compared to the top guys in our promotion. At the beginning of AEW, the talk was really, [Jon] Moxley, [Chris] Jericho, MJF, Cody Rhodes. Then things proceeded to get bigger, and we proceeded to bring in more people. Kenny Omega was getting up there. He wasn't really there yet at the beginning. He was taking a lot of Ls to be perfectly honest.
"Now your top guys are your Kenny Omega's, your MJF's, your Jon Moxley's, your Bryan Danielson's. There's a lot of top guys in our company, and I've been one of them. And for the longest time, people were forgetting my age. People were forgetting how long I'm going to be around in AEW, as long as the money is right. I'm 25 years old. I was born in 1996. March 15, Ides of March, Et tu, Brute? That's why I thought it was important for me to remind people, yes, I'm one of the top names in our industry. Yes, I am the best 'hell.' I despise that terminology in all of professional wrestling. People forget how young I am, and I wanted to remind people, this is the class of guys who are going to be in the main event picture for the next 25 years, not five or three, 25 years.
"It's a very long time, and that's why I thought it was very important to bring that to the forefront. I don't like Jungle Boy. I beat him. I don't like Sammy Guevara. I beat him. He's an egomaniac. I'm not super keen on Darby either, haven't beaten him, but apparently, he got attacked, which is absurd. I had no idea about it, but the bottom line is, even though I don't like these people, I'm still fully aware that these are the young athletes who I will be going up against for the next 25 years on top of the card at All Elite Wrestling."
MJF has revealed in the past that he had signed a five-year contract with AEW. That means that his contract is set to expire in 2024, and he talked about his plans once his contract expires.
"Ratings are important. I don't chime in, and I'll tell you exactly why, Tony Khan understands where his bread is buttered, his bread and buttered with me," MJF noted. "It just is. It's a fact. I'm 25, and he knows that the past, present and future of his company rides on me. This is just simple math. There's nothing wrong with math. Eventually these guys, who are great, are gonna have to retire. You're not gonna be happy when they do, but I'm gonna be here for a long time.
"So Tony Khan understands where his bread is buttered. Tony Khan understands he has the best promo, or interviewee, or guy on the stick, however you want to say it, in all professional wrestling. I'm also one of the best in-ring wrestlers in the world today. My issue and the reason why I don't get into ratings talk, and I'll let everybody else do it, is because someday, if Tony Khan, again good friend of mine, love him, doesn't fork up the right amount of money, when my contract goes up in the beginning of 2024, I might go to the other place.
"I might go over there. I might go to Impact. I might go to Ring of Honor. I can go wherever I want because I'm the hottest commodity in professional wrestling, and I'm a businessman. Bruce Prichard, we go way back to my Major League Wrestling days, absolutely. He's a huge fan of mine. I've been in this business for a long time since 2014, riding the roads. It's up to Tony Khan to decide what happens there, and that's why I don't get into ratings talk."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Rasslin' with Brandon F. Walker with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.