Dave Meltzer is struggling to understand AEW’s booking of MJF.
The star won the AEW World Championship at Full Gear in November 2022, and as such regularly features as one of the biggest stars the promotion has to offer. However, he’s only defended the gold six times in 2023, and seven times in total.
As well as standing tall as World Champion, MJF won the ROH World Tag Team Titles alongside Adam Cole at All In. This has created a booking minefield where the star has to be involved in feuds for both titles.
MJF and Cole defended the titles at All Out, and were scheduled to again at WrestleDream, meaning for two pay-per-views in a row the AEW World Title wouldn’t be defended. Even with Cole getting injured, MJF will now defend the titles in a Handicap Match against The Righteous.
Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer questioned AEW’s handling of MJF, commenting that even the original creative for WrestleDream was “terribly weak.”
“It’s also very strange to have a PPV where MJF, the top draw, is in a handicap match against people who have had little TV time, and is not even one of the top matches on the show. This was originally to be MJF & Adam Cole as a team, which was still terribly weak for the top draw and world champion on a PPV, but at least had the MJF & Cole tag team dynamic. When Cole was injured they should have switched things around and gotten MJF in a match with real anticipation.
It will be interesting if the dream match for hardcore fans will keep PPV buys up. Most expected well above usual numbers for Forbidden Door which had two of those dream matches, Danielson vs. Okada and Omega vs. Ospreay, and that show ended up doing the usual numbers that every PPV aside from All Out and All In have done starting with the 2022 All Out show, in the 140,000 or so range.
All In was high even in a bad time slot, but it was a unique show. The other biggest number during that period was Revolution in San Francisco with the MJF vs. Danielson Iron Man match, but that number was way up due to the huge number of late buys.”
Adam Cole Suffered Broken Ankle At AEW Grand Slam
Adam Cole broke his ankle at Dynamite Grand Slam and has since undergone surgery. While some fans wondered whether the injury was just a storyline, this has been widely dismissed.
Cole suffered the injury jumping from the entrance ramp to ringside while doing a run-in during MJF vs. Samoa Joe. There’s no word on when Cole will be back in action, with a recent report suggesting he’ll be out for “quite some time.”