Jonathan Coachman is very high up on AEW world champion, MJF.
The Coach spoke about the Salt of the Earth during a recent interview with Chris Van Vilet. He states that MJF has more guts than anyone he’s ever seen, and because of that, he will continue to rise to the top of the industry and eventually become the highest paid wrestler of all time.
There are very few people that in the history of the business that have figured it out. When I watched this kid a few years ago and he was just young and didn’t even have a home for wrestling, I’m watching this arrogance and I’m like, boy, how would that play in the WWE locker room? Not only did he not stop, he kept doubling down and what did he have that everybody else doesn’t have? He can talk better than anybody else. He knows. What did we just say, if you know it’s great, they can’t say anything. When he does little things — the other day I saw a video where he’s reading the names and he said Edge, and Tony Khan was like [no] because you can’t use the same name, he does that on purpose. That’s what I’m saying, he’s playing chess. He knew he was supposed to say Adam Copeland, but he knew that if he said that, then Tony’s going to be off camera and there’s literally nothing Tony can do. I believe this to be true, Stone Cold Steve Austin made the most money for Vince over the years. But when you’re talking about salary, how much guys make, Stone Cold & Rock probably topped out between five and ten million dollars a year. They were the ones that really got that downside guarantee as high as it’s ever been, Cena was up there too. I think MJF, when he becomes a free agent, because how many guys have the guts? Think about this, how many guys have the guts, a year or two before your contract is up, to say publicly [to not] even think about coming to me with some weak offer before my deal is up because I don’t care what’s on that piece of paper, I’m going to be a free agent. Think about how many guys in the business today have the guts to say that, and then nobody crushes them. I haven’t heard anybody say, woah, he’s putting his career in jeopardy. I think he’s going to be the highest paid superstar in the history of the business when he becomes a free agent.
Later, Coachman refers to MJF as the number one superstar in the world of professional wrestling, even over Roman Reigns. He justifies this by citing how young MJF is and how any promoter would want to build its company around him.
When you have a guy like him, who’s right now arguably the number one superstar in the world, you could argue that. Obviously everybody will go look at the run that Roman Reigns has had, of course. I’m saying, if you were to have a draft today, who would be your number one pick? Throw them all into the hat.
Elsewhere in the interview, Coachman explained why he will never return to the WWE. You can read about that here.