MJF ended up making a cameo during tonight’s AEW Collision, taking a chance to throw some jabs at Hiroshi Tanahashi ahead of their match at Forbidden Door. He also revealed when the match would be happening at the event, but that wasn’t the only interesting MJF-related note. Later in the show, AEW revealed that MJF will be making his in-ring Collision debut next week, so while fans have seen the AEW World Champion on Collision, next week will actually see him jump into the ring for the first time on AEW’s newest show since it launched.
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His opponent was not revealed, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens there, though MJF wasn’t thrilled with the news of his Collision debut. He shared the graphic with the caption “WTF IS GOING ON AROUND HERE?!?!?” Then AEW shared the news with the caption “NEXT WEEK! #AEW World champion @The_MJF makes his #AEWCollision wrestling debut LIVE from Hamilton, Ontario, at the FirstOntario Centre (@TweetTheCore) on Thursday, June 29th! Tickets are ON SALE NOW! 🎟️ http://AEWTIX.com | http://Ticketmaster.ca”
Ahead of his match against Tanahashi, MJF appeared on video after Tanahashi’s match against Swerve Strickland. MJF told Tanahashi that he would be playing the electric guitar after his win and told him where he could put it. Then he told Tanahashi that he wasn’t on his level and took a few more shots at him before closing things out.
MJF’s been a popular point of discussion over the past year, even before he became the AEW World Champion. In that time one person that’s been compared to MJF is WWE SmackDown’s Grayson Waller, as Waller is also a heel and has shown a gift for antagonizing other people on the microphone. During an interview with ComicBook.com’s Connor Casey, Waller was asked about those comparisons.
When asked if he’s ever met MJF and the comparisons, Waller said, “No I’ve never met the guy before, but I don’t get the comparisons in a lot of ways. I think just because we’re both really good at talking and we say whatever we want we’re the same? I think we’re very different individuals, but I respect the hell out of him and what he does.”
“You know he goes out there and says what he has to say and he’s unapologetic. I love that energy. I think too many people in the industry are comfortable. They just want to do the status quo, get along, and complain. I’m not getting opportunities but I’m not willing to do whatever it takes. That dude is willing to do whatever it takes. So I respect what he does,” Waller said. “We’re both good at what we do, but we’re two very different individuals. I think the comparison is just people on Twitter who don’t have any intelligence or don’t have any creativity going ‘aw those two are the same’, and it’s like naw. You’re wrong.”
Here’s the fully updated card for AEW Forbidden Door:
- IWGP United States Championship: Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay
- Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson
- AEW World Championship: MJF vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
- IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Sanada vs. “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry
- AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy vs. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Daniel Garcia
- Owen Hart Cup: CM Punk vs. Satoshi Kojima
- AEW Women’s World Championship: Toni Storm vs. Willow Nightingale
- Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta), Konosukta Takeshita & Shota Umino vs. The Elite (Hangman Page & The Young Bucks), Eddie Kingston & Tomohiro Ishii
- Sting, Darby Allin & Tetsuya Naito vs. Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara & Minoru Suzuki
- Owen Hart Cup: Athena vs. Billie Starkz (Zero Hour)
Are you excited for Forbidden Door? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
