MJF says he is now being paid “a stupid absurd of money” by AEW, and he didn’t even have to sign a new contract.
MJF spoke with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour this week and addressed how his last appearance on the show brought controversy as it was not approved by AEW’s PR team beforehand.
“Did PR get a little upset that I didn’t clear it with them? Yes. Does PR now have absolutely no choice but to just salivate at the fact that MJF is leaving his house to do an interview in regards to Arthur Ashe? Yes, because things have changed a little bit,” he said. “The ball’s in my court, pal, that’s what’s changed. What does that mean? Let’s talk now. I’m one of the biggest ratings, not just in AEW but in all of professional wrestling minute for minute. If you don’t believe me, hit up Brandon Thurston, he’s a great guy, puts up a lot of great information.”
MJF was asked about not signing a contract extension with AEW and what may be “The Bidding War of 2024” between AEW and WWE when his deal expires. He reiterated previous comments about how he will go wherever the money is.
“I go where the money is at, whoever is going to offer me the most amount of money is where I’m gong to go, that could be anywhere. Hell, if there’s some financial backer out there that wants to start his own wrestling company and use me as the figurehead, that’s where I’ll go. It’s that simple, that’s all I care about is money,” he said.
MJF was also asked about reports from AEW Double Or Nothing weekend that said he bought a plane ticket out of Las Vegas. He commented on the reports, and revealed his current status with the company.
“I cannot confirm or deny there being a plane ticket. What I will say is this, I’m a businessman, I do what I have to do in order to ensure that what I need gets done. It got done, I’m back, I’m making a stupid, absurd amount of money now and I didn’t have to sign a contract extension,” he said.
When asked what he did while he was away from AEW this summer, MJF noted that he took a two week trip to Greece and Italy with his fiancé, but spent most of the time at home because he didn’t want wrestling fans to see him.
“I then went home and I stayed home,” he said. “I did not leave my home because I did not [want] one single, solitary wrestling fan to see me out in the wild. Do you know why? Because they don’t deserve to see me, unless I’m getting paid to be seen. I take what I do very seriously. If you want to see a star, pay to see that star. So I stayed in my home. I went to a gym inside of my home. I did not leave my home. I was committed to making sure that if any wrestling fan wanted to get a taste of MJF, MJF needed to get that money, and he did.”
MJF noted that while he was away, he did watch AEW Dynamite but he felt like the product had “a void” without him. He gave praise to Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley and Brody King.
“I think, and I say this with love and respect, we have a lot of great stars,” he said. “We have Chris Jericho, we have Jon Moxley, we have Bryan Danielson, hell, another great guy, there’s this guy, very scary, intimidating looking guy, Brody King, I believe is his name, he seems like a top-tier guy. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, the show felt like it had this big, fat, gigantic void and I firmly believe that I was that void and if you look at the numbers now since I’ve come back, it’s very clear I was.”
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more. Below is the full interview:
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