MJF has put a stake in the ground on the WWE vs AEW competitive conversation, telling Ariel Helwani ahead of his Title vs Hair match at AEW Double or Nothing on Sunday that AEW is putting on the best wrestling on television and that anyone still saying otherwise in 2026 simply is not watching the show.
MJF challenges AEW World Champion Darby Allin in the main event of Double or Nothing on May 24 at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Flushing, NY, with the stipulation that MJF will be shaved bald if he loses. The show has reached 13,848 distributed tickets per the most recent WrestleTix update, on pace to potentially become the second-biggest-grossing domestic pay-per-view in AEW history.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani, MJF made the public case for AEW’s in-ring quality.
“We have an embarrassment of riches right now in the AEW locker room. I’m not gonna sit here and name every single name because it’s actually exhausting how many incredible professional wrestlers we have. We have, bar none, the best wrestling on television. It’s not even close. Sorry. Now, WWE has incredible wrestlers, they’re putting on great matches. TNA has great wrestlers, they’re putting on great matches. NXT has great wrestlers, they’re putting on great matches. But I can look in this camera and say point blank I feel we put on the best matches. I feel that it’s not just a tagline ‘Where The Best Wrestle.’ It’s a fact.”
He then drew the line directly at the persistent “AEW bad” framing in some corners of online wrestling discourse.
“It’s gotten to the point now because of the black eyes that were created in the past, it was ‘AEW bad’ for a while just cause after the black eyes. Now there was a reason to say ‘AEW bad’ because some bullshit was going on. In 2026, there’s nothing to say, man. We’re putting on great show after great show. We were up in houses year over year in most territories in the US. Pay-per-view buyrates are up, and I’m about to be in the main event of the second biggest grossing domestic pay-per-view in the history of our company.”
The “black eyes” reference appears to point to the various AEW backstage controversies of 2022 and 2023, including the CM Punk-Young Bucks brawl at AEW All Out 2022 and the All In 2023 Punk-Jack Perry altercation that led to Punk’s release. He then made the watching-the-show framing directly.
“What I think is so cool, when you go to social media now, if there is a post that says ‘AEW bad’, it used to just be like, ‘Yeah, you’re right, screw AEW. I’m just gonna stick with my TNA, my MLW, my WWE, what have you.’ Now it’s like, ‘You’re not watching the show.’ Just say you’re not watching the show because you’re clearly not watching the show. ‘Oh, I watch the show.’ Okay, what’s happening? ‘Bullshit.’ Oh, alright, so you don’t watch the show and that’s fine.”
He closed the argument with a target audience qualifier.
“Now I’m not gonna sit here and pretend that our show is for everybody. No product is for everybody, but we are white hot right now because we’re having incredible matches, we have incredible rivalries, and we put on incredible pay-per-views. And I genuinely feel that we have the best wrestling show weekly.”
If you use quotes from this article, please credit The Ariel Helwani Show and include a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
