Talent reaction to MJF situation in AEW, more news (Patreon)

As Double or Nothing approaches, MJF's status has been a huge question mark and a point of discussion in AEW.

Talent have speculated over the last day as to the situation and whether it's a work, whether MJF would be at the venue or the like. One person close to MJF assured us they didn't believe he'd be boarding a flight to leave Las Vegas Saturday, which ended up being accurate. It's important to note, we confirmed the flight booking to be real (which was confirmed by multiple outlets), and it was finalized less than a half hour before the meet & greet no show, and at an incredibly high cost. Fightful intentionally did not disclose the destination of the flight publicly, which was accurately confirmed by PWInsider to be Newark. We've not reported anything else in regards to his status for tonight's PPV.

AEW talent that Fightful have spoken to have been in the "I don't know, this is crazy" camp, to speculating that they think it could be an elaborate plan from MJF himself. However, when pressed on if they thought Tony Khan and AEW would join on such a plan, talent were more than non-committal on that. Khan has never been known to work his locker room, and will often choose to not discuss matters as opposed to lying to talent.

The issues with MJF and Tony Khan were very real as of two months, ago, and even though Khan seemed receptive to talking about a new contract, MJF did not seem interested in those talks by that point. However it was reiterated to Fightful that MJF told several people that he knew that something would likely have to break the weekend in Las Vegas, considering the two would be around one another for nearly a week straight. We have not been told if that meeting ended up happening, but MJF had expected it to as of weeks ago. One talent was convinced it was a masterminded effort from MJF at some point after the issues became public.

One talent told Fightful yesterday afternoon before we reported the flight booking that they were told MJF was trying to leave Las Vegas. Numerous talent tried to reach out to MJF on Saturday, but we're not told if any reached him.

Some AEW wrestlers didn't know about the situation until word of the flight being booked for MJF was made public.

We can confirm that AEW talent that asked were requested that they didn't comment on the matter publicly. We reached out to Tony Khan and AEW directly but didn't get a response.