MJF's First Challenger for His AEW World Championship Confirmed

MJF has his first challenger lined up now that he's the new AEW World Champion. This week's AEW Dynamite saw Ricky Starks overcome his injuries to win the AEW World Championship Eliminator tournament, defeating Ethan Page after managing to take down both Lance Archer and Brian Cage last week. The match between Friedman and Starks will take place on Dec. 14 at the Winter is Coming event in Garland, Texas.

It's unclear if Friedman will be accompanied by William Regal will accompany him to the ring for the match. This week's Dynamite opened with Jon Moxley ordering William Regal to "run away and never come back" instead of attacking him for the betrayal at AEW Full Gear.

Starks and Friedman have never wrestled one on one in AEW, but "Absolute" already has ammunition for a match with Max. "The Salt of the Earth" once crowned himself, Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin and "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry as the "Four Pillars" of All Elite Wrestling. Starks' absence from that group was noticeable and he discussed it in an interview with ComicBook earlier this year. 

"To me, the whole pillar talk is hilarious in a sense, because it's so self-indulgent," Starks said. "It's nothing that was bestowed upon them. That was just something that came from them. So I usually don't think about it in that regard. Like, "I'm not included in this." Who cares? Because to me I'm gonna be much bigger than whatever the pillar is. I'm gonna be much bigger than wrestling, in a sense. And so I find it so funny. The conversation is so hilarious because nine times out of 10, "Well, don't forget this and this and this." And yeah, don't forget, y'all. Don't forget. So I don't mind it too much. I don't really try to keep it as a chip on my shoulder, but it is hilarious. I see Jungle Boy's jumping up on the couch in interviews or Sammy just stepping up on the ledge of something and just his tongue out."