MJF Praised by WWE Hall of Famer for AEW Dynamite Match – TJR Wrestling

An incredible performance on AEW Dynamite has led to WWE Hall of Famer MJF heaping praise on his outstanding work in the ring.

There is a perception among some who watch, follow, and report on professional wrestling in 2024 that Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF) is an elite talker, but perhaps not an elite in-ring performer. Over the past year or two, as he has been pushed to the main event level, MJF has had many incredible in-ring performances that have likely silenced his doubters.

The opening match on AEW Dynamite in Little Rock was a classic match that lasted 58:58 (two seconds before the 60-minute time limit expired) as MJF defeated Will Ospreay to become the new AEW International Champion. It was a match that I rated five stars, while Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter gave the match a 5.75* rating.

Bully Ray has been a WWE Hall of Famer since his days as Bubba Ray Dudley. While talking about MJF on his Busted Open After Dark show, Bully had good things to say about Friedman.

“Max finds new ways to impress me every time I see him there.”

That also led to Bully saying that some veterans in professional wrestling think MJF is overrated, leading to Bully’s response: “And I said, ‘No, he’s not. He’s not overrated.'” Bully went on to explain what makes Friedman so good.

“He might be a little pretentious, he might be a little angry, he might be a little big-headed at the beginning of his career; but every wrestler goes through that.”

The hour-long match with Ospreay marked the second time MJF has done an hour-long match. The first was at AEW Revolution 2023, when Max successfully defended the AEW World Title against Bryan Danielson in a 60-minute match that went into five minutes of overtime. Bully referenced this when he said that Friedman is underrated in the ring.

“He’s really, really good at what he does, and he’s hugely underrated in terms of his in-ring ability. We’ve now seen MJF play 60 minutes with Danielson and Ospreay.”

MJF Defends International Title Outside AEW

The next big AEW PPV is All In on August 25th at Wembley Stadium in London, England. It is not yet known if Max will face Ospreay there or perhaps Daniel Garcia, who MJF recently injured when he turned on him.

Before going All In, MJF will defend his AEW International Title at a CMLL event on August 2 in Arena Mexico.

⌛🌎🇺🇸
¡MJF postará de Campeonato Internacional de AEW en La Catedral de la Lucha Libre!

📍Arena Mexico
🗓️Viernes 2 de agosto ’24
🕣 8:30 pm
🎟️ Boletos en taquillas y en Ticketmaster:https://t.co/vRaG5dgedB#ViernesEspectacularCMLLphoto.twitter.com/cHAu3iEYKC

— Lucha Libre CMLL (@CMLL_OFICIAL) July 20, 2024

H/T WrestlingInc