Michael Perry on May 13, 2022
MJF will be the hottest free agent in wrestling once his AEW contract expires in 2024. The top heel in Tony Khan’s promotion was recently reported to be very unhappy with his contract situation. The Long Island native is hoping to create a bidding war so that he can maximize the payout on his next deal.
On this week’s Dynamite, MJF cut a promo where he brought up Cody Rhodes and said his boss didn’t want to talk about 2024, which is when his AEW deal runs out. A lot can change between now and then. AEW is expected to have its next television rights package in place by mid-2023, which may free up a ton of extra money to re-sign talent like MJF.
In this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer discussed the possibilities. There are a lot of moving parts involved, but WWE may see MJF as a savior of sorts due to their aging roster. MJF will be in his prime when it is time to decide on his next step.
“This is one of those situations where a lot is dependent on whether AEW gets a big rights fees increase, which would also be for 2024 although they’ll know their 2024 revenue by early to mid 2023, long before the MJF deal is up. Plus, who knows who will be hotter in six months, let alone in two years, other than WWE will be enormously profitable and alive, and AEW will be alive and how profitable depends on a deal not yet made.
MJF was likely always going to go to the highest bidder unless the bids were close to equal. WWE may see him as a savior superstar as the current stars age and he’ll still be entering his prime years, or there could be a height issue. As we noted, how WWE treats Cody Rhodes is probably a big deal since the two of them are friends. And WWE has treated Rhodes well. Regarding Rhodes, there was a very interesting note by his brother Dustin who said that Dusty Rhodes would be happy with Cody’s choice because Dusty always told him to take the money. That would indicate at the end of the day, the WWE offer was more than the AEW offer, and while I’m sure there were a million other issues to consider, that probably explains the prime decision making issue.”
There is no doubt that every wrestling promoter with the cash to do so will want to sign MJF. It looks like money will be a major deciding factor. If WWE sees him as a transformative talent who can make a huge impact, they may be willing to offer a ridiculous deal.
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May 13, 2022 9:15 am
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