Maxwell Jacob Friedman became a two-time AEW world champion at World’s End Saturday night.
The company’s final pay-per-view of 2025 ended with MJF defeating now-former champion Samoa Joe — the man who dethroned him two years ago — while Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page were removed from the action. The loss ended Joe’s second reign with the championship at 35 days, and places the belt back in the hands of AEW’s top heel to begin 2026.
There are aspects of this move that need to be unpacked detailing why MJF is the best person to be carrying the top championship as the year turns over, and why specifically Friedman picking up the big win in a match over his chief rivals ultimately makes sense. However, let’s first discuss why MJF being champion at all is important, and why this stronger start to his second reign needs to be matched by its future conclusion.
MJF’s first reign limped at the start and ended with a whimper
Before anyone gets bent out of shape, I’m going to qualify that by saying he was crowned spiraling out of the chaos of CM Punk’s second reign, departure and the obvious rejigging of plans following Punk’s firing. On its own it’s evident Mox was plugged into the spot to substitute for Punk so Friedman would have someone to wrest the belt from. We can assume that sequence of events due to the timing of MJF’s return at the end of the show just as Punk had won. They would have likely revived their feud from earlier in the year with MJF winning the championship from his dog collar match dance partner.
Nothing should ever be taken away from Moxley’s impact on AEW, however it’s evident MJF and Mox’s feud was a “Plan B.” The most organic route would have been through Punk, but because we know how and why that was nixed, the audible put in place to cement his first win doesn’t necessarily function as the best launch for a world title run.
Friedman surely made the most of it regardless of that perception and remained champion for 406 days. During that reign he ran through Moxley, Kenny Omega, the supposed “pillars” in Darby Allin, Jungle Boy and Sammy Guevara, Ricky Starks, Samoe Joe, Adam Cole, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Daniel Garcia, Ethan Page, Jay White and Bryan Danielson. That amounted to 10 successful defences. This is not to say there were not high points or good matches, but regardless of his strong outings against Omega, Danielson and Starks or even his draw with Cole, what we ultimately remember most are the beginning of the reign, “Better Than You Bay Bay” and ultimately the reveal of Cole being behind his downfall.
From that point, there was no immediate payoff to the reveal, which to me detracted from the end of the reign. It was just a thing that happened and everyone went their separate ways amid the holding pattern that came from Cole’s injury and MJF’s absence. You can argue his first reign was good, because the meaty parts of it had some good matches, but I don’t think it was his best character work if you look at the entirety of his AEW tenure, the Cole friendship and his shift from heel to moderate babyface felt unnatural and goofy, and overall it ended with a whimper. That was the arc of the longest reigning AEW world champion.
Contrasting MJF’s first reign against what his second run needs to be
Where his first reign started rockily, I think his second reign is already in a better place.
Prior to his break, we knew MJF still had a world title shot in his back pocket, and we knew the cash-in parameters that needed to be met in order for him to redeem that opportunity. Couple that with his return in the middle of the Page-Joe-Swerve feud, the no frills return, establishment of his priorities, execution of his warm-up opponent all made him to out be a serious looking threat.
Furthermore, Swerve and Hangman did a fantastic job of making MJF out to be a legitimate threat; he was dangerous and reprehensible enough of a human to get the two blood-feud-adversaries to put their differences aside to put Max in his place. This all served to position MJF in the most positive way possible as the definitive threat of the match, simply out of the necessity to ensure he was kept away from the AEW championship.
When you contrast the two scenarios, in my opinion the beginning of his second AEW title run is more cut and dried, straight-forward, and gives MJF a clean slate with his renewed villainous stature that was missing in most of his first reign. I think if that sense of intensity and true heelish nature can be maintained start to finish, his second world title reign will be more beneficial to the company, impactful for his character, and build more antithetical characters to his that reinforces the AEW world championship scene with a stronger foundation.
It’s obviously difficult to project too far in terms of what we can compare since MJF’s second reign is still young, but its immediate starting points put him in a better position to thrive as a truly heel AEW champion whereas the sequence of events that led up to defeating Moxley, including how he beat Moxley, didn’t harm his character, but also didn’t make him look strong. I would argue the opposite is the case now; the way his character has been architected as he’s rebuilt himself from his first title loss to present day have returned him to the vile, borderline nihilistic, focused villain he was at his best. That guy is dangerous and is someone who can be built around. For those reasons I’m hopeful his second reign accomplishes those key goals, and whomever beats him will have their win mean substantially more.
Potential Defences
World’s End immediately sets up two challengers at a minimum, potentially three if Samoa Joe stays in the mix for at least one PPV cycle.
Both Swerve and Hangman did a great job of installing MJF into their feud as the objective threat. Going into their World’s End triple threat-turned-4-way, MJF’s inclusion added a dynamic that was missing and they sold that threat well. Now with that in the rearview, attention needs to turn toward removing him as champion. Whether that is accomplished a part or together, Swerve and Page should be the focal points opposite MJF between now and Revolution into Double or Nothing. It might be better to leave Joe behind if only because he ate the pin, which brought his story with MJF full circle to bring closure to their clash at World’s End in 2023. Swerve and Page are stronger opponents and Joe doesn’t necessarily need to be part of the next few months of storytelling.
Beyond Swerve and Page, Moxley and Omega (if his body can hold up) are worthwhile challengers. Will Ospreay or Darby Allin would be great candidates to consider as options to dethrone him. I think those are tentpole defences no matter the outcome. In the meantime between all of those we could see him against a potentially face Takeshita, Mark Briscoe or a NJPW/CMLL standout. Perhaps Joe comes back around once more to put him over again, and if so we’re looking at least 9 key defences sprinkled around competitive defences against solid wrestlers like a Kyle O’Reilly.
Summarily, the point is there are no shortage of good opponents for him, and the throughline running between them needs to be the strength of his heel character and how villainously he will act to retain his championship as long as possible. Any one of those listed could dethrone him, and how that story is told ultimately determines the lasting impact of MJF’s second reign.
MJF’s Reign As An Extension of Moxley’s 2025 Mission
If the Death Riders running roughshod over AEW for over a year was a wake up and rallying call to the roster, then MJF needs to embody that endgame in this reign as the top heel in the company. That’s his role, and although I’ve argued in the past that someone like Jay White was a better heel, as far as North American wrestling goes it’s clear where their roles are between cool heel and true heel. MJF has evolved and is the epitome of the latter.
The version of MJF that lost to Samoa Joe in 2023 is not the same variation of the character that starts 2026 as a two-time AEW world champion. That character was the embodiment of a wrestler looking for power for its own sake and approval from outside themselves rather than applying themselves to the craft and excelling. He was MJF at half potential, and half capability. And if that’s true, and we treat the MJF who pledged to return to form and re-seize what’s his, then what we saw at the end of World’s End is the actualization of that pledge two years in the making.
In my view this version of the character needs to not only meet the challenge that Moxley laid out for the AEW roster at the outset of his reign at the end of 2024, but he needs to crush that impression and become the guy AEW runs through who is equal parts himself, all his inspirations and what Ric Flair was in his heyday. That’s the MJF that All Elite Wrestling needs to step forward, and for that to occur it needs to be off the backs of every face, anti-hero and skilled opponent the company has. He needs to become the full-fledged threat to the company and wrestling as a whole that Swerve and Hangman believed him to be prior to World’s End.
Heading into 2026 MJF needs to be the focal of AEW television. He needs to be vile, detestable and be completely unwavering in that positioning. If the first reign was his learning experience, this second reign needs to be something that brings his character up to its full potential as a heartless, villainous, bankable heel. That man as the running thread through the company’s 2026 storylines will draw attention if only to see him lose, and he’ll be entertaining while he does it. However, at the end of this reign, whomever topples him, they will get a head start to their own reign from MJF’s work and AEW will be better for that effort.
