MJF just gave AEW fans one of the best promos in company history, and no comparison to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin or CM Punk will do that fact justice. For more than eight minutes on the June 1st edition of Wednesday Night Dynamite, Friedman captivated the audience with his words, compelling them to erupt into cheers after initially garnering boos. Not only that, but he sent talking heads and pundits scrambling, trying to figure out if this was all a work or a shoot. The beauty of this is that no one knows for sure, and audiences may not find out until 30 years from now when MJF settles down and has his own tell-all podcast.

For the last several weeks, rumors have been swirling around MJF and AEW. He is unhappy with his pay within the company, and disconcerted about the reality that ex-WWE wrestlers are making several times what he is. MJF also no-showed a scheduled appearance over Double Or Nothing weekend, which is what got him heat from the Wednesday Night Dynamite audience in the first place, and fans weren't sure if he'd be on hand for his match with Wardlow at the pay-per-view at all. That bout went on, and MJF lost, but he may be the weekend's biggest winner despite leaving on a stretcher.

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His promo on June 1st was genre-bending and self-aware, blurring the lines between reality and wrestling. Those comparisons to "Stone Cold" and Punk, flattering as they might be for Friedman deep down, totally miss the point of what he just did on television. The Monday Night Wars and Attitude Era were white-hot for various reasons, chief among them being that the internet hadn't pulled the curtain back on all of professional wrestling's secrets. The ongoing situation with Naomi and Sasha Banks is a great example. "It's still real to us" is a meme at this point, but storylines are at their best when there's a nugget of reality and truth at the center of them. That is what audiences are treated to constantly when it comes to MJF - and he knows it, too.

MJF AEW

"I am the best in the world because I am the only guy who makes you feel, and unlike all those boys, I don't gotta' do a bunch of bull s*** to get you there," he said during his tirade, turning the crowd in his favor. While MJF ran them down for being uneducated marks, no one could deny that the man had a point. A real point.

Feeling unappreciated by an employer is a very real, tangible situation. Austin vs. McMahon worked because every person who's ever worked a day in their life could relate. There are things happening socially that make MJF's plight even more relatable now. He's tapped into something special here, and no comparison to old pipe bombs or promos will do that justice. MJF has done the impossible. He's sent modern wrestling audiences scrambling for their phones to text one another the most powerful question in the sport: "wait, is this real?"

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