MJF on His Knee Injury Status, Why Having a Competitive AEW World Title Match with RUSH Benefited Everyone, His Praise of Lio Rush’s “Blackheart” Character, Him Having Respect for Everyone He Shares AEW Locker Room With, & More

A recent episode of the Shut Up And Wrestle podcast featured AEW World Champion MJF as the guest. One of the topics discussed included MJF’s thoughts about fans that demand him to wrestle more in AEW.

“I always laugh, especially earlier on in my AEW career, when fans were like, ‘Why isn’t MJF wrestling more?’ Fuck you, you take a bump, pussy. It hurts. Do you have any idea how much it hurts? Everything we do in there hurts.”

MJF also provided an update on his recovery from a knee injury he suffered during his match against RUSH on the June 3rd AEW Dynamite show.

“While you’re interviewing me right now, my knee is fucked. It’s swollen to shit, I’m in a shit ton of fucking pain. It’s on me because I’m the fucking top guy and people are leaning on me to make sure that we’re doing well. So, I’ve gotta lace my god damn boots up and get in that damn ring. Obviously, a doctor is never going to let me go in there unless I’m structurally okay, so don’t think I’m burying the AEW medical team. I’m in a lot of pain, the swelling, but structurally, I’m good.”

MJF also gave his thoughts about how younger fans don’t understand how much wrestlers are putting on the line from a physical standpoint.

“There is this new wrestling fandom of these younger kids that think this is all funsies. They don’t understand how much we’re putting on the line physically everytime we go through the curtain. It takes a toll, dude. I’m 30, I’m in pain. I’m only 30. I can’t imagine what I’m gonna feel like when I’m 40 or 50. But I’m also not asking for sympathy either, I’m not a bitch. I fully understand I signed up for this shit. This was my decision and my dream to chase. However, I just wish wrestling fans understood more that everytime we go out there, it’s painful. It’s not like it only hurts when you take a bump on the goddamn apron, it hurts everytime we take a bump. No matter what, it hurts.”

MJF also gave his thoughts about why him having a competitive match against RUSH for his AEW World Championship benefited everyone involved.

“I knew going into my match against Rush, I was going to get my f***ing sh*t kicked in, but I knew I wasn’t going to lose, I’m MJF. But am I worse for wear because I have a f***ing competitive match up with this psychopath? I don’t think so.

And you know what? Now, when you put Rush on TV the next time you see him, you believe in him more because he put me to the limit. He did. He pushed me. He’s one sick bastard, and he’s got one nasty f***ing corner drop kick that almost took my head off. So now the next time you put him on TV, you’re going, ‘This guy could beat 1B, 1C, 1D, 1F, 1E guy on the AEW roster. I gotta tune in.‘

MJF also gave his praise of Lio Rush for being willing to try new things with his “Blackheart” character in AEW.

“I’m gonna put a guy over real quick – Lio Rush. And I’ll tell you why. Me and him both got signed very young, me to AEW, him to WWE. And it would have been very easy for him to rest on his laurels. But that dude trains all the time. That dude then realized, ‘Okay, this thing I’ve been doing for a decade since I was a young guy, it’s not working anymore. I’m gonna switch sh*t up.’

Now, again, as we discussed, his flavor of ice cream that he’s doing now might not be your flavor of ice cream that you’re interested in, but it’s gotten him on television. And it’s gotten him opportunities. And he’s going on the indies and he’s doing this Blackheart thing on a weekly basis on the independents as well. So you can’t look me in the face and tell me that this guy isn’t earning his television time. I respect that immensely. And I wish there were more guys like him in our age group.”

MJF also gave his thoughts about the respect he has for everyone he shares the AEW locker room with and how there is no longer as much toxicity between top stars compared to past eras in wrestling.

“What I will say is this, this is the most harmonious my locker room’s ever been. But at the end of the day, this sh*t gets competitive, bro. It does. Some people handle it better than others. That’s for damn sure. But do I think it’s anywhere near as nasty as it used to be? Thank God, not even close. You know, there’s no one on my roster that I don’t respect, unless they give me a reason not to, you know what I mean? But as far as from a talent perspective, I respect every other guy that is in the conversation of being the 1A, 1B, 1C, etc.

Whereas you hear so many stories from that bygone era, while I fantasize about that bygone era, and I can tell you emphatically, I truly believe, and I don’t give a f*** if anyone has a problem with me saying this, you plot me into any era in any territory, I still become who I am now. I believe that in my heart of hearts. I really do. But I am so thankful that the level of chicanery of top guys trying to f***ing murder each other has really been flattened. Do I think it’s ever going to fully go away? No, some people are f***ing unwell, you know what I mean? They just constantly want more. But, it’s better.”

MJF also gave his thoughts about how he is not the only one who is a student of the game of pro wrestling within AEW’s locker room.

“I’ll tell you, there are a lot of guys like me, especially in my locker room. Now, there’s also a lot of guys not like me, but I think it’s pretty easy to tell who’s students of the game and who’s not when you watch their body of work.”

MJF also gave his thoughts about the first time he met Cody Rhodes and how it involved Ethan Page and a story of Rhodes claiming that he was hitting on Page’s sister.

“The very first time I met Cody Rhodes was at Alpha-1 in Canada. He had told the promoter, who may or may not be Ethan Page, that I was hitting on his sister. Granted, I wouldn’t put it past me, but I actually wasn’t. The sister of Ethan Page.

Ethan Page walks up to me and goes, ‘Hey man, are you fucking hitting on my sister?’ I said, ‘Buddy, if I was, you would know, she’d be my girlfriend by now.’ Then we got into it a little bit and I was just like, ‘Who told you this?’ He goes, ‘Cody told me this.’ I had two options. I could just eat it, which 99.9% of talent in my position at that point at 19 years old who was an absolute fucking nobody would have done. Or, I could confront this guy, who at the time and also now was a big fucking deal in the business.

So, because I’m an unwell person, I chose the latter. I walked into his locker room, he had his own locker room at this fucking place. I didn’t knock on the door, I just opened it and I said, ‘Hey.’ He’s looking at me in disbelief. I go, ‘Why the fuck did you tell the booker I’m trying to bang his sister?’ He was like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I go, ‘Dude, please don’t make me bring Ethan down here, he’ll collaborate.’ He starts laughing and he goes, ‘Who are you, man?’ Then we just started shooting the shit. From that moment on, I could tell he got a kick out of me because, especially on the independent level, was probably not used to people talking like that. He’ll be the first person to tell you, Cody Rhodes loves a good white lie, he says it all the time.

What ended up happening was a couple weeks after that, we were at NEW, Mike Lombardi’s promotion. He sees me, his eyes bulge out and he goes, ‘I don’t get it.’ I go, ‘What don’t you get?’ He goes, ‘You’re fucking booked everywhere. I guess I’m gonna have to watch you tonight.’ After that, we always stayed in touch and that’s legitimately how I got booked for All In, just because Cody was so shocked. I had no right to be booked for all the shows I was booked for, but I was everywhere.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2, F4WOnline.com 1 & 2