MJF tells fans to cut out the AEW/WWE tribalism in his best babyface move yet

We’d seen hints of it before, but we’d never seen Maxwell Jacob Friedman as committed to playing a fan favorite as he has been in recent weeks. His Better Than You BAY BAY team-up with Adam Cole has created some great television, and given the AEW World champion a chance to open up and even inspire people... all while still being kind of a scumbag, of course. As MJF himself puts it, now he’s “our scumbag”.

As part of his Town Hall with Busted Open, Max delivered a message that some fans might not want to hear but that will will definitely boost his babyface cred for a lot of others:

“I definitely feel I’m the best, but I’m not gonna sit here and pretend I’m the only one. There’s this weird thing going on now in professional wrestling where I’ll see fans online, the way they communicate with each other, it’s like all-out war. Just so you guys know, that’s not what’s going on with the wrestlers. We’re all rooting each other on because realistically, the better the two companies are doing, the more money we’re gonna make. So stop arguing. We’re all freaking having a blast.

“I’m watching LA Knight and Cody Rhodes every week, and I’m having a blast, just like I know everybody else is having a blast, just like I know that there are fans out there watching Better Than You BAY BAY having a blast every single week. There’s so much great professional wrestling going on, and there’s more than enough room for it, clearly. Because AEW is about to have the biggest crowd — this is not hyperbole, wrestling’s unfortunately a very hyperbolic sport — the biggest crowd ever in the history of the sport, and I’m headlining it.

Good stuff. You’ll note that Friedman doesn’t say you have to like everything, or that you can’t criticize anything, or even that you can’t have some fun pointing out one company or another’s strengths and weaknesses. His perfectly reasonable message is to find what you like in the amazing pro wrestling scene we’re fortunate to have in front of us these days rather than charging into a battle that your favorite performers aren’t even fighting.

And even if you’ve got an issue with that, hopefully you won’t have an issue with the rest of MJF’s message where he talks about why he appeals to the fans he’s telling to stop arguing:

“When I think about that, it’s so insane to me because — and I think another reason why people can’t get enough MJF is because I’m really similar to a lot of the people that watch every week, besides the fact that I’m a freak athlete and I’m way more handsome than everybody. And a prodigy. I grew up loving this sport. I had a John Cena fathead in my bedroom. I woke up to that man staring at me. That’s insane. I had posters of CM Punk and Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine and Jerry Lynn and Buddy Rogers. Like, I lived for this shit.

“And now, I get to look dead into that camera and say that I’m the headliner for the biggest show ever, and it’s not hyperbole. I think that the reason people are behind me is because people see themselves in me. I’m a part of that dream, and I’m proud to be a part of that dream.”

That’s our scumbag.