The Post’s Joseph Staszewski brings you around the world of professional wrestling every Tuesday in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle.
The Post Match Angle will return Aug. 22.
AEW has a chance to tell its greatest story if the company and Maxwell Jacob Friedman are ready to go all-in on it.
There should be no going back now for MJF. What we heard from him on Dynamite needs to be his babyface-turn promo.
Because if that is not it, what could it be?
If that is not the moment, then it might be tougher for fans to fully invest in him as the good guy if he and AEW punt this too far down the road.
The audience is clearly hungry to embrace him as its champion and his on-screen friendship with Adam Cole.
MJF is finally allowing them to do so (outside of Long Island) and having it be a tease – considering the approach he took last Wednesday – could do some serious damage to him being able to capture that again.
MJF connected with the audience on as sympathetic a level as you can, speaking about dealing with Attention Deficit Disorder (they chanted “ADD” for him) and Rejection Sensitive Disorder and how it made it hard for him to make friends as a kid. He recalled being pelted with quarters and being told “pick them up, Jew Boy.” He used it to explain his “scumbag” ways. Like, “Hey, I’m an asshole, but here’s the deeper reason why.”
“I remember saying to myself that day and fully believing that everyone on this planet is an evil scumbag, and if I wanted to survive this lifetime and if I wanted to protect myself, I had to stab everyone in the back before they had the opportunity to stab me,” MJF said. “But I’m beginning to realize that that is no way to live. Because while I’m protecting myself, I ended up becoming one of them. I ended up becoming a scumbag myself.
“What’s hard, Tampa, is being vulnerable and being open. That’s hard. I knew with my disorder, I knew that if I opened myself up and as I was Max and you booed me, it would kill me because then I would bring me back to being the 5-foot-nothing, ADD-riddled ‘Jew Boy’ who had quarters thrown at him.”
Despite saying he’s not scared anymore because of the fans, MJF smartly didn’t strip himself of all his beloved qualities – the ones that actually make the audience love him. He’s still a “scumbag,” but he is finally “ready to be your scumbag.”
“He’s our scumbag” chants begin.
Boom, turn complete.
The Collision ratings and the reaction to MJF and Adam Cole’s embrace two weeks ago on Dynamite clearly show fans are emotionally invested in this story and don’t want it to end because who can’t relate to friendship and unexpected ones? It will all continue at least to All In where the two will face off for the AEW world championship.
It has the chance to be the best story AEW has told in its four-year history because it organically began in the company – not in New Japan, Ring of Honor or WWE. It will have to outdo MJF and CM Punk, and it could if it turns MJF is a babyface megastar that further raises the company’s worth and profile.
It does mean Cole will eventually have to turn on him, and he can certainly handle the loss of his babyface standing to become a massive heel again. However, it doesn’t need to happen right away.
AEW appears to setting up a story with Cole and his former Kingdom members in ROH, Matt Taven and Mike Bennett. Kyle O’Reilly or Bobby Fish could return to team with an angry Roderick Strong to oppose Cole and MJF or maybe they all form a loose alliance for a while.
If Cole and his buddies do eventually turn on MJF, it will force the jilted champion to do the toughest thing you can ask of him – make new friends to oppose them after losing one so close to him.
Cue Wardlow, Shawn Spears or FTR.
It’s why there should be no going back for AEW and MJF now on his babyface turn. Doing so gives you something that’s more of the same instead of a story that could be its best ever.
New Player
It’s long been rumored that JD McDonagh would be inserted into The Judgment Day story. That finally happened on Raw, and though he is a natural fit, it doesn’t seem cut and dry that he will just be a new member.
McDonagh, who attacked Sami Zayn backstage to take him out of the main event, seems more like a confidant and insurance for Finn Balor against Damian Priest. You could go Balor, Priest, McDonagh, Dominick Mysterio, Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Zayn and one more in WarGames.
Could be a New Day
Big E has a lot to be proud of and nothing to prove should he decide never to wrestle again. The former WWE champion revealed during a SummerSlam media event that while all of his “stuff looked great” in his recovery from a broken neck he suffered in March 2022, some spine specialists have told him “not to wrestle again if I were you.”
Big E, 37, said he has no issues whatsoever, but it’s something he wants to “be smart” about so he can “live a healthy life” and stay pain-free. He even floated the idea of giving commentary a try. It feels like something he would really excel at and add some needed fun to one of the broadcast teams, just as Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods returned to Raw on Monday.
If this is it for the New Day member, it’s been a hell of a run.
The 10 Count
Shayna Baszler, despite a lackluster match with Ronda Rousey at SummerSlam, appeared to still get everything she needed to propel herself forward – including a nasty black eye. She was cheered for stepping to Zoey Stark and even laid the groundwork for a feud with Becky Lynch — who hilariously turned her social media lemons into Raw lemonade. She even trolled Triple H with a spray of it.
The Street Profits took out the OC and the Brawling Brutes in their suits and then got the stamp of approval from Bobby Lashley. The crowd ate it up, so it’s hard to ask for a better start to their new edge.
Swerve Strickland and AR Fox leaving Nick Wayne bloody in his own training ring is quite a strong visual. AEW continues to produce compelling segments away front the ring and arena.
Ricky Starks has more heel and babyface turns than I can count right now, but AEW has done a pretty good job of dissolving some of the fan animosity around CM Punk with Starks’ and Ricky Steamboat’s help.
This is why The Miz is awesome. He gave L.A. Knight the exact passion and execution in their promo to further elevate the SummerSlam battle royale winner. Both men laid some raw emotions out there and sold their new feud perfectly.
Love how WWE keeps teasing us with Cody Rhodes-Seth Rollins World Heavyweight title program only to have someone else take it off course — first Brock Lesnar and this time Shinsuke Nakamura.
Thoughts of a babyface Baron Cobin run feel on a deep hold right now as he was immediately and effectively playing instigator between a rightly agitated Thea Hail and Andre Chase.
Eddie Kingston ended up with a pretty nice showing in the C Block of the G1 Climax tournament, falling a win short of advancing with a loss to Bullet Club leader David Finlay early Tuesday morning. He still has unfinished business with Claudio Castagnoli when he returns to AEW, but no clear home as far as a faction.
A few AEW promos really stood out to me this week. Kris Statlander doing an interview while squatting Renne Paqutee was tremendous. Toni Storm’s slowly-becoming-unhinged chat with Tony Schiavone after losing her title ruled and Bullet Club Gold now carrying around a cardboard cutout of Jay White everywhere.
Thought this week’s “Dark Side of The Ring” was some fun TV. It made me think that maybe there was a sliver of good at Bash at the Beach 2000. Eric Bischoff said on an old episode of 83 Weeks that Hogan – who was a babyface – would have faced a heel tournament winner to unify the world title at Halloween Havoc. That likely means Booker T potentially wouldn’t have become a WCW world champion, changing his entire booking and spot when he came over to WWE.
Wrestler of the Week
Chad Gable, WWE
Gable got quite the moment on “Monday Night Raw”, winning a four-way match in his hometown of Minneapolis to earn a shot at Gunther’s Intercontinental championship. He was able to celebrate with his family and lift his son up out of the crowd and carry him out of the ring. Gable, who never disappoints in the ring, appears to finally be getting a well-deserved push.
Honorable mention: Iyo Sky, LA Knight, Cody Rhodes, SANADA.
Match to Watch
Jungle Boy vs. Rob Van Dam, FTW championship on AEW Dynamite (Wednesday, 8 p.m., TBS)
This feels like a rare treat seeing RVD, 52, back in the ring on national television competing for a championship. It’s been three years since the ECW legend wrestled for a major U.S. promotion when he was with Impact in 2020, and he still had plenty in the tank then. This is a big moment for Perry as AEW is clearly putting a lot into his heel turn and story with Hook. Can he keep the momentum going?
Around the Ring
With 59,194 in attendance in the Motor City, SummerSlam generated a record gate of $8.5 million, the largest gate for any non-WrestleMania event ever, the company announced. It was the most-watched SummerSlam in company history and among the top three audiences in the history of WWE on Peacock.
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