At AEW's World's End, Long Island takes centerstage
AEW wrestler MJF, who was raised in Plainview. Credit: AEW
All Elite Wrestling’s World’s End pay-per view Saturday-night at Nassau Coliseum featured title switches, major reveals and even flaming tables. But for the sellout crowd of nearly 10,000 in attendance for the end-of-the-year show, the star of the evening was Long Island itself.
The nearly five-hour show featured a host of Long Island homegrown stars, from the opening bout between Willow Nightingale (North Valley Stream) against Kristen Stadtlander (West Islip) to the young star Hook (Massapequa) all the way to the final bout featuring then AEW Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman, or MJF, who was raised in Plainview.
Friedman, who had held the title for a record 407 days before dropping the belt in front of his hometown crowd to Samoa Joe, has made Long Island a focal point of his presentation.
Friedman entered the ring to a video of “real” Long Islanders discussing his accolades and credentials.
The package included images of Long Island institutions such as Bagel Boss, Ben’s Kosher Deli, La Piazza and Bev Francis Powerhouse Gym in Syosset, as well as shots of the Long Island Rail Road, the Southern State Parkway and of course the Coliseum.
And while Friedman has always walked the line between a dastardly heel and a reformed babyface good guy, to the crowd in attendance and those featured in the video package, there was no distinction.
But while the crowd was electric for most of the night – the show slowed down at points in the middle – they went home disappointed when MJF, who had been dealing with shoulder and hip injuries, dropped the title after he was choked out by Joe.
And his night only got worse when MJF’s “best friend” Adam Cole turned on his ally and revealed himself to be the mysterious “devil” character that had terrorized wrestlers who aligned themselves with Friedman for the past two months. He was joined by four masked men — who revealed themselves to be Wardlow, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett and Roderick Strong — who engaged in a five-on-one attack on MJF to end the show.
Friedman’s tenure with AEW, which stretches back to its origins five years ago, remains an open question.
MJF’s contract supposedly is up on Jan. 1 and he has openly teased the “bidding war of 2024” for his services between AEW and the larger WWE.
But during a backstage press conference after the show, AEW President Tony Khan declined to discuss Friedman’s contract status, even while announcing the departure of wrestlers QT Marshall, Andrade El Idolo and Rafael Morrfi, who served as vice president of live events and touring.
“Right now I can’t comment on the future of MJF and AEW other than to say that we’re very grateful for everything that he’s done to get us here,” Khan said. “MJF has been a very big part of AEW now for five years, and he is one of the people who helped build this place.”
Khan dodged questions on three separate occasions during the news conference about MJF’s status in the company, repeatedly stating that “I can't speak to his future in 2024.”
Friedman was not made available for interviews after the show.
MJF himself sparked many of those same questions this week when he penned an article for the Players’ Tribune about his career, tenure in AEW and his fight against anti-Semitism.
“You’ll probably hear some stories about me over the next few days, about my contract, about the injuries I’ve been dealing with, about the condition my body is in, about who knows what else,” Friedman wrote. “I’m sure it’ll all leak. That’s fine.”
Shortly after the pay-per-view, reports circulated online that Friedman would be taken off TV for a period to recover from his injuries, but his status with AEW remains an open question.
It wasn’t Friedman’s only recent high-profile visit home recently.
Earlier this month, he returned to Long Island — a place he calls the “most magical place in the world” — to accept his induction as the newest, and youngest ever, member of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Commack.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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