AEW: How Does MJF Feel About a Potential Babyface Turn?

Maxwell Jacob Friedman finds himself in an all too familiar position as he approaches the biggest match of his career. Weeks before he took on CM Punk in a bloody dog collar match at AEW Revolution, MJF opened himself up on AEW Dynamite. Then, the 26-year-old wrestler told his “villain origin story,” so to speak. Friedman revealed that he struggled with a “litany of learning disabilities” as a child, but saw Punk’s success as inspiration that he could also one day accomplish his goals. Punk quitting WWE in January 2014 also caused MJF to give up on his wrestling dreams, until a throwback photo of Punk and Bryan Danielson lit a fire under him to become the best wrestler in the world “in spite” of his childhood hero.

The following week, Punk let his guard down and MJF took advantage, bludgeoning his upcoming opponent and strangling him with a dog collar. Whether MJF’s “origin story” was fact or fiction is up for the audience to decide, but Friedman admitted that he opened himself up to convince the world that “the devil didn’t exist.”

Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite puts the generational talent in a similar spot. The show ended with The Firm beating down MJF after he tried to stop their attack on AEW World Champion Jon Moxley. Many took this as MJF turning babyface, but history indicates that this could be another red herring.

Beyond that, MJF himself reportedly is against becoming a good guy. Speaking on the Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that Friedman “doesn’t want to be a babyface” despite the massive crowd reaction he receives nearly every week on Dynamite.

This aligns with comments that Chris Jericho made at the AEW All Out press conference, where he said that he foresaw the positive crowd reaction that MJF is now getting months before he made his return.

“I’m a big fan of MJF, I really am. I said to him, ‘When you come back, you’re gonna be a babyface.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t want to be a babyface, I don’t want to be a babyface.’ I was like, ‘It’s going to happen.’ He said, ‘I don’t know what to do,’ and I said, ‘I’m sure The Rock said the same thing, or Steve Austin said the same thing,’” Jericho said in September. “I think he’ll be one of our top babyfaces, whether he wants to be or not, very very soon. A game changer, that’s my opinion.”

MJF challenges Moxley for the AEW World Title at AEW Full Gear on November 19th.