Games with Names - MJF on The Iron Man Match | MJF vs. Bryan Danielson (2023)

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

MJF is in studio! AEW Champion MJF aka Maxwell Jacob Friedman is with to breakdown The Iron Man Match against Bryan Danielson. We get into the state of the AEW, his biggest inspirations as a wrester, life as the champ, and a whole lot more.  (00:00) We kick things off. (01:16) MJF joins us on the couch. (29:44) We go back to March 2023. (38:47) We breakdown each wrestler. (39:48) We get into the match. (49:57) We score it. Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1, including the astrology of the current grid, the story of the sports most consequential driver's strike and plenty of other mishaps, scandals, and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent, dumpster fire

for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know Roll Doll. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG. But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, The Secret World of Roll Doll, I'll tell you that story, and much, much more.

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on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lori Siegel, and on my new podcast, Mostly Human, I'll take you to some wild corners of the tech world. I'm about to go on a date with an AI companion at a real world cafe right here in New York City. There's no playbook for what to do when an AI model hallucinates a story about you. Mostly Human is your playbook for how tech can work for you. Anyone can now be an entrepreneur. Anyone can build an app. And it's very empowering. Listen to Mostly Human on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct? I doctored the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg, a lesbian, Michael Ranjini.

My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. March 5th, 2020, Chase Center, San Francisco, California. When you're the world champ, everyone wants a shot at you.

But it would take more than 60 minutes to decide who leaves with this belt. This is the Iron Man match. Welcome to Games with Names. I'm Julian Edelman. They're Jack and Kyler. And we are on a mission to finding the greatest game or match of all time. And today we got a great episode coming up with AEW World Champion, himself Maxwell Jacob Friedman,

aka MJF. And if you haven't already, follow Games with Names on Spotify, Apple, and set each episode to automatically download as soon as it drops. Let's go. Games with Names is a production of IHeart Radio. Welcome to Games with Names. Today we are looking at the Iron Match of 2023. MJF versus Brian Danielson with the one and only MJF himself.

MJF, welcome to the house first off, second off in one sentence. Why this match? I'll tell you why this match. This is the greatest Iron Man match in the history of professional wrestling. This is not a feeling. This is a fact. It's unanimously agreed upon. We wrestled for over an hour.

We wrestled, I believe, for an hour in like eight minutes. And it's the most grueling match probably of my entire career. If Gronk was here, he would have said maybe an hour and nine minutes, hour and nine minutes, which makes it 69 minutes. Good job. Nice. I'm not a nice guy. You know, most football players aren't.

Most football players aren't. We get him in the head for a living, right? Yeah. So if we can nail a 69 joke in pretty much anywhere or nail anything anywhere, we will. That's what we do. We're athletes. That's what we do. That's what we do.

Now, is this the greatest match of all time? So is it the greatest match of all time? you're asking the wrong guy because I like to toot my own horn. I'd say it's up there, okay? But it is genuinely within the fandom of professional wrestling. If you ask any wrestling fan, they will genuinely say this is the greatest Iron Man match specifically of all time. So the way an Iron Man match works is you have an hour long match and whoever lands the most

pinfalls or submissions is the winner. So it's almost like the NFL, like football, it's a game of points, you know? So whoever scores the most points by the, the end of the matchup wins. Unfortunately in this matchup, I say unfortunately because I had to wrestle more than an hour when frankly,

normally I finish my opponents off in like 30 seconds. I'm kind of great at professional wrestling. It bummed me out because we tied at the hour. So then my boss, who is a heartless, heartless human being,

he said, well, we need a tiebreaker. So here I am. I've wrestled for an hour. I'm bleeding buckets. I don't want to keep going. And he's like, we got to keep going. So we proceeded to wrestle each other. Obviously, I came out the victor.

I definitely didn't cheat by hitting my opponent with a foreign object. I won fair and square. I love that. I love that. I want to dive into that a little later. Cool. First, let's get into, this is a sports podcast, right? Yes.

Hold on real quick, Jules. I do want to say for the audience at home, we have covered the Brett Hart, Sean Michaels, Iron Man match. What used to be considered. So we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, how, uh, how, how the games with name system equates to your system. All right. But getting, getting back to the, on-topic

Kyler, thank you. Can you believe this guy? Just throwing you off in your own house? Just throwing me off in my own studio. Jesus. I mean, how do they do it over there? What would you do if someone threw you off in your own? They'd be fired immediately. Fired immediately. Without question. How do you fire someone? How do you fire someone? Watch this. You're fired. Is he still here? Oh, I would love. Thank God. See how easy that is? That's, you know, it's hard. But getting back to no more talking, pal. No more talking. You're from Long Island. I am. Most magical place in the world in my opinion. In my opinion. What's the sports hierarchy of you when you were growing up as a child? Who were your teams? So I'm a Mets and Giants household. What the fuck is that? Wild, right?

What the hell? Wild. Wild. And it's blamed my father. So he loved the New York Mets, not a Yankees guy. He's a sucker for an underdog, which is why he told me he loves the Mets, which is a fair reason to love the Mets. And also he thought the Pinstripes were a little hack. and I'll be honest, okay. Vince Travers are okay. I don't hate him, but I don't love them. I think the Mets uniform is a lot more fun. And then the Giants,

he said he couldn't deal with having two franchises that suck most of the time. So was he once a Jets fan and then transferred to... No, no, no, no, no, no. Off the whip. Always a Giants fan. Isn't that like, isn't that not the norm? No, it's honestly almost sacrilegious.

So normally it's Yankees, Giants, Mets, Jets. And Long Island's, like, very heavy MetJet. It's pretty much, it's MetJet City, basically. And then obviously you have your islanders over your Rangers if you're on the island. And then the second you go into NYC, you're going to mainly predominantly meet Rangers fans. And no one likes New Jersey Jevils. We don't talk about New Jersey. New Jersey.

Except the Hughes. We got the Hughes kid on there. Team USA. Sure. We like that kid, but just, have you ever driven into New Jersey? I have it. Okay. Let me tell you.

Yeah. The metal lands. There's a stench. It's an unreal stench. Like dead bodies and like baby diarrhea, like gets put into a ball, shove them to a microwave and left in there for 10 minutes. And then, you know, you open the sucker up. It's rotten. And that's what most of Jersey smells like to me, which is rough. Because when I was filming Happy Go Moore 2, it was all filmed in New Jersey. So I was miserable. The people there smell. and they're ugly. A lot of wrestling fans in New Jersey, which makes sense because most wrestling fans smell and are ugly. So it all checks out. It all checks. You ever meet Billy Joel?

I've never met Billy Joel, but I'm a massive fan. Aren't you guys from the same? We are from the same place, but he just sold his house, actually. Was that the one that he dreamed of living in? Yes. He bought it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm a little bummed out. I don't think he lives on Long Island anymore. I think he sold that home. He might live in L.A. now. I'm not actually sure, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sell out. Yeah, right? I'm in a New York state of mine. That's what I'm talking about. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. You had to be a big shot.

He had to be a big. Didn't I tell you not talking about? Kyler. Unreal. Triple chin over here. Just won't shut his mouth. Crazy. Triple chin? I got a question for you. Yes, sir. You shave that beard. What do you look like? I'm afraid to, and I haven't done it in like a decade.

You haven't done it in a decade? Because I don't know what's under there. Do you have a photo of what you look like without facial hair? It would mean the world to me. I'll try to find one for you. Thank you. Maybe even we threw it up on the trial. I'll get it for you. Sick, sick, sick.

I'm a jumbo trial. I got to plug into Facebook. How's life with the title belt? God, I'm on top of the world, baby. So realistically, if you're a professional wrestler, a real professional wrestler, this is the most coveted prize in the sport. This is the all elite wrestling world championship.

AEW, for those of you who do not know, we're on Wednesday's nights, dynamite that is on TBS at 8 p.m. And we also stream on HBO Max. we are also on Saturdays on T&T whilst also simultaneously, streaming on HBO Max. We have guys like me, Samoa Joe, Kenny Omega, Hangman Adam Page, Swerve Strickland, Adam Copeland, Christian Cage, oh my God, the list goes on and on.

Andrade Al-Eadolo, I can keep naming these names, but the fact of the matter is the reason why everybody wants this belt is because if you hold this belt, it means you're the best professional wrestling in the world. In the world. In the world. And now there are other people who would lay claim to that. But those people are lying. And I hate liars. I can't stand for liars.

If you want to be considered the best wrestler bell to bell, this is the championship to win. I mean, it's a... And how gorgeous is it. It is a great-looking belt. It is gold, real gold, real platinum, real diamonds. You know, Julian picked it up and pretty heavy. Very heavy. Pretty heavy.

It's real deal, Holy Field. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, you're turning 30? Or did you? I am March 15th. Well, by now, I'll be 30 years old. Happy birthday.

Crazy. How are you celebrating? Well, I will have celebrated in my 30th birthday, bleeding my brains out in a Texas death match at the Crypto.com Arena. And that's happening. I know it's like back to the future right now because this comes out afterwards, but that's about to be happening at Crypto.com arena this Sunday. This Sunday.

Yeah. Yeah. That's going to be fun. It's going to be messed up. It's going to be gross. A lot of. violence. Now, you're, you're 30 now. Dirty 30. 30. You were ESPN's top under 30 athletes. Numero uno. Yeah. How did that feel? Multiple times. You know, it made sense. Here's the deal.

I'm a humble guy. You know that about me, Julie. Yeah. I mean, we talk about how humble I am all the time. All the time. And you talk about how humble you are all the time. All the time. And by the way, you look fantastic today. I want you to know that. Thank you. It's crazy that you know, can I be honest with you? I think what you're doing is really smart. You surround yourself with, like, people that aren't the most attractive. And it just, you're already a 10. But now you're like an 11, bro. It's crazy. Oh, my God.

High school's last time. Wow. Where's you? Oh, my God. That's okay. Wow. And your friend on the right. I have a question.

Was your friend on the right just headbutting a tree? Yeah, yeah. He's a low. Low IQ, feckless humanoid. Okay. That's Jeff Roder. It's a great, a mating ton of vibes.

Wow. A lot of acne going on with Jeffrey, too. Yeah. Yeah. Does he know about acutane at this point? Well, I mean, this might have been before Accutane.

Yeah. How old is he now? He's 37. And he's also the head straight, the condition coach of Franklin Pierce University. Does he teach them to headbutt trees too? There's a lot of headbutting on there.

Okay. Very interesting. There's what. What was I even talking about? I don't remember. The pro act, I don't know. Surrounding yourself with ugly people.

Surrounding yourself with ugly people. Yeah. You know what? In that instance, you did the same thing. Yeah. Be proud of yourself. You look handsome in that thing.

You think I'm the handsome one there? Well, out of the two of those people, absolutely. It looked like you were standing next to a human troll. Dude literally looks like you just ran out from underneath a bridge. To be fair, he's the same height as you. He's seven foot tall. So anyway, you know,

being on top of this sport is not easy. And you need to be a great talker. to be great looking and you need to be a great professional wrestler and one of the things that I'm most proud of one of my nicknames is big Hebrew okay I'm proud of being a Jew I'm proud of being a Jewish professional athlete because there's not a lot of us bro there's not a lot of us there's not a lot of us there's not a lot of us and also I don't know if you're aware of this people don't like us that much um I'm pretty aware oh okay I was just checking I was just checking yeah for some reason it's it's a crazy what's the Mount Rushmore of Jewish athletes I'd say me you Sid Luckman

Goldberg? Sid Luckman. Okay, Sid Luckman could go up there. And Sandy Kofax is another good one. Hmm. Who else? Who else? Seth Green.

Seth Green? Yeah. Oh, Sean Green. Excuse me. I was about to say, Seth Green is the actor. He made the animated show. Well, Robot Chicken. Robot chicken.

And he was also in all the Austin Powers. Yep. Yeah. And voice is the son and family guy. Yep. Chris Griffin. Yeah. Chris Giffin.

Yeah. Sean Green. Sean Green. Jews got to love them You got to You absolutely got to Right now, not No, not right now

But um But you got to So you said you You gotta be able to talk in this business Very important What goes into making these insane promo videos that you guys cut up all day long? Oh well I'm mentally unwell

So what I'll do is I will sit down in my house for hours on end Thinking of horrible things to say to my opponents You write them down? Oh my notes app is a cornucopia of just ruthlessly unhinged mean things to say. Can you show us? Oh, God.

I don't have my phone on me at the moment, but I have a, oh, does I do? He's got a servant. I might have to edit around this because I don't know how long it was. That was my monkey boy. He was throwing me the phone. He holds my bags and such. So what is the latest one that you came up with

and who was in your mind when you were thinking about it? Oh, God. I don't know. Here's one that's on the top. underneath funny insults. You want to come back. If you want my comeback, you'll have to go scrape it off your mother's teeth. It's a good one.

Etcetera. Do you want more? Yeah, keep going. Keep going. No need to clap, folks. He already has it. Keep going. Um, what's because some of these are wrestler-specific, so you're not going to get the same amount of pop because the people might not know. Yeah, the rest are unfortunately wrestler-specific, so you're not going to, you might not pop unless you are privy to the rassels. Last one. Because the problem is a lot of these

A lot of these are very, very specific. So you're basically like M&M. You're just sitting. Yeah, I literally, it's wrestler. And then under the wrestler is like 70 just brutal barbs that are ultra-specific about them. And then they go to the back and they pretend everything's fine. But then later on my boss will walk on me and be like,

hey, you kind of hurt that guy's feelings. I'm like, hey, I kind of don't give a shit. And then it gets worse. So that's wrestling. That is wrestling. I mean, it's... But you know, you brought up a guy earlier who is like another father figure of me

besides Adam Sandler. You brought up Stone Cold Steve Austin. Stone Cold. Who I think besides me is the greatest professional wrestler of all time. And you want to talk about talking trash. I mean, nobody knew how to talk trash better than Steve at the time. Austin 316.

Yeah. Austin 316. I mean... And that's who you remember. Look, it is important to be a great professional wrestler, especially now in 2020. bell to bell. It's never been more important. But I would argue the most important thing is having a defined personality that people can

grab onto. Like right now, there are going to be people that are watching this who might not know who I am. Sorry, you live under a rock, but who might not know who I am, right? But they're enthralled now. I mean, I'm a polarizing guy and I'm quite handsome. So they're in. You know what? I like this. You brought up stone cold. Let's do a little word association. Absolutely. I will do. I'll throw. out a name, you give me an instant word that you think of. Oh, I might get in trouble, but let's see. Let's see what happened.

Adam Cole. Babeay. Rick Flair. Woo! Big A.J. Ooh. Boom. CM Punk. Dush bag.

That's two words. Sorry. It works. It was a compound word. Bet you didn't know that. I bet you didn't think wrestlers had brain. Yeah. How you like them apples? Anyway.

The iron chic. The word jabroney comes to mind. Chris Jericho. Ayatola. He was the Ayatollah of rock and rolla. I couldn't say the whole thing. It's one word. I'm not talking about Saudi Arabia. I swear to God. Guys, we're not going to get into politics on this podcast, I promise.

Goldberg. Jew. Samoa Joe. Fat. hang man, hangman Adam Page. Pussy. And that's our word association.

That's one yet. That's one yet. Nailed it. Now, growing up, who were some of your inspirations in the wrestling game? I mean, Steve Austin's up there,

but I would also say Roddy Piper was the biggest one. Oh, Roddy. Roddy Piper, I remember the first time I saw him was kind of in a very similar situation like this. He was on a couch. It was,

I can't remember the name of it. It was like Titan Tuesdays or something like that. We're Vince McMahon, who, you know, he's, I don't know if you're aware of this, but he's kind of in some shit right now. Don't worry about it. We don't talk politics here. No politics. No politics. We don't do it.

And so Vince is sitting there and he's interviewing Roddy Piper and Roddy Piper's got his feet up and he's chewing fucking gum and he's being the biggest tool imaginable. But there was just something about him that just grabbed me by the face and pulled me in. And that's all I've ever wanted to do since I was a little kid. So you loved Rowdy, Rowdy, Routy Piper. Who are some of the guys you inspired you in the ring? Inspired me in the ring. Like moves, techniques. Yeah.

You know, one thing that would shock you, that was probably one of the first ones that I watched, actually the one that's up there on the screen. Yeah. Because he would just show up and talk so much shit. Beautiful man. Guys that inspired me specifically in the ring, I would say Chris Jericho.

I would unfortunately say CM Punk, even though now that I've met him. I would say Piper for sure in the ring as well. Rick Flair, Tully Blanchard. Another guy that people don't know is Don Morocco. I thought Don Morocco's work was absolutely stellar. Buddy Landell, Chris Candido, Adam Cole, too, if I'm being honest. And those are the main ones.

But there's so many. If you're, you'll understand this as an athlete. If you're a student of the game, of any sport, you're going to watch tape. Got it. And sometimes you have a new favorite guy every month if you're watching enough tape. Because you're, you know, you're watching snap after snap of a game. And you might, even present day, you might watch. a play over and over again and notice one different thing after watching that play that one specific

guy, whether he's on the O line, whether he's on the other side of the, you know, the fence on the D line, whether it's a wide receiver, whether it's how the quarterback's fucking playing it on the staff. It's like you're going to notice little things that'll make you fall in love with players more. You're going to notice little things that'll make you fall in love with professional wrestlers more because everybody in their own unique way is different bell to bell. but we are all we all come from the same umbrella as far as professional wrestling goes

of those same guys because we're all amalgamations of something we're all amalgamations of multiple people so Julian Edelman the professional football player do you have an amalgamation of football players that you watched and you said to yourself I want to have that tenacity I want to move that way you know 1,000% there you go nothing

I mean we always say in the national football league it's a copycat league when you sit and you watch film or when I'd sit and watch a guy even if he was a different body type than me you could take something from anyone and you got to bring it because that's what all the great ones do

they take all the techniques from all the guys and then they bring it into their own little formula and bring their twist to it and that's what makes them great. Stealing's pivotal but to me what makes people great is when you steal and make it your own like what you just said you know

but stealing and lying and cheating in my sport specifically, pivotal. We'll be right back after this quick break. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind, and now I've got my own show. So if you're tired or lazy takes, if you want honest conversations,

join us each week. Film Never Lies, available on all TSN platforms in the IHeart Radio app. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of Motor Racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into

the under-explored pockets of F-1, including the astrology of the current grid. Lewis Hamilton, Crapicorn Sun, Cancer Moon. Wouldn't you know it? Michael Schumacher is also a Capricorn Sun, Cancer Moon. The story of the sport's most consequential driver's strike. We have one man who, upon hearing that he was going to be fired, freaked out, and apparently climbed out the window of the bathroom. And was Daniel Ricardo's illustrious F-1 career, a success story, a cautionary tale,

or some combination of both? He started getting all this attention, and he maybe started to think, I'm bigger than this, I'm better, and plenty of other mishaped scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent gumster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, Roldahl, the writer who thought up Willie Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Our new podcast series,

The Secret World of Roll Doll, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans. What? And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either.

Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. I was a spy. Did you know Doll got cozy with the Roosevelt's? Played poker with Harry Truman and had a long affair with a congresswoman. And then he took his talent. to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, before writing a hit

James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids. The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to The Secret World of Roll Dahl on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. If you're trying to keep up with everything happening on and off the court, we've got you covered on the podcast, flagrant and funny. You look at the top four number one seeds.

What do you think UCLA is going to do? Break down that for me, my friend. Obviously, Yukon is the overwhelming favorite in this tournament. But I'll be honest, I think people are kind of sleeping on Texas. Experts are suggesting that UCLA is the number one challenger to Yukon and that right after that would be Texas. S&C is so deep and so thick and just about everything. It really is annoying.

So it's UCLA, Texas, South Carolina, L.C., LSU, only ones that could possibly upset Yukon. On Flagrant and Funny, we're giving our unfiltered takes on the biggest moments, the conversations everyone's having. So whether your bracket is busted or you just want the latest on the tournament, we got you. Listen to Flakron and Funny with Carrie Champion and Jamel Hill on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports.

I'm Lori Siegel, a longtime tech journalist. And consider my new podcast, mostly human. your bridge to the future. Anyone can now be an entrepreneur, anyone can build an app, and it's very empowering. Each week, I'll speak to the people building that future, and we're going to break down what all of this innovation actually means for you. What I come to realize is that when people think that they're dating these AI companion, they're actually dating the companies that create this.

We're experiencing one of the greatest tech accelerations in human history, and let's be honest, that can be messy. There's no playbook for what to do when an AI model hallucinates a story about you. But it's my belief that we should all benefit from this moment. Mostly Human will show you how. My goal is to give you the playbook, so you can benefit. The reason I say agency is because if we can give power back to people, then I think that's probably the best thing we can do for your mental health.

Listen to Mostly Human on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Now take us through specifically how you watch film. Okay. When I watch, of my own matches or just in general? Whenever you're watching film. When I'm watching film, I like to see specifically how a certain athlete approaches the match, how they approach their opponent, also how they approach the crowd. Professional wrestling, I just burped in my mouth.

Professional wrestling, excuse me. Professional wrestling is all about really timing and the art of knowing when to be still. and you know a lot of people in my sport now are very go go go and they're so concerned with the moves I have to do a cool move and I don't care about that what I care about is getting people emotionally invested and there's nobody in the sport that does it better than me and I can say that with a straight face because it's a fact we don't do feelings around here Julian yeah we do facts facts and the facts are back sell nobody pulls people in like MJF facts sell and that's a fact um so that's what I'm looking for I'm looking for I'm looking

for people who are able to emotionally puppeteer an audience. But when I go out there, what I'm most concerned with is beating the absolute shit out of my opponent. With all due respect. I mean, the goal is to hurt them. And the goal is also to do it any way I possibly can. If a ref doesn't see something,

they can't say something, right? True. So, you know, if the ref is a little bit busy because I tell them to go look over there and then all of a sudden somebody gets hit in the nuts, it is what it is. Part of the game. It's part of the game.

It's the unwritten rules. Eyes, throat, balls. It's like baseball. Winning combination. The big three. The big three. They call that the trifecta. Winning combination.

Winning combination. Now, how many times are you watching film a week? I honestly, I consume a lot of professional wrestling because I'm an active professional wrestler. And I think if you're not a student of the game, then you can never truly go down as an all-time great. Like, I study a lot of professional wrestling that people in my age group don't study. Like a lot of people in my age group are watching the stuff like probably attitude era or ruthless aggression, you know, like your John Sino's, your Batistas. But to me, I like to watch this stuff in the 70s and the 80s because people are no longer doing things bell to bell that they were doing. So it's old as new, right? And I'm a traditionalist and a minimalist at heart. And so I study a lot of old school wrestling. What's a underrated match that you've studied? The most underrated match that I've ever studied is such a hard question. You know what?

I'm going to give you a really out there answer because it's so recent. I recently was watching a world-class match with, gosh, I'm forgetting the guy's name. This is horrible. His nickname was the handsome half-breed, and I'm current, which wouldn't fly now in 2026. Gino Hernandez just came to me. And I was watching him have what we call in wrestling a squad. match. So basically he went out there and beat the holy hell out of his opponent in like two minutes straight. But it was the way in which he did it that was super unique. He would,

he hit a maneuver where he hit the guy, threw him outside of the ring. And not only did he not go out of the ring, he pretended as if he already won the match. So he throws the guy outside of the ring and he grabbed the ref and made the ref raise his arm. And the crowd obviously he starts booing the shit out of this guy because it's like false glory, right? And it's just little shit like that, like, oh, that's a great way to get people riled up or or to pop people, you know? So that would be my answer because it's the most recent random thing that I watched. That's awesome.

I love it. I mean, it's in any sport. You got to watch it. Yeah. You can't get better unless you learn it. Yeah. And what are you, who are some of your inspirations outside of the sport? Okay.

That have inspired you in your professional life. wrestling, whatever it is, someone that you liked in a different field. I mean, I'll be honest. You're in acting now. You're doing a lot of shit. So I'm going to say, even though I think he's in hot water now for a really dumb reason, Timothy Chalamay specifically, what he's been able to accomplish at such a young age, you want to talk about being a student of the game, this guy lives and breathes and dies acting clearly. And he takes his craft incredibly seriously.

And he's so young. And I feel like a kindred spirit to him in that sense, because I, in my industry, all the top guys, one of them, which you met, my good friend, Seth Rollins, fucking incredible professional wrestling. He's killing in football right now, too. He's also, yeah, great football analyst.

The guy's the man. He knows ball. You know, I didn't hear what you said. He knows ball. He also broadcasted the climbing of the tower on Netflix. Yes, I did see that. It was terrifying. He's killing it.

But a lot of the guys that are in a top position are in their 40s and 50s. This kid's doing it young. Yeah. And it's the same thing in my sport. A lot of the guys are in their 40s and 50s. I'm 29, about to be 30.

So I'm by a wide margin, to be honest, the youngest top guy in my industry right now. And that doesn't happen unless you just really dedicate your life to something. So I respect Timothy Shalameh in that sense. I also, another guy I respect specifically is Adam Sandler because Adam was a guy that was only known for his comedy chops. And people were like, you can't do a drama, right?

And then you see uncut gems, right? And you're just like, well, everybody's dumb. And I'm glad that Adam Sandler got to prove that everybody's dumb. I love Spanglish. Dude, Spanglish kicked ass. I love. Punch Drunk love. I love is a great movie.

We're talking about Punch drunk love. Yeah, yeah. All of his other shit is amazing. Click screwed me up. Click made me cry so bad. But it made you, it made you appreciate the time with your goddamn old. Yes. It sure did.

Yeah. Every time I'm like, God, you're so boring and old. I think of click and I go, you're going to die someday. Let me hear you out. Right. Exactly. I guess not to derail us, but like, I don't think I've ever been more inspired leaving a theater than Marty Supreme.

I felt like I could run through a brick line. I look on life change. He is goaded. Give him the statue this weekend, baby. You know why I really fuck with Shalameh. Because, you know, the actors and the Thespians, they're very, you know, they live in that gray world where like, oh, we're just doing this for the,

art. We're doing this because this is what we do. And I respect that. He kind of handles it like an athlete where he says, I want to be the fucking best actor of all time. Yeah. I recognize the people in the past, but I'm trying to go out there. And I've never heard an actor say that. Yeah. I've never heard an actor say, I want to be the fucking best actor because I'm going to work myself into that shit. Yeah. And like he has that, he has an athlete attitude. And for me, I'm the same exact way and I have the same exact personality and thought process when it comes to wrestling. I need to go down as the goat. I need to go down as the greatest professional wrestler,

the most complete professional wrestler ever lived. I need to be on that Mount Rushmore or pro wrestlers turn to actors. There's three of them right now. You got the rock, you got Dave DePis, Batista,

you got John Sina. Why the fuck can I be number four? And I'm gonna be. No, you've done two movies. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Happy Gilmore,

too. Violent Night 2's coming out early December. Iron Claw. I did Iron Claw. And we've got some other things I'm not legally allowed to say yet that are cooking up.

So it's exciting. Exciting time to be MJF. Now, do you work with an acting coach? I do. I do work with an acting coach. Yeah. And I work on it quite hard, frankly. And also, I get a lot of auditions. And I really love being able to jump into, like, the different skins and characters. And it's fun because, look, I've been MJF since, you know, pretty much birth.

So it's nice to like, because I have to be on 24-7 when I leave my house, it's nice to just throw on somebody else's clothes and be something entirely different. Now, when you're working with your acting coach, because I've worked with an acting coach. And I felt like it helped me in my other world. For sure. Like it helps me with my analyst shit. It helps me just think differently.

The whole like acting is a relationship. You're not saying you're lying. You're having. You're in the moment. You're in the moment with the person. It's real. You have that crossover as well. You think this help.

You think acting helps you in your wrestling? You know, to be honest, I think the reason why I exploded on the scene in pro wrestling at such an early age was because I was classically trained in theater from the time I was six all the way till I was 18. And I did that with the sole like purpose of thinking that it would help me with like promos and interviews and pro wrestling. And it does.

It really does help. Like, because pro wrestling at the end of day is kind of is like Shakespeare. It's theater in the round, you know? So it's nice. I thought it, what do you mean? It's like Shakespeare in the sense that like,

you have to be on in front of thousands of people that are surrounding you every which way. And like, if I have a microphone in my hand, as much as I fucking despise the opponent that's in front of me, at the end of the day, this is about ratings, right, Julian? This is about ratings. I've got to get as many eyes on my product as I can.

By the way, since I've won the title, just a little humble brag here, we're up in every single metric. Ticket sales, ratings, pay-per-view buys. Socials, big time, everything. We're up and everything. Fucking up and to the right. There's right, maybe.

There you go. Up into the right. And I'm proud of that. And I do think a lot of that has to do with my acting background because professional wrestling is incredibly grueling. It's incredibly hard. It's incredibly physical. It's incredibly real.

It's incredibly tough. But as we were saying, you get that leg up if you know how to talk. And the acting thing definitely comes in handy for sure. Do you ever turn off? What? MJF. I am MJF. It's my God-given name.

But you said you have to turn it on. Do you ever turn it off? No. The second I roll out of bed, I got to turn it on. You just wake up and go. I got to make money, dude. You know what I'm saying? 24-7.

There it is. I want them shekels. Give me all them shekels. You know? I do. You feel me? Perfect segue into going back into time in our next segment. Oh, fantastic.

Where we go over pop culture around where this match took place. March 5th, 2023. Not far, not too long ago. Not too long ago. But the number one movie was Creed. Number one song, Flowers by Miley Cyrus. I've listened to a million times with a nine-year-old daughter. Movies popping off.

John Wick, I mean, never mess with a man's dog. The best. Ever. You never mess with a man's dog. Scream six. Yep. I mean, is there another one? There's Scream seven right now.

Yeah. Scream seven is out now. Let me tell you, David Arquette. Love that guy. I love that guy. Officer Doofy? Yeah. He's the man.

He's the man. Cocaine Bear was out. I mean, this is. I love both those things. Yeah. Final out sells CDs for the first time since 1987. Wow. Do you have any vinals?

I do. I have a ton of vinals, actually. My wife, my life, my, my, you know, I guess wife and life, to be honest, she, she collects vinals. Yeah, what's your favorite vinyl? My favorite vinyl is probably all the, the BGs albums that we have. BG's. That's very good, baby. There you go.

Super Bowl champions, Kansas City Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes was the MVP first time. That has been done since I believe Kurt Warner. Yeah, no, you're not. the MVP and guy knows ball. The Super Bowl champions line. You know about football or something? I don't know.

A thing or two. NC2A champions, Georgia. Jaden Daniels was the MVP. What was life like for you two years ago when this match was going on? Not that much different. I was champion of the world. I was still young.

I was, you know, still hung like a horse. Things were great. And wait. I wasn't married yet, though. You weren't married. So I'm married to my wife, Alicia, to,

And we have a dog named Kuma. We adopted him. He's eight. We went, this is a funny story. I'll try to tell it as quick as I can. We wanted a young, very small dog. And we ended up leaving with a gigantic Akita that was eight years old. We were swindled.

But I'm glad we were because he's a good boy. Well, that's perfect segue into the match. Perfect segue. Does it get better than that? That was awesome. getting swindled, might as well bring up Brian Danielson. Freaking Brian Danielson, aka the American Dragon,

at the time of this fight, kind of an old boy at the time of this fight. 42, baby. He'd been around the block a handful of times, came over from the WWE couple years earlier. Four-time WWCamp. Made his AEW debut in 2021 before this. He got a little title fight action in 2022 against Page,

lost that. He was kind of running with the Blackpool Combat Club here. I mean, yeah. So to give more background on Brian. Scouting port. Give us a scouting report. Brian Danielson is considered the greatest bell to bell professional wrestler of all time by a lot of people. He's on that Mount Rushmore of that specific, not the overall package, right?

That specific thing. What's bell to bell to bell mean? Bell to bell means what you do in that squared circle when the bell rings and when the bell rings a second time is when the match is over. So we say bell to bell. Bell to bell. So he is one of the greatest technical, like in-ring technicians of all time. He is a freak athlete. He's tough as nails.

And he really put me through it that night. I mean, incredible. And again, 42 is the typical age for most top guys in my sport, honestly. It takes them a long time. No, that takes them a long time to get in. Not everyone can do it under the age of 30. And not every, by not everyone, he means only one person. and you're looking at him.

And you're, and so what's the NFL comp to Brian Danielson? That's like a Tom Brady level. Oh, he's Tom Brady. I would say he's Tom Brady. Like, that he definitely goat status.

Like he, he's like soft retired right now. I don't know if he'll ever come out of retirement. He's a sicko, so he probably will because he can never get enough, much like Brady. And he's, he's definitely,

if you talk to wrestling fans and you say, who's one of the greatest wrestlers, bell to bell, all time, goat, they'll say dragon. What annoys you the most about Danielson?

What annoys me the most about Danielson? It pissed me off that he thought I wasn't going to be able to hang in there for an hour with him. It made me genuinely angry

because he was the one that wanted to have the match because he thought it would put me at a disadvantage. Little did he know that he was dead wrong. Dead wrong. Now, Jackie,

I respect that. The one thing that bugs me about the answer. I don't, this yes. What are it doing here? The yesing? Yeah, What do we Marv Albert?

What do we Marv Albert? Call me crazy. Yeah. I say no to almost everything. If you ask me a question out of the blue, chances are I'm not saying yes. So I'm right there with you. I'm with you. I think me and you got off on the wrong foot because I'm with you, man.

It's only because you're fat. Let's hear you. Let's get on the go. There's my goat here. This better be good. This is the goat, baby. Oh my gosh. Let's get on the two-time AEW champ.

The longest running, reigning AEW champ. The current AEW champ. AEW International Champion, six-time AEW Dynamite Diamond Ring winner. You see it? You see it. You saw it in this match too, baby. I mean, the casino gauntlet champ coming into this thing, you beat Takashita,

you beat Ricky, don't call me John Starks, coming in there with the belt. Everyone's trying to take a shot at you. We don't need to fight all that much coming into this thing. Two times leading up to it, ready to roll, made Danielson run through the gauntlet, leading up to this bad boy. And of course, we got to talk about the signature moves.

You got the salt to the earth. you got the heat seeker, all of those. I mean, the Hebrew hunk for a reason, baby. He got them what I need to say. Did he get it right? He got all of it right. I'm proud of him.

What would you, what would the glaze? I was, I was, he's a glazer. He glazed me really well. He loves glazed. Do you love to glaze? I love to glaze. Yeah. Guilty is charged on the glazing.

I want to put Jack and on Tusspot. Who is more of a Hebrew hunk between these two? Oh my God. Talk about a Sophie's choice. Julian, Julian, cover your ears. My God. You can say the truth.

Yeah, yeah. I just mouthed it. He just mouthed out. I closed my eyes. He just mouthed in. I closed my eyes. Now, talking about hunkiness,

you're always dressed to the nines. At all times. This is a custom suit. Custom. Oh, yeah. Now what goes... Pinstripes right here?

Yeah. Tell the audience what they say. They say your initials. God damn right, they do. And what does your dad think about these pinstripes? What does my dad think? He likes these.

He likes those ones. He's the only pinstripes he like. So have you earned your pinstripes? I'd say so. In droves. Has Burberry ever reached out? Um, so I don't,

I don't want them to know I exist because I make a lot of money wearing this scarf. And they are either going to love that or hate that. So I've just stayed away from that situation. You feel me? I feel you. All right. That's some jiu-jit. That's a jiu-jit shit right there.

The whispering keeps them from here. Now that I'm whispering, they'll have no idea. Yeah. My lawyer said we'll be the cease and desist. There you go. Yeah. Yeah, we don't season to say. Shout out really.

How did you develop your, your finishing move? So, my finishing move. I have two. There's the heat seeker. What I do is I put their head in between my big, meaty, beautiful thighs, and I drive the top of their head

onto the mat as hard as I physically can. It's a pile driver. And then my other move, which is the salty earth because I am, as you know, Salt to the Earth. I'm a great guy. I grab the arm

and I put them in an arm bar. And do you know what an arm bar is? Yeah, let me see. Yeah, like, come over. Because you're here. So I got your shoulder basically in a cup. Under my armpit here. Oh, snipe, what's the?

It's not fun. It's not fun. I don't, I didn't want to put full pressure on it. Ow, ow. Put full pressure on it. Take an elbow off with that. For sure, for sure. I was being delicate.

But, yeah, I've broken a lot of elbows, shoulders, ligaments, tendons, bones. And I, you know, morality is the killer of careers in my profession. So if I got to break some bones, I'm going to break some bones. what's how you make ends? You have dropped to that. Man. What I do?

I'm a very quotable guy. I'm a very quotable guy. We got facts sell. We got stealing is pivotal. Morality is a killer. Oh my God. No. Bumper stickers,

this guy's very good at glazing. I like it. I see why you keep them around. So when the show's over, do you just have them follow you around and be like, oh my God, Julian, this house is beautiful.

You're such a beautiful guy. Okay. You're joking button. But this is the match his gig. That's my baby's the big bucks. There you go. There you go. Now,

would you consider yourself a baby face or a heel? Personally, I think I'm a baby face For whatever reason, fans think I'm a heel Like I said, I'm a Salt to the Earth guy I'm very likable Yeah, I don't get it I don't know why I get booed Doesn't make any sense to me

Me either The General Public is fucking salt to the earth Like it's the world that is I love it's the world we live in It's a cruel world It really is Someone's gonna be mad No matter what

Yeah, yeah Someone will be mad It's not my fault That's all I know Jack give me the game lead up Just leading up to this thing We had a lot of this in the profile of each guy here.

But basically, correct me from wrong here, MJF, but he was wanting a title shot here and you made him run the gauntlet. Pretty much, yeah. I made him wrestle a bunch of top-tier talent in all-lead wrestling. I was, again, morality is the killer of careers. I did not care about the match being fair

because he was going in like fill of energy and no energy. I wanted him as hurt and as maimed and as tired as humanly possible going into this match. Unfortunately, he is an all-time professional wrestler and he came in fresh as a daisy. I was going to say banged up shoulder, banged up knee,

throw a little kinesio tape on that thing and he was right. And honestly, he was acting as if nothing was right. He's a sick, sick, sick man, sick individual. Honestly. We'll be right back after this quick break. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind.

Now, got my own show. If you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join us each week. Film Never Lies, available on all TSN platforms in the IHeart Radio app. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than no grip. A new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1,

including the astrology of the current grid. Lewis Hamilton, Crapicorn Sun, Cancer Moon. Wouldn't you know it, Michael Schumacher is also a Capricorn Sun, Cancer Moon. The story of the sports most consequential driver strike. We have one man. upon hearing that he was going to be fired, freaked out, and apparently climbed out the window of the bathroom? And was Daniel Ricardo's illustrious F1 career,

a success story, a cautionary tale, or some combination of both? He started getting all this attention, and he maybe started to think, I'm bigger than this, I'm better, and plenty of other mishap scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

You know Roll Doll, the writer who thought up Willie Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roll Doll, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans. What? And he was really good at it.

You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's. It's true. I'm telling you. I was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelt's? Played poker with Harry Truman and had a long affair with a congresswoman. And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock,

before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids. The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to the secret world of Roll Dahl on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're trying to keep up with everything happening on and off the court, we've got you covered on the podcast, flagrant and funny. You look at the top four number one seeds. What do you think UCLA is going to do? Break down that for me, my friend.

Obviously, Yukon is the overwhelming favorite in this tournament. But I'll be honest, I think people are kind of sleeping on Texas. Experts are suggesting that UCLA is the number one. challenger to Yukon and that right after that would be Texas. S&C is so deep and so thinking just about everything. It really is annoying. So it's UCLA, Texas, South Carolina, LSU. Only ones that could possibly upset Yukon.

On Flagrant and Funny, we're giving our unfiltered takes on the biggest moments the conversations everyone's having. So whether your bracket is busted or you just want the latest on the tournament, we got you. Listen to Flakron and Funny with Carrie Champion and Jamel Hill on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. A silver 40-caliber handgun was recovered at the scene.

From IHart podcasts and Best Case Studios. This is Worshack, murder at City Hall. How could this have happened in City Hall? Somebody tell me that. July 2003, Councilman James E. Davis arrives at New York City Hall with a guest. Both men are carrying concealed weapons. and in less than 30 minutes, both of them will be dead.

Now everybody in the chambers duct. A shocking public murder. I scream, get down, get down. Those are shots. Those are shots. Get down. A charismatic politician. You know, he just bent the rules all the time. I still have a weapon, and I could shoot you. And an outsider with a secret.

He alleged he was a victim of flat down. That may or may not have been political. That may have been about. That's sex. Listen to Roershack, murder at City Hall, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh my gosh. Should we get into this match a little bit? Let's get into the match.

I mean, this is an Iron Man match. We talked to rules earlier. Whoever has the most falls within 60 minutes wins. The most pins. The most pins, pinfalls, whichever you want to refer to that. We got a scoreboard up there. We got the clock set to 60. We run this thing.

I mean, going off from the rip, there's action-packed sequences. is we don't get a pinfall to about 25 minutes in. But before that, I mean, the pops are unreal. The fans are on their feet. We get a great back and forth some slams. And then my personal favorite moment, maybe of the last decade in wrestling,

MJF is going to defend the title here. I mean, he is fighting against the goat, a sicko, a guy that looks like a member of the Manson family in there. He's sweating. I mean, blood everywhere. Into the crowd, trying to win this thing. And he takes time to give water to a thirsty kid.

He was thirsty. I mean, it was unbelievable. The kid looks very thirsty. Yes. And I was worried about him. Right. As we all worried. You know, as a parched.

Dehydration can make people, you know, they can get sick. Irritable. They could be irritable. Yep. Dude, good call. Shout out. He was parched. He was parched.

M.J.F said, dude, I got you. I know I'm in the middle of some right now, but I'm such a fucking mench. What a minch? Like I said, guys. That's a minch move. They call me the mench of the sentch in some circles. Oh my gosh. I mean, we're brawling outside the ring.

Inside the ring. sick tombstone pile driver to go through the announcer's table. Unbelievable. The elbow with the blood though, though, when you got elbowed and you start seeing blood gush out, how are we, are we like,

fuck? So, I'm going to keep it real. When blood just starts, not even dripping, but pouring down your face, you really, you,

it's like a fight or flight situation. I went into fight mode, thank God. But I know a lot of people that when they start, leading like that in this sport, they just panic, dude. They just absolutely panic. I've seen it a thousand times. But I stayed in the pocket.

I stayed focused. I got that dog in me. I wasn't going to lose. That was real blood. That wasn't a pack. A pack of what? I don't know. You tell me.

What are you talking about? What are you talking about? What are you talking about? It looked real red. Yeah. Blood's red, dude. Is he okay? This guy's fucking crazy.

Jesus. This guy, I don't know what's going on in his goddamn head. But, Before the blood, before the flying elbow opened up our dog's forehead here. Go down 1-0. Danielson gets the first pin. Yeah, I don't want to talk about that. No, we don't talk about that.

Two-nothing. It's not about how you start. How you finish, baby. Two to two, tie it up. Go up three to two. Then that takes us to the end. That's sick sequence toward the end here. I mean, we got knees.

We got regal stretch submissions, tying it up at three. Danielson comes back, ties it. All right, whatever. Gross. gross. We don't talk about that. You don't talk about that. Uh, somehow, somehow he gets over the rope after getting stretched.

He keeps it going. Fist of Cuffs going. And then we get a heat seeker. MJF's knee. Oh, man. Heat seeker was insane. The knee was bugging. The knee was bugging.

He was bugging me out a little bit. I had hit the gentleman with a tombstone pile driver. The tombstone is what hurt the knee. Not the heat chikers. No, it's okay. It's okay. You're, you're not bright. I'm all fired.

And what happened was is I jumped off the second rope with this guy. And I dumped him on his head. But unfortunately, my left knee landed very hard on the ring mat. That's PCL right there. Dude, there you go. That could be how it all started. We were talking about it.

We were talking knees and elbows and necks before the old pod. That's how you tear that. It's usually either in a car wreck when like the dash comes in. I was basically in a car wreck. Exactly. Or if you jam your knee into the ground, that's how I tore mine. You know, what I'd like to say to all of you people viewing this, I wish you understood how much pain.

And by the way, we're not asking for you to like say sorry for it. But how much pain every athlete is for the rest of their life for us doing what you love to watch us to do. It comes with a toll. So when you go, well, why are they making millions of dollars and I'm doing the nine of us? It's because we're in pain, you schmuck. We're in pain for your entertainment. That's why. So the least our owners can do is give us millions of dollars because I'm in like a millions of dollars amount of pain.

Fair? I would say a billion. A billion? Do you think we should start asking for a billy? You know what? NFL we're starting to get there, half a billion for guys that, I don't know,

shouldn't have gotten that. Let's talk some shit. Who do you feel as, I'm just kidding. Who shouldn't be making money, Julian? Tell the people that are watching at home. I would love to play that game with my roster. Trust me.

But I get in trouble. But trust me, I have names and lots of them. But I'm getting compensated properly. I can tell you that much. And that's why is the millions of dollars of pain that we are in. Because,

you know how you spell AEW. How. MJF, baby. That wasn't great. That wasn't great. Because the letters are AEW.

It'd be one thing if it was like, if like all elite wrestling somehow had like an M and a J and an F in it, like then you'd be like, there's a joke there. It just doesn't work at all. We'll workshop it. Yeah, yeah. You got to put it in the,

notes at. So I'm beginning to realize not only do you surround yourself by ugly people, you surround yourself with dumb people so you feel smart. A lot smarter. Dude, you're fucking killing it. You can't imagine how long it is to find out. Got it all figured out. Back to the match though. Yeah, yeah. I thought our boy Danielson was, I thought he was paralyzed after that pile driver. Yeah, yeah.

If it weren't for the knee, oh my God. It's a shame he wasn't. Oh, seriously. Yeah. Oh, my God. Anyways. You agree. You agree. He pulled it. After the, uh, the, the, submission attempt, he gets, he gets our man, MJ having a crab. Say, by the bill. we're good.

Going to OT here. Oxygen guys come out. Gotta get a little breather. Got to get right for OT. This is a move here too. This is an epic move. I'd like to talk about how smart I am when he's done. Yep.

Well, you fake, take us through it. You had take us through this. He won, like he won with the... So I faked that I was exhausted. I'm a freak athlete.

I've never been tired a day in my life. So they got oxygen on your boy, right? And I'm thinking of myself while I'm wrestling the schmageege. The schmeggy schmuck, if you will. where do they put that oxygen tank? So he gets me in a Boston crab and I grab the rope and I tap

to make him think it's over. To make him think the match is over. I'm on the same. He's a big stupid dummy. And he let go of the hold because he thought he had won because he didn't realize his back was to me in this hold that I had the hold of the ropes, which means the tap outs and I'll avoid.

I then roll out of the ring. I found said oxygen tank knowing this dumb schmuggey schmuck would stick his, head out of the ring to try to pull me back in and I was low enough to the ground in which I knew the referee would not be able to see that I had hit him over the head with the oxygen tank.

And then I tapped him out like a little bitch. There you go. There you go. This trick in the, you know what? So you got to use your brain and Braun. You got to use your brain and brawn. What's your favorite weapon? My favorite weapon that I've ever used on a professional wrestler? Yeah. Probably my dynamite diamond ring. I call it kissing the ring.

They made you take it off, though, in the middle of it, didn't they? It was very upsetting. It was very upsetting. I literally, I had to think of a different way to end the match, but I did. You know, us Jews, we think on our feet very quickly in order to survive. We have to. Have to. Just historical fact. It's thousands of years.

Yep. Pyramids. There you go. We built them. We built them. No big deal. Hey. In the end, four to three. Win it. O.T. And still. And still. A.W. World Champion. Still. How many days straight?

I held the world title for a record reign of 406 days. Still going? So I lost the championship because somebody cheated. You know I wouldn't lose clean. It's literally impossible. But I've now won it back and I'm going to be defending it. By the time these people watch it, I will. I've already defended it at Revolution and I intend on winning. At crypto.

At crypto.com arena, baby. Let's go. Yep. aftermath of this bad boy, Jack. Oh, man. We talked a little bit earlier. Danielson, now in a quasi-retirement, but Samoa Joe cheated in December of 2023.

Sloppy Joe, very fat. Got his grubby hands on the belt for a little bit. Rented it for a second. Turkey Tits McGee, Samoa Joe. That's what I call him. That's Adam Saylor right there. That is. That is.

Tits-Mage. That's where you're using other people in the ring. Tipsic usage. Oh, and then August 2024, Danielson does get the AEW World Championship, but then would lose it pretty quickly to John Moxley there in October, December 2025. The belt comes back to his rightful home. MJF recaptures that thing. Had to beat three other men for it.

Yeah, crazy stuff. A lesser man could never. And now we're here, here. We're here right now. 75 days plus. I think it's time to name the match and score the game, score the match. Is this the greatest match of all time? Let's score it.

Desimals encouraged. Jules, can we stop one second? One sec. That post-game press conference was... Oh my God. We didn't talk about the press conference. Incredible. Unbelievable.

I was feeling myself. I mean... Full F-bombs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, sometimes you gotta let a motherfucker know. And you clearly let the motherfuckers know. I let it fly. That was...

It was insane. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was on crutches and everything. My knee was killing me, but, you know, there was a bunch of journalists in that room, and I just had to pop off and let everybody know who the greatest of all time's going to be. And you're looking at him,

MJF, Mac. Well, Jacob Freeman. I'm better than you and you know it. I can go on and on. Now, when you right before you go into the press conference, oh yeah. Do you take a little gander at the notes app, you get a little firepower? Are we just going straight off the dome? Straight from the hip. Straight from the hip. Oh yeah. Shooting from the hip, right off the dome. Eating pickles and everything. Eating pickles.

Favorite pickle? Um, my pickles, baby. Kailin and Kaelin, go buy them. Let's... Kailin and Kailen. Get yourself some MJF pickles. Kosher? Wow. They're kosher. All right. Let's name the game. The Iron Man match? No, it's the Iron Man match. The Iron Man match. The Devil versus the Dragon.

The San Francisco Showdown. Sudden death in San Fran. Down goes Danielson. Or do you have something in mind? I don't. You know what? I actually like the Iron Man match because it's the greatest Iron Man match of all time.

I like it. Let's score the. The game is this the greatest game of all time? Let's score it. Remember, the decimals are encouraged. This is zero to 10. 10 being the best. One being like Kyler.

Yeah. I mean, that's a good one. To be honest, it's a 10. I think we're all going to agree. It's a 10. There's nothing about it. That's not 10. It's a perfect 10.

Stakes, this is a 10 for you. This is not going to go well. All right. Stakes. How many times have you defended it at this point? That was my third defense. And it was against at that point the best, who was considered the best professional wrestler in the world?

And I was the tender age of 26. 26. I'm going to go with a nine. Jack, got a 7-5, a little low. I had a 3.9. Wow. Yeah.

Can I be honest with you? Yeah. The fat uglies, they tend to be jealous. They can't help it. You can't. I'm whispering. You can't hear me, right? You can't hear you.

All right. That guy's the fucking worst. Jesus Christ. This is his last time here, right? Nice. Are you going to keep them around? Keep them around. God bless you.

You're a fucking saint. It's not said enough. Charity. Yeah, it is. It's a mitzvah is what it is. That's what we try to do. That's what mensch men do. Mitzvahs all day long.

Good acts. There you go. For the glory of God. For the glory of God. The star power of this match. I mean, I'm in it. So I'm going to go 10. Also, Dragon is one of the most famous wrestlers of all time.

So you have MJF, one of the only professional wrestlers who was in some of the greatest comedies of all time, the most streamed comedy of all time in Happy Gilmore, too. And it was about to be in the universal theatrical release picture of Violent Night 2. I'm also a sex god.

I mean, I can go on and on. So we're going to go with, I'm going with a nine. Wow, it's a solid number. You like nine. At a 7.0. 6.5. All right.

What are we going to do? This is unreal. Do I hit him? No, yeah, yeah. Okay. It's a lawsuit. I want, listen, okay. The gameplay or how the match went to the viewer.

It's a 10. I mean, it was one of the most creative ways to win a match in the history of the sport. And I pulled it off like Houdini. I'm going to go with a 8.7. I'll allow it. Shout out, grunk. Shout out grunk. I had an 8.9.

That's awesome. Heck of a match. Oxygen tank. Come on. How do you fucking beat that? I mean, anytime guys are fight, like, regardless of what's going on, wrestling for 20 minutes is fucking hard. Yeah. When you're battling another human for fucking life.

Wild. For 68 minutes, maybe 69 minutes. In the words of R. Kelly, I was fighting for my life out there. Probably we don't, no politics on this. No politics. No politics. Also, the water breaks. MasterCard. Thank you.

I weigh, you got a drink. Liquid IV, baby. Buy yours today. It is. And the name of the match. We grade the name of the match here. That's interesting. I don't know. Again, I'm a minimalist. And I just like the idea of the Iron Man match. It just makes it very clear that if you want to watch the Iron Man match of any kind, if you want to watch this stipulation specifically,

there's been thousands of them in the history and the annals of time of my sport. I think that's cool. This is the one to watch. So I'm going to give it a 10. I'm going to give it. I'm going to give it at 8.5. We love that. I have an 8.4. We're in the same ballpark there.

I had a 5.1. What does the average come out to? Where does it land on the list? It's an 8.19. Nice. And that's going to have it be our tied for 42nd with the 2004 Eastern Conference semifinals, Pistons versus the Nets.

I'll allow it. And right above the Lakers Final versus the heat, 2020. COVID. Kings. I got something you're going to like here. Right at number 54 is the Ironman match. WrestleMania 12,

Sean Michaels, Brett Hart with an 8.04. Go back, go down. Here we go. These aren't feelings, folks. These are just facts. Right there.

Right there. They're just facts. Now, who did you have on the show when you watch that? Sean Michaels. Sean Michaels. Let me tell you something. You asked me who's an inspiration in the ring

and that's a name that I should have said. Sean Michaels is, again, when you're talking about goats, bell to bell, that's another one. He's, that's another one. He's an awesome dude, too. Yeah, I've heard nothing but great things.

He was just, he's, he's a very down-to-earth, chill dude that has merit when he speaks. Yeah, he's just a sexy boy. He's just a sexy boy. I'm not your boy, do it. Yeah. Man. The other guy, Brett Hart is whatever. He's pretty boring.

But Sean's the man. Sean's great. He's technically pretty sound, though, Brett Hart. Yeah. In the ring, bell to bell? But boring. Bell to Bell? Yeah, he's a great bell to bell.

But on the microphone? That wasn't his strong suit. No. No. He also didn't look strong in a suit. I don't know. I'm not a big Brett guy. Wait, MJ, I had a question.

Like, when we're talking about those legends, how often do those guys reach out to you? All of the time. All the time. You know what? It's actually a good question for you, Julian. When you were out there, prime of your career,

how often were you having, like, veterans of the sport that were retired Hall of Famers reaching out to you? Because to me, it's on a weekly basis. It was a lot. lot. But it also, you know, it's, when you're in it, guys that have been in it, they know that you don't have time. You don't want to be, you don't want to be bothered necessarily. You really need to focus on the task at hand. And that's the unfortunate thing about professional wrestling is

it's year round. Yeah. We don't take breaks. It's 365. We have a live show to put on every Wednesday and every Saturday, every week of the year. Every week of the year. Man, MJ, if we miss anything in this match? Oh, God, I'd say no. I think we covered just about all of it. Did we? Yeah. Everyone go check out AEW. Tune in on TBS on Wednesdays at 8 o'clock. Western time? 8. 8. Eastern. Eastern. Eastern. E.S.T. Baby. And then it's also on T&T and Max. Saturdays collision. Collision. Eight. Eastern time. EST. EST. Baby. Thank you, MJF. Thanks for having me, baby. It's been an absolute blast.

there you go right there right there there there what a match thanks again to mjf that he's he's a funny dude electric he's electric electric my new favorite wrestler yeah dude he he got lines for anything anything this guy's just sitting there pulling it m and m in it all day long for shit talking writer he's a writer get talk everything man i can't wait he i can't wait to see if he goes out on kicks butt this weekend. I might have to step in and go see that. I should. I don't know. We'll see that. I don't want to Can I bring my daughter to that? She's

nine. Yeah. Yes. She gets, maybe she'll give her some water. I was just going to say, tag. Tad Lillan, let her get off the top road, bro. You thirsty? Hey, MJF. He's thirsty, bro. Man, fun match, fun game. That was all time.

And fun guests, man. MJF, shout out. That's been another episode of games with names. Subscribe on Apple Podcast. podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast, comment a game you want us to do. And remember, rate and review. Leave us a five-star review on Spotify while you're there. Remember to follow games with names on YouTube, Instagram, X, TikTok, Facebook, and Snapchat. Leave a comment on the YouTube full episode.

We'll read the best ones in future episodes, or should I say on future episodes. Leave a message on the old hotline. That number is 424-291-2290. We'll see you guys next week. Games with names of production of IHartRadio. For more podcasts from IHartRadio, visit the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.

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