If confidence won back world titles, Maxwell Jacob Friedman would have no issue defeating AEW World Champion Darby Allin at upcoming pay-per-view event “Double or Nothing.” But even in a non-legitimate sports competition like professional wrestling, personality alone can only carry one so far. The good news is MJF can handle himself on the mat about as well as he can on the mic.
Last month, Allin shocked the wrestling world by defeating the champ on AEW’s weekly episodic TV show Dynamite. This weekend, Friedman will get his chance for revenge. Typically in these situations, it is the champion (now Allin) with the most to lose — the belt — but Sunday’s main event won’t be your run of the mill match. If the challenger (Friedman) takes another “L,” he won’t just lose his head, MJF will lose his hair. For someone who loves his own appearance as much as Friedman does, such a fate for his ‘do simply won’t do.
MJF’s boss, AEW owner Tony Khan (the son of billionaire Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan), is as big a wrestling fan as, well, his company’s wrestling fans. Khan very much appreciates his big bad — or at the very least, he tolerates him.
Asked how he deals with a personality like Friedman, Khan starts with the superlatives. The Burberry-draped, smack-talking, walking heat machine is “a hugely charismatic wrestler,” Khan tells The Hollywood Reporter. It’s true: Friedman is as over as anyone in professional wrestling, AEW or beyond.
“He is so self-obsessed, and his pursuit of greatness is so singular in its focus on himself that one has to admire it,” Khan continued. “At the same time, as a villain, he’s so detestable.”
Also true.
If Friedman was not a self-described “illiterate,” at this point in the read, right about now, he’d be wondering when this turned into a Tony Khan story and no longer one about the real star of AEW: himself. MJF is a true throwback — a heel who loves himself as much as we love to hate him — and he will never, ever let you forget that. Not for one minute.
Read The Hollywood Reporter‘s Q&A with MJF below.
So your real name is Maxwell Tyler Friedman, initials MTF. Your character is Maxwell Jacob Friedman, stylized down to MJF. Who owns the rights to the character?
I have it fully trademarked, both options.
That’s really important for the licensing piece of the business — and if you move on to another company.
We are definitely a more workers’-rights-focused professional wrestling company, and that’s not me taking a shot, it’s just a fact.
You’re probably the biggest star in AEW—
That’s an understatement.
Well there are other stars: Jon Moxley (Dean Ambrose in WWE), Chris Jericho, Cody (Cody Rhodes in WWE) when he was here…
They’re not me.
What is the right amount of TV time for MJF? You never want to overexpose your biggest draws, but you need them there reliably.
If the television show was two hours, I’d put me out there for two hours. If it’s three hours, put me out there for three, etc. Look, I’ve proven time and time again that I’m the biggest draw in the company. Now, that doesn’t take away from the fact that I can’t do that alone. I need a team, and boy, do I have a great team. AEW is chock full of some of the best professional wrestlers in the sport, [some of the best] professional wrestling has ever seen. But when we look at things metrically in the year 2026, I’ve been on top this entire year. Our houses are up year-over-year in every single place we’ve been to. Pay-per-view buys are up in every single pay-per-view we’ve had, and I will just use the pay-per-view this Sunday as an example. We’re about to do the second-largest gate domestically in the history of our promotion, with me on top in the main event — and the No. 1 was a stadium show at Global Life Field.
This is the power of MJF that I wield: I get people to watch; I get people to tune in; I get people to buy a ticket, because you can’t go and live your life a wrestling fan without having the experience that is Maxwell Jacob Friedman, whether that’s live or on your TV screen.
Sports, including pro wrestling, draw comparisons between eras. It’s just something for fans to talk about. Off the top of my head I’d probably say your character reminds me of The Rock, maybe “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Who do you think best compares with MJF?
It’s humanly impossible [to compare me with someone else]. I’m an amalgamation of the great of the greats, frankly. Because when people — it’s so funny, people use their favorite wrestler to describe me. Every conversation I have, when people pull me aside: “Oh, you remind me of The Rock. Oh, you remind me of Terry Funk. Oh, you remind me of Ric Flair. Oh, you remind me of Nick Bockwinkel. Oh, you remind me of Steve Austin. Oh, you remind me of The Rock.” You’re never gonna have anybody say, “Oh, you remind me of Barry Horowitz.” You know what I mean? There’s levels to this shit. God bless Barry, he’s part of the tribe, I love him. But that’s the thing about me — I’m a generational talent, and I evoke the same emotion people had when they were kids, freaking out and marking out over whoever their favorite wrestler was.
I think what’s really cool is — although I bring people together through hatred, I’m still bringing them together because I’m giving them that punch of nostalgia. With love and respect to everybody else in my industry, nobody’s like me anymore. I’m the last of a dying breed. Nobody can talk the way that I talk, nobody that can walk the way I walk, nobody can wrestle the way that I wrestle, nobody can pull a crowd in the way that I pull a crowd in. That’s just all the part of recipe of MJF.
Darby Allin in the ring during AEW Collision on Oct. 3, 2024, at the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio.
Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
Who is closest to your mic skills in or out of AEW? Is it (WWE’s) Miz?
No. He’s a great guy though. Miz is a great guy.
In my company, who is close? I think gun to my head, some of the most intense verbal battles I’ve had has been in the ring with “Hangman” Adam Page.
Happy Gilmore 2 was a great opportunity for you. How was that experience?
The thing is, I’m a psycho, and what I was doing was I was flying from (AEW) TV to (the Happy Gilmore 2) set on an almost weekly basis. So, I was doing both, and I’m gonna continue to do that, because I love wrestling and acting equally.
But getting to work with Adam Sandler — I mean, he’s my dad, literally, figuratively, fake-ly. He’s the man. I love everything about him. He’s the most down-to-earth guy, and I love him, dude. I absolutely love him.
You’ve got a nice IMDb going for a relatively new star who is booked like 52 weeks of the year. What is the ultimate Hollywood ambition?
Mount Rushmore has four heads, and when you look at the Mount Rushmore of wrestlers-turned-actors, it’s Dave Bautista, John Cena and The Rock. There’s a missing part of that Mount Rushmore.
It’s not because I’m manifesting it or anything, it’s just a fact — I’m going to be that fourth head. We’ve got Violent Night 2 coming out in theaters. It’s a Universal picture that I was a part of, that’s happening in early December. There are a lot of things I got cooking that legally I’m not allowed to say yet — I’m not at liberty to say yet.
WWE is well-represented in the upcoming Street Fighter movie — what if Roman Reigns or Cody Rhodes takes that final spot?
Hey, man, God bless them. I hope that movie does well, and I hope they do great. I love seeing professional wrestlers succeeding outside of the professional wrestling bubble.
I’m more of a Mortal Kombat guy anyway.
There you go.
Your character is a sharp dresser who always has a very recognizable scarf over his shoulders. Real Burberry?
Only real Burberry. What, are you accusing me of being poor?
[Friedman says he has seven of the same Burberry scarves in his house, and “they’re all steamed and they’re beautifully, beautifully laid out.”]
What happens to AEW if you move on full-time to Hollywood, or to WWE?
It dies. It dies probably a fast — not even a slow and painful death. And that’s OK, you know. I love AEW, I love everybody that works there, but, like I said, I can’t be in the position I’m in without having the pass the ball, but if they couldn’t pass the ball back to me? Jesus Christ. God bless ’em. I’m the most-important piece of the puzzle.
So does “passing the ball back to you” mean you’re winning the belt back this weekend?
Oh, I’m winning the belt. Yeah, if anybody tells you otherwise, they’re out of their mind. You think I’m gonna let that little twink shave my head bald. What are you nuts? Absolutely not. That’s not happening. Have you seen my hair? I’ve got a beautiful head of hair. I’m not losing my hair.
How do you see the match going?
There’s no reality, where I’m not winning the belt back, I mean, alternative to me is an impossibility. I think I beat him five seconds, 30 seconds flat — fast.
One clip that went especially viral for you—
You’ll have to narrow that down.
You covertly stepped on the back of each of your loafers just before taking a Ricky Starks spear, which allowed your shoes to fly off your feet and out of the ring. It was a great sell that I don’t remember having seen before.
Sheer happenstance. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
That was unfortunate then, because it really made your opponent look extra strong.
By happenstance, for some strange reason, I always end up making people I’m in the ring with look 10 times better than they’ve ever looked in their entire lives. It’s odd.
Just like the old greats.
Yeah! I can be a klutz sometimes, and sometimes it’s to the benefit of others.
