By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest MJF
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
If he thinks he’s the best wrestler to never wrestle in WWE: “Yeah, it’s not even close. It’s not even close. Before me, the answer would have been Sting. And then he wrestled there.”
What about Kenny Omega? “No, stop it. I love Kenny to death. If you put our names into a search engine, I can assure you, more people are looking my name up than his. Now, is he gonna go down as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time? Yes, but that’s not the question you just asked me. The question you just asked me is outside of the wrestling bubble. Kenny Omega has done some awesome voiceover work. He’s been involved in some massive video games, but he’s not MJF, and by the way, that’s no shade. I’m sure people are going to try to clip this and make it seem like I’m talking shit about Kenny Omega. Kenny Omega is great. I’ve talked about Kenny Omega’s greatness when we wrestled on Collision a couple of years ago. I can’t say enough nice things about Kenny Omega, but he’s no MJF.”
On how much interest there was in him from WWE when his AEW deal was expiring: “You know the answer, there was a lot. I had some nice calls with some nice folks who are high up on the chain, and they were interested in me. They’re still very much so interested in me, and I understand why. But for all my faults, one thing I am not is unprofessional. If you put a contract in front of me with the right amount of money, I’m going to do this. I’m going to broadcast how important those three letters are [AEW]. Those three [MJF] letters are just as important as these [AEW], because you’re paying me to say that. Now, do I believe it’s true? You’ll never know, and that’s the beauty of it. No matter what promotion I’m working for, I’m going to shamelessly shill what’s going on. Now, can I look in the camera and say I really do believe everything I’ve said prior to this? Yes, I can, but they’ll never know.”
His top five MJF matches of all time: “Bryan Danielson, Iron Man match. CM Punk, dog collar match, I’m gonna throw MJF versus Hangman at Revolution. I believe that was last year. Darby versus me Full Gear, we were the opening match. This is where it gets hard. I will throw in the Mistico match as well. We can do this all day. I can do a top 50, because I’ve had them. But I think those are the ones that, when people think about my career, that’ll come up. The match against Kenny Omega on Collision also. These things can be swapped and switched. The match against Samoa Joe at Grand Slam was insanity. My match with Adam Cole in front of 82,000 people, we pretty much broke the sound barrier that night. It was absurd. It was the loudest I’ve ever [heard], my ears hurt. Both of my matches with Will Ospreay. But the difference between me and somebody you ask this question to, I get frustrated naming these matches because I didn’t win all of them. Sure, they were great and they were entertaining, but I didn’t win all of them, and that p*sses me off. I won a good amount of them that I said, but not all of them.”
On how old he was in the photo of him as a kid meeting CM Punk: “I believe it was the year after my Bar Mitzvah. I think I was just turning 14.”
On fast forwarding over ten years later, and being in the ring and cutting promos with Punk, and it being like MJF had met his match: “Match? No. I mean, watch the tape. You tell me who got the better of who verbally during that entire rivalry. I hope he’s able to enjoy what he’s accomplishing over there. I have no idea, because the things that he said in my company do go against the things that he’s saying now. Some people might say that’s hypocritical. That’s not my place. All I know is since I’ve jumped into pro wrestling, I’ve been saying the same thing since the jump, my tune has not changed. I’m Maxwell Jacob Friedman, and I’m better than you, and you know it. I also won’t sit here and lie to you and tell you that I didn’t learn so much through my hatred of that man. I learned the difference between good and great. That’s what I learned. Now, do I like him? I’ll reiterate, no, I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire to put that fire out. But I’m not going to sit here and pretend I didn’t learn from him.”
Whether he thinks about how much longer he wants to wrestle, given his acting career: “No, because I’m young, the idea hasn’t even entered my head, like when I was watching that John Cena retirement, or the AJ Styles retirement.”
On Cena having 20 years on him: “So does Cody (Rhodes), so does CM Punk, so does LA Knight, so does Jey Uso, so does essentially every top guy, Roman, all these dudes are 40s to 50. I’m 29. So yeah, I do think it’s silly to even go there. Oh, when am I going to hang them up? I’m a baby, you know what I mean? I’m a top act, and it’s very rare for somebody my age, if ever, to be in the situation that I’m in. But I’m also very cognizant of the fact that I’m just getting started, I don’t know what my prime is going to be. I don’t think I’m going to have a prime. I think I’m just going to be great for at least the next 20 to 30 years, and it’s crazy to say that out loud, because when you hear 20-30 years, you’re like, Oh, that’s a lot of time. 30s, 40s, 50s, it’s all ahead of me. It’s all ahead of the viewers. I personally feel that year over year, I’ve only evolved and gotten better. And I’m very curious to see what I look like as a wrestler when I’m 35, when I’m 45, or when I’m 50.”
Great Value Shane Douglas really thinks highly of hiself.