In his ‘Insight with Chris Van Vliet’ interview, AEW World Champion MJF disclosed recent talks with WWE executives who remain interested, even after he re-signed a multi-year deal through 2027.
MJF on signing with AEW instead of WWE
“I wouldn’t say I was close. So the version of pro wrestling that I love, now it does [exist], but it didn’t exist. The only option I had was WWE, until I got older and I heard about Ring of Honor and I heard about PWG and Evolve and so on… pic.twitter.com/nvH3IpWrqs
— J O H N (@RomanEra0) February 12, 2026
Friedman named Ring of Honor’s Kevin Steen as his dream opponent, praised Cody Rhodes for his big break, and tipped his hat to WWE’s tough counterprogramming tactics.
“Well I know that they respect our product because they’ve about a million times tried to counter-program us, slash us any way they can, hurt us any way they can, which, by the way, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
That’s smart business…. Try to kill me. Try to kill me before I kill you. It’s smart. I’m not going to take that away from them.”