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MJF is not a draw


Outsider

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Yes, MJF has his supporters in the media and fans in the north east. I am almost certain that this championship run wi hurt business for AEW. WHY MJF? Because Ariel Helwani loves him? MJF is not loyal, he's gonna be like Thunder Rosa when it's time to drop it. MJF has not proven his worth. The feud had no juice. Don't buy the hype. Moxley should have gone through another ppv with the strap and MJF can work Dynamite matches to prove he can draw. But Tony Khan is kowtowing to the wrestling insiders and other media types. I love allot of Tony's booking through the years, but something has changed. I hope the Elite can bring some of the heat back. 

MJF is not main event. Tony probably promised the strap to MJF so he would sign. But Khan should have played hard ball because MJF will not move the needle. His matches usually put me to sleep and his promos are mid. Only positive I can say is that he's looking less chubby and probably eating better and got rid of that orange spray tan. 

Hangman Page's reign is gonna seem like Hogan's 80s reign compared to MJF. Can u imagine if Barry Horowitz was WWF champ in 1989? 

OK now to be serious, just wanted to say that this will be bad for business. Moxley should have won and then at Dynamite he could have turned on the fans and formed a new faction of outcasts. 

The one title that held some credibility is now muddied. I'll be shocked if this reign helps business. 

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How about we give MJF a chance as the top guy first and see what the actual results are before passing judgement? To my knowledge he’s never lost 140,000 viewers in a segment before, so he’s got that in the win column. AEW’s ratings have been falling like a rock, only 818,000 this past week. It’s worth seeing if MJF as champ can provide a spark. I’m definitely interested in this week’s Dynamite for several reasons. It’s make or break time for me as a fan, how this Wednesday goes will determine whether I want to keep following this promotion or not. Hopefully we get a hot angle out of Regal turning and helping MJF, even if it was a little rushed and predictable. I’m sure Regal will cut a great promo explaining everything and then they’re off and running. 

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MJF's elevation is probably to date Punk's biggest contribution to AEW apart from the Kingston match. MJF was relying on such lazy tropes when he started feuding with Punk, and over the time, he started developing a solid gimmick instead of coming across like a tryhard knockoff. His work has become better too, he is so young. 

 

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37 minutes ago, MoS said:

MJF's elevation is probably to date Punk's biggest contribution to AEW apart from the Kingston match. MJF was relying on such lazy tropes when he started feuding with Punk, and over the time, he started developing a solid gimmick instead of coming across like a tryhard knockoff. His work has become better too, he is so young. 

I am firmly an MJF hater and even I can agree to this. He still occasionally does tired clichés and shit, but he did improve from being JUST that. Regal being his spokesperson is better.

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Sorry, Outsider, your post reads like someone who's just "butthurt" because you're a Mox fan and were inexplicably holding on hope that Tony Khan was going to keep the title on a guy who openly was about to take a much-needed and deserved vacation after the last pay-per-view. Dude, this outcome was written in stone months ago and the only question was how MJF was going to win the title, not if.

I also think all this talk of ratings is ignoring the much bigger issues - namely attendance (which is down) and, for lack of better words, "buzz" (which is not what it was). AEW is still performing considerably higher in TV ratings than initially expected (remember when folks said that AEW getting 250k weekly viewers would be a coup) and what TBS/TNT is paying for. Could AEW end up shit-canned because the people at the top believe it'd be cheaper and more lucrative to just play Big Bang Theory repeats and first-run movies on Wednesdays and Fridays? Sure. But AEW is still, more often than not, a top 5 cable show on its nights (at least Dynamite is) and its biggest rivals are live sports and politics, which aren't going away and are also not things that TBS/TNT are necessarily able to counterprogram (especially as the US is now in perpetual election cycle). Plus, we are talking about a genre and brand that could theoretically catch fire and go right back to drawing in the 900k-1 million range. (Don't think so? This time last year, people were saying the WWE was irrevocably damaged and would only continue to be basically unwatchable garbage and that AEW was the "hotter" company, but, right now in November 2022, one could argue that the WWE is delivering and AEW is stagnant.)

I'm still an AEW viewer first and foremost and am staying optimistic about MJF's reign. My hope is that this is leading to a Daniel Bryan/MJF match as I think Bryan is in contention for GOAT status and that he and MJF is kinda like one of those combos that you may not think would work, but is actually fucking peanut butter and chocolate.

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No, it's totally fine. Fuck MJF!

 

In all honesty, I'm pretty sure MJF vs Punk is AEW's biggest and best feud ever and is still their 2nd best selling PPV? I know Punk kinda had to carry a lot of it early on, but it still takes two to make that have over 170k buys. This is one of those threads were the jury is still out, as MJF has never been the top guy, although he has more indicators that he's good for business than not

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If MJF is a legit draw remains to be seen but basing the argument he isn't one compared to Moxley, who's title reign had abysmal attendances for TV tapings and mediocre ratings for the past 2 months is kind of a weird choice.

Still, TK said this PPV might do very similar to All Out and it did a million dollar gate, which would be a good indication considering how cold the promotion has felt lately. Considering the main selling point of the event was Mox vs MJF it speaks well for both of them.

We'll see how MJF fairs and how his reign is booked. It doesn't seem he'll be feuding with any heavy hitter in the AEW roster anytime soon, and the next PPV is 4 and half months away so we'll have a good amount of time to figure out if he can make a real difference for the promotion.

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My theory is it's all a vicious cycle AEW is clearly burning out towns by running them constantly, which in turn makes the product seem less hot than maybe it would with a better crowd. Ironically one of the reasons Tony brought in Double J was for his expertise in getting buildings for shows to expand the places they run. 

The fans were into MJF winning, the question that remains is will there be any rejection of him not turning babyface.  It was kind of funny how the crowd was not caring at all if Max cheated to win or not, they just wanted to see him win. 

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