MJF has given one of the most entertaining and candid assessments of AEW‘s pay-per-view format — acknowledging that the promotion routinely overloads its cards to the point where the crowd is exhausted by the time the main event arrives, while simultaneously crediting Tony Khan for delivering genuine value and arguing that AEW already has the greatest PPV catalog in professional wrestling history.
Speaking on Late Night Grin, the AEW World Champion pulled no punches about what it is like to main event a show where the audience has already sat through a dozen matches. “By the time I get out there, you can literally hear a person fart in the back rows. They’re dead. They’re exhausted. They don’t want to be there anymore. MJF’s music hits — ‘All right, we got to lock in.’ And I give those fans in that live audience no choice but to get emotionally invested. If you put any other top guy from any other era in the position that my boss puts me in over and over again, they would kill somebody. I’m just that damn good, so it doesn’t matter.”
MJF Says Eight Matches Is the Magic Number for a PPV and Argues AEW Already Has the Best Pay-Per-View Catalog Ever
Despite the criticism of card length, MJF acknowledged the genuine upside of Khan’s philosophy before delivering his own prescription for what the ideal format would look like. “I got to give Tony credit as much as it pains me — he makes sure you get your bang for your buck, man. You’re leaving belly full. We’re putting a spoon up to your mouth and you’re like, ‘Please stop.’ And we’re like, ‘Open your mouth!’ And then you go, ‘I guess I could’ve ate a little bit more. That’s fair.'” His ideal solution is straightforward. “I personally feel eight is the magic number. I really do. And I think if we did eight on a consistent basis, I think people would be shocked at the level in which the reverence of the PPVs would elevate.” He also made an emphatic case for AEW‘s overall PPV legacy. “We already have by a wide margin the best PPV catalog in the history of professional wrestling. Six years in, we have the best pay-per-view catalog of any pro wrestling company that’s ever existed. Fight with the wall. It’s us.”