Double or Nothing IV - 5/29/2022

[Just Dave]

49 minutes ago, Casey said:

Samoa Joe supposedly didn’t show up either.

Joe’s was cancelled. The rumor is that he was needed to help train PVZ for her match tomorrow.

 

SRS is now saying a flight out of Las Vegas has been booked for mjf.

[hammerva]

Well this escalated extremely quickly. 

[Jiji]

The full write-up:

Quote

MJF has flight booked out of Las Vegas, latest on situation with AEW
MJF no-showed his planned meet and greet Saturday for AEW, causing many fans to be unhappy after expecting to see him. As of right now, his status for Double or Nothing is uncertain.

Fightful heard from plenty of upset fans who had planned to meet MJF that he'd not shown up. Beyond that, AEW has remained quiet about the situation, not responding to Fightful's inquiries for information or comment. The only sources within the company that would speak on the matter said that they were "very unhappy about how it all played out." One AEW source said they heard that communication between the two sides had reached an all-time low. AEW talent and personnel were asked to not comment on the situation, and those we've spoken to have not heard back from him.

Fightful reached out to both AEW and MJF, and only got a confirmation that MJF is fine physically, which is the first concern when something like this happens. However, we also learned that a flight for MJF out of Las Vegas across the country was booked for late Saturday night. Whether or not he gets on the plane remains to be seen. Neither side would confirm the reasoning for this when pressed. We have to reiterate, we're not sure if he's actually getting on the plane, but have confirmed a flight for him has been booked out of Vegas Saturday night.

MJF has remained frustrated with All Elite Wrestling over the last two months regarding his contract status and specifically pay scale. However, we're told that AEW has been willing to discuss a new contract with the star performer, who is scheduled to face Wardlow at Sunday's Double or Nothing PPV. We're told that in the weeks prior, MJF effectively blew off those overtures. Those we spoke to in AEW believed that MJF would be paid "top performer money" to sign an extension.

MJF is said to have kept to himself much more since the initial argument with Tony Khan in early April that Fightful reported on. During that heated discussion, we were told that Khan's issues were more about the fact that MJF did a major interview without informing the AEW PR team about it, and MJF's issues were regarding his contract.

 

[Jiji]

Willingness to pay for the show dropping steadily. 

[Just Dave]

I said it about Sasha and Naomi, and I’ll say it here; that’s a shitty fucking thing to do to a co worker. Wardlow really needs this moment to complete his elevation, and if MJF no shows, that’s pretty fucking selfish…

[DreamBroken]

I personally have been loving face Punk and am not looking for any turn. But I do kinda dig the idea that Hangman's defending AEW from Punk cause it's always the title that turns Punk evil (turning against ROH after winning the title in 05, cashing in on Hardy for the World to turn in 09, turning while WWE champ in 2012) and Hangman having just vanquished Omega in a similar scenario is coming in fully prepared to prevent history from repeating. 

I wish Jade/Anna got more of a build since they started going back and forth on Twitter after Revolution with the easy tie-in followup coming off Jade's win over Tay, but I'm glad they did come back around to it anyway and look forward to it.

[Coletti]

25 minutes ago, just drew said:

I said it about Sasha and Naomi, and I’ll say it here; that’s a shitty fucking thing to do to a co worker. Wardlow really needs this moment to complete his elevation, and if MJF no shows, that’s pretty fucking selfish…

I think there is a TREMENDOUS difference between bouncing right before the pay off of a years-long storyline and saying "nope" to yet another storyline of tag team champ dissolution because of distrust when said tag team wanted to keep defending their belts.

[mystman]

12 minutes ago, christopher.annino said:

I think there is a TREMENDOUS difference between bouncing right before the pay off of a years-long storyline and saying "nope" to yet another storyline of tag team champ dissolution because of distrust when said tag team wanted to keep defending their belts.

I'll say the situations are exactly the same, in that no one outside the business really knows what the fuck happened.

It's pretty wild that the three biggest wrestling companies in the world are each having problems with one of their biggest stars all at the same time.

Edited May 29, 2022 by mystman

[John from Cincinnati]

47 minutes ago, just drew said:

I said it about Sasha and Naomi, and I’ll say it here; that’s a shitty fucking thing to do to a co worker. Wardlow really needs this moment to complete his elevation, and if MJF no shows, that’s pretty fucking selfish…

While it’s not cool to do Wardlow like that, I think my hottest possible take is that he’ll be fine no matter what either way. Audience sympathy about any wrong that’s been done to him will make him whole if it comes to that. 

The moment would have been great. But the people are with him and he’s a priority. 

[Craig H]

Sorry, but this still all smells like a work.

[John from Cincinnati]

Just now, Craig H said:

Sorry, but this still all smells like a work.

The fun that might come out of that could be reporters being more skeptical of what they’re getting from some AEW sources. So I’m all for that too. 

[Raziel]

I know it'll take a whole lot to turn fans on the company, but pissing off the fans by having someone advertised for a FanFest not show for a work seems counter productive/

[matt925]

6 minutes ago, Raziel said:

I know it'll take a whole lot to turn fans on the company, but pissing off the fans by having someone advertised for a FanFest not show for a work seems counter productive/

@Jijialready expressed that it hurts his chances of buying. I’m flying in but it’s what I was most looking forward to and is a bummer if it doesn’t happen. If this was a work, when people were already really excited about it, not like it needs more, then that will probably sour peoples feelings to the company. Doesn’t make sense to do this as a work so close to the show, after doing a perfect build. As people have noted lots of matches on this card haven’t had very good builds. Why would you mess with the one you’ve done perfectly? Can’t be a work. 

[John E. Dynamite]

Why MJF would devalue himself to this extent, when he can be frozen out for 2 years + enter a free agent pool without one of the two major companies bidding on him, while ostensibly angling to be signed by a WWE who are currently STRONGLY burying their own talent for walking out on a show, while absolutely *dicking over* Wardlow + everyone else involed in what has been nearly 3 years worth of build and accepting all the heat that would come with that...

If this isn't a work, this is historically stupid. Millions of dollars stupid. Nothing remotely close to the Cody situation.

Edited May 29, 2022 by John E. Dynamite

[Cobra Commander]

19 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Sorry, but this still all smells like a work.

if MJF was repped by Scott Boras, he would show up at the airport and see if Tony offers him enough money to leave. Sorta like how baseball draft picks used to enroll for college classes but not attend so they could keep negotiating.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

I'm just thinking out loud with this talking point, but even if MJF's ultimate goal is WWE... this is not helping his chances. WWE are currently going scorched earth on two people that walked out of the company. This chess move may just end up making WWE change their mind and not wanting to bring in that kind of behind the scenes personality. They really might just lose all interest in the guy over it.

What I'm hoping for here is MJF to have legitimately no showed the meet & greet (because working your fans like that is bad for business). To have booked that flight himself. But doing both of those while fully intending to show up and still do business. Basically just using those as a bluff to show management he's really pissed and things need to change (from his perspective).

Without knowing what MJF's issues are it's hard to compare this to the Sasha & Namoi deal. Maybe TK made a bunch of promises and went back on his word too. If that's the case I would support MJF here too. But if this is just over wanting more money and having regret that he signed such a long term deal that's wayyyy different than Sasha & Naomi. And I'd feel like he'd be in the wrong. But we really can't do a fair comparison until we know more.

[For Great Justice]

If I may suggest an audible here…

If MJF bails, just have Wardlow come out and destroy everyone involved in the TNT title scenario (except the ladies) and take the belt.

Gets you where you need Wardlow to be anyway, re-elevates the title and mercy kills the current TNT title nonsense all in one shot.

Edited May 29, 2022 by For Great Justice

[Cobra Commander]

cut to somebody hanging out by the JetBlue flight from Harry Reid to JFK pondering if MJF would really fly JetBlue

there's also Delta to JFK, Spirit to EWR, American Airlines to JFK, and then the last flight from LAS to JFK is United

[John from Cincinnati]

13 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

if MJF was repped by Scott Boras, he would show up at the airport and see if Tony offers him enough money to leave. Sorta like how baseball draft picks used to enroll for college classes but not attend so they could keep negotiating.

Now I want deranged Boras quotes about wrestler walkouts. 

[S.K.o.S.]

It's so strange to me that MJF would be turning in some of the best work of his career when he was that unhappy with his situation. How many wrestlers in that spot would just go out there and dog it? But he never did. It's like the unhappier he was, the better he performed.

[EVA]

Which makes it doubly strange that this is happening now!

[John from Cincinnati]

23 minutes ago, S.K.o.S. said:

It's so strange to me that MJF would be turning in some of the best work of his career when he was that unhappy with his situation. How many wrestlers in that spot would just go out there and dog it? But he never did. It's like the unhappier he was, the better he performed.

Truly our new CM Punk.

[Octopus]

Maybe he forgot something in New Jersey and will be back for the show?

[Curt McGirt]

Lucky scarf, obv.

[Cobra Commander]

with the time difference, it's not midnight in Vegas for another 90 minutes or so we can do MJFWatch for a little longer

the week I spent in Pacific Time was great because over a short term, my sleep patterns were less weird in in Pacific Time than Central Time (in Central, it was 2am-10am and that's Midnight-8am in California)

wonder if there was an offer to put a title on him to keep him around and that went over really poorly (the champ after tomorrow night might not exactly like that idea either)