AEW Revolution saw MJF retain his AEW World Championship, but the brash young star didn’t escape without controversy, and he even got the attention of two-time WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair.
In the middle of his 60-minute iron man match against Bryan Danielson in the show’s main event, Maxwell Jacob Friedman took a detour to talk trash to the crowd in attendance in San Francisco. One woman in the front row was shocked when MJF took her drink out of her hand and threw it on her son, causing the son to break down crying.
The child, whose name was later revealed to be Titus, was not a plant, and security checked on him after the incident according to a report from Fightful Select. Amanda Huber also comforted the young fan, and he was taken backstage after the show to meet some of his AEW favorites and receive merchandise.
AEW President Tony Khan addressed the situation in a press conference following the show, saying that the champion’s actions were out of line and making it clear he’d spoken with Friedman about the incident.
“Before we came up here, we had a serious conversation and I mean that. It’s not to be taken lightly. The young man Titus was a real pro about it. We’ll see Titus again in AEW. I believe Titus is actually coming to Sacramento. I was just with him, he was a real champ about it. The champion didn’t act like a champion there. I think Titus was great.” (h/t Fightful)
Ric Flair Believes MJF Throwing A Drink On A Child Was “Cheap Heat”
Despite being known for his own dastardly deeds, WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair called MJF’s heat at Revolution “cheap,” saying that while he used to do plenty of things to annoy a crowd, he’s heavily against throwing anything at a child. Speaking on the latest episode of To Be the Man, Flair had this to say:
“Yeah. It’s cheap heat. You want to do something to get heat and get the people excited, that won’t hurt anybody, you cut yourself so deep that when you swing your hair, you throw blood all over them. That’s what I did all the time when I had long hair. Then they’d feel like they’re part of the action. They’re going, ‘Sh*t, this ain’t paint. This is blood’ [laughs]. I’m totally against throwing anything at a kid. You never know, if it had ice in it and that. The liability there? I’m sure Tony did a a cartwheel at Gorilla [position].”
Continuing, Flair said that Friedman’s actions would never fly in sports entertainment giant WWE.
“That shit wouldn’t fly at WWE. I got news for you. For something like that, if he did that that wouldn’t work in WWE for a minute.”
Scorpio Sky also chimed in on the situation, calling Friedman’s actions the “smallest d*ck energy.”
h/t Fightful