On the latest “Grilling JR” podcast on AdFreeShows.com, Jim Ross gave his thoughts on the MJF-Bryan Danielson Iron Man Match for the AEW Championship at Revolution:
“I loved it. I really take my good old black hat off both those guys. They told a great story. They kept connecting the dots and that’s the art of great storytelling. You don’t have any interruptions in service like you do on cable TV sometimes. I thought it was fantastic.”
“MJF exceeded my expectations in that match. He worked his ass off. He got himself in great shape. He was prepared. Bryan Danielson deserves a tremendous amount of credit for being the captain of that match and making sure that he fed MJF with material, physical material, verbal material, emotional material, to sustain the contest. It takes a team effort, without question, and I thought those guys scored big time. Because again, let’s remember the common sense aspect of these things. They’re gonna go an hour. We knew that, and people have already seen, when I say everything, I mean pretty damn much everything. So how do you follow that and invest an hour of the audience’s time?”
“I see nothing but good stuff and feedback online about that match. I just thought it was excellent. I really did. I’m proud of those guys. It gave me confidence that we haven’t seen nearly the best of the champion. He’s still gonna get better. He’s young. He’s 26. He’s gonna be fine. I think that should relieve the doubt, if there was any, to where he’s more than just a great mouthpiece. We know he’s a great talker, but we saw he had another side of him, an athletic side of him, that I was very, very impressed with, and what more can you say about Bryan Danielson for God’s sake? We say this on television, and I know part of its hype, that he’s the best wrestler, pure pro wrestler in the world. I think he is.”
On if MJF went too far throwing a drink at the kid in the audience:
“I think it was just a reaction. I think it was instinctual. Max fancies himself, as he should by the way, as a heel. He took it too far. You don’t do that. I think he understands that now. It’s just an emotional reaction. He’s surrounded by people that don’t like him. There’s a lot of tension and pressure in that situation that you put yourself in, but you don’t want to have it any other way if you’re a heel. But throwing that beverage in that kid’s face is too far. He shouldn’t have done it and he just reacted. He reacted, and he reacted in a negative way, and he made the wrong choice. But to me, it didn’t take away from the match. After the fact, it becomes more of an issue because like right now, you and I are talking about it. I think it was just a natural heel reaction that got the best of Max.”
On if there was too much blood in the Jon Moxley- Hangman Page Texas Death Match at AEW Revolution:
“I loved it because I understand the concept of a Texas Death Match. They’re not pretty. They’re going to be sensationalized. You got all carte blanche to use all these toys, shall we say. So for what it was, how it was booked, it delivered exactly what it needed to deliver. Was it course and graphic and compelling? It sure was. But I didn’t think it would be anything else, especially with Moxley leading the way. You knew that blood in a Texas Death match is like peanut butter and jelly. So it just goes together. It didn’t bother me. I thought those guys worked their asses off. The first thing I’ve always looked back at is effort and desire. Did you give me the effort and with the desire that was noticeable and sellable and relatable? I say those guys did all three of those things. It was really good in that regard based on what it was booked to be. It wasn’t anything but a street fight type thing, stuff that if you did it outside the building, you’d be arrested for. So I had no problem with it.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
