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MJF has been the talk of the wrestling world in 2022 in no small part due to his alleged beef with AEW President Tony Khan. Meanwhile, Friedman has now detailed his current relationship with Khan.
Maxwell Jacob Friedman cut a fiery promo on the June 1 edition of Dynamite, calling Khan a "mark" and accusing him of preferring former WWE stars over home-grown AEW talent. Following his comments, MJF was absent from the company's programming before returning at All Out 2022.
But how did a once rocky relationship get salvaged? Speaking to Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, Friedman noted that Tony Khan reconciled with him because of the former's popularity among fans.
“The ball is in my court now. I’m one of the biggest ratings (…) What has changed is this. I’ve come back. Tony Khan had no choice but to understand and to deal with the fact that if you want MJF on your show, you got to abide by MJF rules. It’s that simple. MJF wanted to be on the Ariel Helwani show today, and MJF is on the Ariel Helwani show." (H/T Inside the Ropes)
The old saying "money makes the world go round" was also seemingly a significant factor behind his comeback, per Friedman:
“Not good. Now it’s great. I’m a simple man. I go out there. All I do is win. So obviously I had no problem with how I was being showcased. The issue is money. I was looking to my left and to my right and I was hearing rumblings about what guys were making when I was three times the draw they were minute by minute. I’ve seen the analytics and I went, that doesn’t work for me. I’m MJ freakin’ F. Pay up." (H/T Inside the Ropes).
Tony Khan recently stated that AEW Grand Slam has already been a financial success
Whether or not MJF interjects himself in the AEW World Championship match between Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson at Dynamite: Grand Slam remains to be seen. However, the upcoming event is already a financial success, per Tony Khan.
Khan recently took to Twitter to announce that the Arthur Ashe Stadium show is now the number one highest-grossing TV event in the promotion's history.
The show is very close to generating a one-million-dollar gate. If the event reaches that milestone, Grand Slam will become the fourth AEW event in 2022 alone to reach that target. Fans will have to wait and see who walks away with the gold on Wednesday night.
Will you be watching AEW Dynamite this week? Let us know in the comments section down below.
