In this WrestleTalk News, does MJF have backstage heat in AEW?
Is Cody Rhodes trying to bring him into WWE?
Another AEW star leaves the company and more.
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Back on January first 2022, if someone had said to you that AEW co-founder and co-executive
vice president Cody Rhodes would not only not re-sign with All Elite Wrestling but would
also go back to WWE and be a featured player at WrestleMania and is now one of the biggest
stars in the company, you’d probably think you had too good of a Dec 31st 2021 because
that someone is talking crazy.
But it did happen.
And is important to reference that bizarre news story when we talk about the news that
MJF is reportedly unhappy in AEW and has the option of going to WWE when his contract is
up in 2024.
Because anything can happen in the wacky world of wrestling.
Fightful Select reported last month that MJF and AEW president Tony KHAAAAN had a heated
argument that left both men frustrated; with MJF being unhappy about his pay in the company.
When MJF first signed with AEW back in 2019, the company was very different to what it
is now: with no one like a CM Punk or Bryan Danielson presumably signing for a lot more
money than some of the AEW originals did.
MJF is, of course, one of AEW’s top stars - but he’s still in his original contract
and will be paid the same as when he signed back when the company was in its infancy and
not doing $1 million gates for PPVs that it is now.
As for TK, he was annoyed with MJF doing an interview with Ariel Helwani without informing
AEW PR that he was going to do it.
Which… is a lot smaller fish to fry in the grand scheme of things.
Last week Fightful added to that report to say that while TK doesn’t hold those frustrations
anymore, MJF still might, and was “leaning towards leaving AEW when his deal is up”
in 2024.
And according to Will Washington on Fightful’s Grapsody podcast - which is a fantastic show,
by the way, shoutout to Righteous Reg and Phil Lindsey - there could be some backstage
heat on MJF over these discussions, as “not a whole lot of people are on MJF’s side
of this.”
What this all boils down to is not whether MJF is worth more money - because I think
most people would agree that he is - it’s that he is still in his original deal which
cannot be altered.
Washington mentioned a text message he’d been sent by someone in the AEW locker room
who said: “His deal is his deal.
Changing the terms of an existing deal while in the middle of it would set a horrible precedent.
If he wants new money, sign a new deal…
Tony would be a fool to give him more money without the guarantee of more years.”
SRS confirmed what Will Washington said on Grapsody - that changing the terms of his
current deal would set a bad precedent, but that TK, “would obviously be willing to
pay MJF comparable to other top stars” when those discussions begin.
But there is more to this story yet - including a unsubstantiated rumour about Cody Rhodes
looking to get MJF to sign with WWE.
It’s no secret that Cody Rhodes and MJF are friends in the real life - He was one
of Cody’s first big rivalries in All Elite Wrestling, and MJF has been very praising
of Rhodes in interviews both before and after he left the company - even mentioning recently
that they still text all the time, and Cody even offered MJF’s parents tickets to a
WWE show in Long Island recently.
What a babyface.
Which might go some way to explain how the following happened.
During that Grapsody’s show - where Will Washington revealed the text message he’d
received from someone in the AEW locker room - co-host Phil Lindsay noted that MJF and
Cody are friends, which somehow span a yarn on the Twitter machine that Grapsody were
reporting that “Cody’s guys” in AEW are unhappy that he’s now gone, and Rhodes
has been laying the groundwork for folks like MJF and Ricky Starks to move over to WWE.
Not only that, but there would be a Fightful Select report later this week that confirmed
this.
Washington addressed these rumours when he saw his name was being mentioned a lot on
Twitter, and said: “Now that I've seen what folks are saying, let me pump those brakes
real hard.
Nope, nope, and nope.
Never said a word about "Cody guys."
Or a report coming about them.
I don't even know about that.
Anything that says I said that is completely false.”
Sean Ross Sapp also addressed this in a Fightful Select report saying, “To clear up misconceptions,
we've not heard of Cody Rhodes reaching out to AEW talent to bring them in, and we have
no report of any kind in the works, contrary to online rumors.”
We’ve seen this sort of thing in our own comments section, and I’ve had tweets like
this before asking me what I’ve heard.
Always check your sources and where the information is coming from.
So where does that leave us with MJF and AEW?
MJF did an interview recently with Rasslin’ which addressed many of these rumours and
reports saying: “Let me explain something to you, by 2024, daddy is going to make more
money than The Hardys have made in their entire run…
I think all these ex-fu***ng WWE guys that are making an absurd amount of money.
When quite frankly they can’t sniff my fu***ng jock when it comes to the ratings I pull in
whenever I am on screen, I think they can all go to hell.
I think that somebody in the upper management has a problem with me, and it’s very obvious
if you see what I am dealing with week to week.”
Now, of course, it should be noted that a lot of MJF interviews are in character - I’ve
done one of them myself - and this is probably just the man playing up the on-screen character
that we’ve seen on Dynamite; referencing his deal coming up in 2024 and saying on last
Wednesday’s episode that a certain someone in the back doesn’t like him talking about
his contract - that person being Tony Khan.
And it’s things like this that have made a lot of people - ourselves included over
on the WrestleTalk Podcast last Friday - ask if this is just big Worky McWorkFace who has
just been made professor of Works at Oxford University.
Well, according to Sean Ross Sapp over at Fightful Select, it’s all still very much
real.
In his latest update, SRS is reporting that no specific contract has been offered to MJF,
or that MJF is “angling for anything in particular.”
However there have been “overtures made towards MJF to launch contract talks that
MJF hasn’t seem to outright address.”
He also confirmed from, MJF’s side of things, he isn’t trying to get more money without
a new deal or an extension to his current deal, as he knows “contracts don’t work
like that.”
But while MJF’s status in AEW is in question, one name for sure is out the door.
MJF signed his AEW contract back in 2019, like a lot of other talent who came into the
company at its inception - and some of those talents have recently not had their deals
re-upped, extended, or re-signed.
Over the past few weeks we’ve heard that Marko Stunt, Jack Evans, Stu Grayson of Dark
Order, and Joey Janela have all now left All Elite Wrestling for this reason.
Sean Ross Sapp over at Fightful Select is now reporting that there is a new name in
this class: Kayla Rossi.
Rossi had been associated with Janela on screen on AEW Dark and Dark: Elevation, but hasn’t
been used in months as neither was Janela.
SRS notes that Rossi was never fully signed with All Elite Wrestling, but was offered
a trainee contract which she turned down - so they two parties have now parted ways with
Rossi now taking indie bookings.
SRS adds that, “We haven't heard of any bad blood associated with the split.”
Speaking of Bad Blood, there used to be a WWE PPV called Bad Blood.
The 2004 one had a nearly 50 minute Hell in a Cell match between Triple H and Shawn Michaels.
Speaking of WWE!..
Segue.
Last week at WrestleMania Backlash, there was a promo video to hype this July’s Money
in the Bank, where Cody Rhodes said that the winner of Money in the Bank would headline
WrestleMania - which would be a major change in the match’s stipulation.
The same promo was played the following night on Raw.
Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio said that he’d spoken to people within WWE who
should know if the stipulation had changed, who told him they were “surprised” by
the promo.
He added, “I asked WWE, and the official statement was that there’s no official statement”,
and in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter said that Vince McMahon has chosen his WrestleMania
main eventers for next year, and neither of them are the current planned Money in the
Bank winners.
Come on, Dave, Vince planning next year’s Mania already?
Pull the other one, mate!
And in a new report from Twitter wrong’uns Ringside News, they’ve added that their
sources in the writing room has told them that “no one knows why that’s being said”,
and that promo video has been “​​a major source of confusion with writers and producers.”
So, I guess, kind of like promoting a title unification match and then not doing one only
to promote another one just two weeks later, I’m sure WWE has everything in place for
Money in the Bank in July.
Before we get out of here, I just wanted to say a massive thank you to all of you who
watched No Rolls Barred play Blood on the Clocktower in person!
It’s the biggest and most ambitious video we’ve ever made, and we’re immensely proud
of the final product.
A huge congratulations to Adam Blamiped, Laurie Blake and the rest of the NRB team on such
an excellent video, and thank you for helping them pass 85k subscribers and over 2,300 Patreon
backers who are able to watch the Patreon exclusive second in-person game.
Want to know what the hell I’m talking about?
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