The Post’s Joseph Staszewski brings you around the world of professional wrestling every Tuesday in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle.
Maxwell Jacob Friedman will likely be leaving Full Gear as the new All Elite Wrestling world champion, and he isn’t going to change what got him there. But the circumstances around him can.
Jon Moxley is a fill-in champion this time around, canceling his vacation to provide needed stability for AEW after CM Punk’s injury and press conference disaster. The company’s next PPV isn’t until Revolution somewhere in February or early March. So it would make zero sense to prolong the inevitable with Friedman, one of the company’s biggest ratings draws. Give the kid the ball and see if he can carry the company and run to superstardom.
What we don’t yet know is the situation under which his reign will begin when everyone leaves Prudential Center on Saturday. However, the AEW world championship eliminator tournament could give us some insight into which way it will go — with Ethan Page being the key person to watch. That is unless it’s all one big swerve, and therein lies the fun.
The group The Firm, once MJF’s faction for hire led by longtime friend Stokely Hathaway which includes Page, laid him out a few weeks ago. They put MJF through tables as you would do to a babyface trying to claim his first title. If that meddling continues Saturday and MJF overcomes it, it could mean we get MJF in his first babyface feud. Maybe he refuses their help so he can beat Moxley clean in the ring so there is no question he’s the better man.
If that’s the case, it would likely coincide with Page winning the eliminator tournament, setting him up to be the No. 1 contender at Winter is Coming on Dec. 14. Maybe MJF reunites with his former Pinnacle faction — now all babyfaces — for the time being until he turns on them again. They did come to his aid during The Firm’s attack.
There isn’t a clear main-event babyface to match MJF up with to start. Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli are still part of a Ring of Honor world title storyline. “Hangman” Adam Page doesn’t need to lose another world title match again. It feels too soon to go to Wardlow, the current TNT champion, and Darby Allin is just starting a program with Jeff Jarrett. It’s why leaning MJF babyface — at least from the start — can’t be off the table because there is story to tell with The Firm. You can always lean him back heel depending on the opponent down the road.
Keeping him a heel clearly makes the most sense and is the safer route as that is what he is most comfortable with and brought him his success. The Firm can then pull the swerve and help MJF defeat Moxley for the championship. It will all be part of MJF’s master plan. It would mean someone such as Ricky Starks or Bandido would win the eliminator tournament. Starks would make a fantastic first opponent for MJF after Full Gear. So would Eddie Kingston; just imagine the promos.
MJF should leave Full Gear with gold around his waist. It is what the company needs after the CM Punk debacle and it’s what the audience wants. But what kind of champion will he leave Full Gear as? There is a clear pathway for him to go either way. We will see if AEW and MJF have the guts to try embracing its greatest villain as its new hero — for now.
Just a Theory
Austin Theory and WWE did just about everything they could to make his inexplicable failed cash-in on the United States championship look less egregious. While they didn’t accomplish that, at the very least Austin Theory isn’t being buried but instead repackaged as an angrier and more aggressive version of himself – still the easiest move in wrestling. He keeps trying to convince everyone he’s not some dumb kid anymore. Well you know what, mature wrestlers do whatever it takes to win matches, not throw a tantrum and get disqualified after having the clash won as he did against Dolph Ziggler on “Monday Night Raw.” They even had him attack the champion Seth Rollins after the main event when his beef should really be with Bobby Lashley, the person who truly cost him the title last week.
Theory explained his cash-in by talking about how hard it is to get to Roman Reigns and the fact that The Bloodline is always there. Kid, you still had eight months for the perfect opportunity to arise or heck just book yourself in a match with Reigns – maybe even request a stipulation. WWE clearly had no interest in any of that. Having Theory explain all of that after the fact isn’t storytelling – it’s damage control. There are plenty of ways to spark this new rage from Theory, but WWE still picked one of the worst ways possible.
SAR-Ray for Hope
It was the news we all hoped for and expected, but you couldn’t help but feel joy for Saraya after she announced she was 100-percent cleared to wrestle. She, like Edge, Bryan Danielson and Christian, deserves to end things on her own terms and it feels like she went about it the right way, saying she went to a doctor that isn’t biased toward wrestlers and will start with wrestling just one match per month.
Her promo on Dynamite was exactly what she and the audience needed. It was straight from the soul, letting out some of the anger, frustration and passion that had been pent up for years. It was a reminder to the Britt Baker character that it was people like Saraya who paved the way for her and this generation of women and will help continue to elevate it. And if you are a Baker fan you can make the case Saraya didn’t give the good doctor enough credit for what she’s done. It injected needed emotion into this feud, and with three high-profile women’s matches with solid stories on the Full Gear card, it’s all a step in the right direction for the division.
The 10 Count
Shotzi becoming the No. 1 contender for Ronda Rousey’s SmackDown women’s championship at Survivor Series is fine. WWE really is just killing time until we get Rousey and Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 39. Shotzi and Rousey have only had one match against each other so it will feel fresh and Rousey and Shayna can tag against Shotzi and Raquel or Shotzi and Emma. But the fact that Shotzi, whose last singles win on the main roster came again Aliyah in July, is wrestling Rousey on a pay-per-view shows just how little WWE has built up the rest of the SmackDown women’s roster. They miss Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Naomi dearly.
Still waiting for Bron Breakker to have a proper NXT championship feud with someone on the NXT roster. The only people he’s had more than one title clash with are Dolph Ziggler and Tommaso Ciampa. Since then, Joe Gacey, Duke Hudson, Cameron Grimes, Tyler Bate, Ilya Dragunov and J.D. McDonough. Von Wagner feels like just the next flavor of the month.
It took some time and was teased the week prior, but Samoa Joe turning on Wardlow and Powerhouse Hobbs brings about as big a challenge as you can put in front of the TNT champion. It was well done and about time.
Nicely done by WWE adding Rhea Ripley and Mia Yim to opposite sides for the women’s WarGames match as you can now advance their feud and give fans a taste of what’s to come between Ripley and Bianca Belair. WWE either has a big surprise for the final participant on the babyface side, a Becky Lynch or Dana Brooke is going to help them get the man advantage next week on Raw and take the spot.
As absolutely fantastic as both Johnny Gargano and especially The Miz were during their Miz TV segment on Raw, I’m still waiting to see how all this helps move Johnny “Wrestling” forward. Dexter Lumis is now set to face Miz on Nov. 28 with a chance to get his money and WWE contract.
The video packages teasing House of Black’s return are pretty incredible. Let’s hope we can say the same thing about the run the group gets the second time around in AEW.
It’s been quite the past two weeks for the NWA. First, they have former champ Nick Aldis give his notice and then talk about why he feels the product wasn’t going in a direction he wanted to get behind in an interview with Sam Roberts. Then Tyrus defeating Trevor Murdoch and Matt Cardona to become Worlds Heavyweight champion at Hard Times 3 less than 24 hours later on Saturday didn’t exactly help the perception around Billy Corgan’s company based on the reaction. I appreciate the “Smashing Pumpkins” front man’s conviction in his vision — but is it one people want to see?
The fact the WWE is giving the winner of The SmackDown World Cup the same trophy Shane McMahon won to become “The Best in the World” just cracks me up.
So Bray Wyatt came back to feud with himself and L.A. Knight? Let’s hope their encounter was just a small part of Wyatt’s story and not just first opponent. Knight needs to be built, not fed to Wyatt.
Extra: The whole corny Chase U gimmick feels like something out of “Saved By The Bell: The College Years” or “Van Wilder,” but I’ve started to appreciate Thea Hail’s completely over-the-top performance. She reminded me of how Cheri Oteri used to play things on SNL back in the day.
Extra, Extra: Congrats to Impact’s Deonna Purrazzo and Steve Maclin on their wedding this past Thursday.
Wrestlers of the Week
The Usos, WWE
Jimmy and Jey Uso are now the longest-reigning WWE tag team champions. It further solidifies their place in the pantheon of all-time teams. To get there by having one more fantastic match with rival and current record-holders The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) on “SmackDown” – and winning clean – was a superb way to make breaking that record of 483 days feel special. Their show of respect to The New Day after was also a great touch.
Match to Watch
Jon Moxley (c.) vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman, AEW world championship at Full Gear (Saturday, Bleacher Report, 8 p.m.)
There is no way around this being the single biggest match this week. It is likely the MJF moment fans have expected since AEW began in 2019 and he will need to defeat the man who beat him in his only other world championship match to reach the pinnacle. Can it be done without anything taking the shine off his moment? Does he cheat to win? Will his reign live up to the hype? We finally get some of those answers.
