Jon Moxley Is Right: MJF Is the Future of AEW and a Main Eventer Right Now

Jon Moxley and MJF faced multiple foes (besides each other) in their quest to have a show-stealing match to close AEW's All Out.

It had been a long, hot night in North Florida, with the temperature still hovering near 80 degrees at 11:30 p.m. and the humidity lingering in the same ballpark. The show, entering its fourth hour, had gone off the rails when Matt Hardy suffered a real-life injury during an undercard match. Everyone and everything seemed off, the feel-good flow that has become the company's trademark all but missing.

But being in the main event means transcending those troubles, ignoring the noise, the staggeringly heavy air, the dead crowd and delivering a match that makes fans forget everything that had come before it.

While he wasn't talking about these particular challenges, Moxley had laid out for his challenger what it meant to be a star in this business in a prescient promo on TNT.

"All that crap goes away and it's just me and you," Moxley said. "And there's only one question left to answer—are you ready to kill or be killed?"

In his first pay-per-view main event, the pressure was surely on the 24-year-old Maxwell Jacob Friedman. If the match didn't deliver, the blame certainly wouldn't fall on Moxley, an experienced veteran with high profile bouts on the biggest, brightest stages. It would fall on the shoulders of the new guy with the tiny, American-flag themed trunks who some were already suggested talked a better game than he wrestled.

It was up to MJF to prove he belonged in the ring and the conversation about the here and now, not some nebulous discussions about a young talent who might make it sometime in an undefined, potentially distant future that might never come.

The general consensus is that Friedman is strongest when he has a microphone in his hand. Holding up his end of a classic match has always been the question. But, more and more, it's starting to feel like one that has been asked and successfully answered.

First, there was a technical exhibition against Jungle Boy at Double or Nothing in May, a match that defied expectations and opened a lot of eyes. It's one thing to deliver a stylish, world-class match with modern-day masters like Kenny Omega or A.J. Styles who can take just about anyone by the hand and make them look amazing. Doing so with Jungle Boy, like MJF a relatively inexperienced wrestler, indicated Friedman wasn't just capable of being carried to something special—he could hold up his end of a well-constructed, well-executed match.

At All Out, that promise became more than theoretical—it was realized right before our eyes.

The match with Moxley began with MJF's cocky proclamation that "sorry, you're getting wrestling tonight." But this was no old-school borefest. Instead, it was a multi-faceted display of professional wrestling prowess, math work, dripping blood and cutting-edge high spots blending into something that felt both modern and nostalgic at the very same time.

The brilliant finish, with MJF's personal goon Wardlow accidentally creating the opening for Moxley to hit his banned finisher behind the referee's back, was a clever bit of business. It saves face for MJF, makes Moxley look smart, and leaves the opening for both a future rematch and an MJF feud with Wardlow.

Everyone, even Moxley, has been clear that MJF is the future of AEW. At All Out, he proved that was both true and false, as he proved pretty convincingly that the future is now.

Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report and is the author of Shamrock: The World's Most Dangerous Man.