If confidence won back world titles, Maxwell Jacob Friedman would have no issue defeating AEW World Champion Darby Allin at upcoming pay-per-view event “Double or Nothing.” But even in a non-legitimate sports competition like professional wrestling, personality alone can only carry one so far. The good news is MJF can handle himself on the mat about as well as he can on the mic.
Last month, Allin shocked the wrestling world by defeating the champ on AEW’s weekly episodic TV show Dynamite. This weekend, Friedman will get his chance for revenge. Typically in these situations, it is the champion (now Allin) with the most to lose — the belt — but Sunday’s main event won’t be your run of the mill match. If the challenger (Friedman) takes another “L,” he won’t just lose his head, MJF will lose his hair. For someone who loves his own appearance as much as Friedman does, such a fate for his ‘do simply won’t do.
MJF’s boss, AEW owner Tony Khan (the son of billionaire Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan), is as big a wrestling fan as, well, his company’s wrestling fans. Khan very much appreciates his big bad — or at the very least, he tolerates him.
Asked how he deals with a personality like Friedman, Khan starts with the superlatives. The Burberry-draped, smack-talking, walking heat machine is “a hugely charismatic wrestler,” Khan tells The Hollywood Reporter. It’s true: Friedman is as over as anyone in professional wrestling, AEW or beyond.
