AEW has removed MJF from their roster and merchandise pages on their website following MJF’s promo on AEW Dynamite.
For those living under a rock who have not heard about what is going on in AEW, MJF is the talk of the wrestling town.
MJF did not show up to a fan fest event this past weekend and was scheduled to have a sit down with Tony Khan over MJF feeling he is underpaid and undervalued. This meeting was supposed to take place on Wednesday presumably before Dynamite. However, during the show MJF came to the ring and cut a eight minute promo berating Khan and his love for ex-WWE wrestlers and calling him a mark. MJF asked to be fired before having his mic cut during a long string of curse words.
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The Art Of A “Worked Shoot”
This has led the internet to debate the “worked shoot” promo as to how much of it was a work and how much of it was a shoot. Some think the entire dispute is a work and there is zero tension between Khan and MJF. It is being compared to CM Punk’s infamous “Pipe Bomb” promo and Brian Pillman’s worked shoot promos from the end of his WCW run.
After the mic was cut and during the commercial break Punk came out to confront MJF. However, MJF slipped away through the crowd.
AEW pushed the storyline forward by removing MJF from their website and even removed him from their results recap of Dynamite. Neither Khan or MJF have commented on the promo or MJF being removed from the website.
As perfectly as the promo went, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter the promo didn’t go exactly as planned.
Not The Reaction AEW Was Looking For
MJF was originally planned to cut a heel promo with his mic cutting off midway through and Punk running out to confront him. This part went according to plan, but we don’t know how long the promo was supposed to be and the contents of the planned promo. He could have gone way “off script” or not at all. Thus is the magic of a “worked shoot” promo.
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However, where the promo went off the track was the crowd reaction. During the promo fans began to cheer for MJF. The crowd cheering MJF while he was berating Khan, AEW wrestlers and the promotion as a whole “made the promotion seem uncool,” the newsletter added. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer compared the reaction to the promo to the reaction the heel faction, nWo, received in WCW. He also added how it killed some of the babyfaces in the promotion and made WCW seem “uncool and incompetent.”
AEW Has Our Attention So Don’t Let Us Down
AEW and Khan are not unfamiliar with a lot of buzz and fan attention coming to their promotion as the signing of Punk, Sting and Bryan Danielson created a ton of buzz. However, this kind of attention is very different for the promotion. All eyes are on the promotion and hopefully they take this storyline and run with it and don’t waste the opportunity to tell a really cool story.
We will see if AEW or Khan comments on the promo tonight on AEW Rampage. I doubt MJF will be there and I don’t think he should be. This could be a thing which is bought each week as AEW tries to figure out what to do with MJF and MJF doing run-ins and generally disrupting the shows. However, I think the best bet is to give MJF a lot of time off and have MJF return at a PPV, perhaps AEW X NJPW: Forbidden Door.
How much of the promo do you think is a work and how much do you think is a shoot? What did you think of the promo? Is it on the same level of the “pipe bomb” promo? If the promo was mostly a shoot do you think MJF will get fired because of it? Let us know where you would like to see this storyline go and what you would like to see MJF’s response be to his removal from the AEW website.
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Sources: Wrestling Inc., Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Wrestling Inc.
