MJF Comments On His 2023 Feud With Adam Cole

Former AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF) recently reflected on his feud with Adam Cole in 2023.

The feud dominated AEW programming throughout 2023 but didn’t reach a natural conclusion due to Cole suffering an ankle injury at Grand Slam.

In a recent conversation with Fightful, MJF highlighted how the feud dominated pro wrestling that year before it all came crashing down after Cole injured his ankle. However, Friedman admitted that he learned a lot about himself during the feud, as he was in a *very dark place” at the time.

“Here’s what happened. At the time, and this is just a fact, we were the highest minute-for-minute drawing angle, not just in AEW, but in all of professional wrestling at that point. We were moving the most merch in the company. At that point, and was to no fault, Bloodline’s going to go down as one of the greatest long-term things, but at that point there was a bit of a lull in their story at that point in 2023, and we had taken the lead, and Better Than You Baybay is what everybody was talking about, and then that pussy Adam Cole broke his ankle like the complete dork that he is, and then he decided to turn on me because he’s a horrible human being. But I learned a lot in that year. I learned a lot about myself, you know, when I was out—full disclosure, I was in a very dark place,” he said.

MJF also reflected on the fans turning on him during that feud and how he won them over this year.

“I hurt my hip and my left shoulder, and my last two pay-per-view matches—pretty much the left side of my body was useless. But I wasn’t going to tell the doctors that because that’s not how I was brought up. In not just in real life, but in this business. When I had that time off, I had a lot of time to reflect, and it made me angry. Now I look back on it, and I shouldn’t have been angry at the fans. Who I should have been angry was that myself. Because I went from being ‘MJF is the best thing since sliced bread,’ and within a flip of a switch, ‘It’s MJF sucks. He’s killing this company that we love.’ It took, if we’re being honest, it took all the way into like the first month of this year of 2025 for everybody to be like, ‘Maybe we were harsh. Maybe he’s actually still one of the best in the world.’ They can’t help it. But I know why. It’s because nobody likes a braggart. But the unfortunate thing is I can’t help myself. I’m just really good at my job, and I can’t help but talk about it. [H/T: Fightful]

Check out the conversation below: