MJF Wrestles First Independent Match Since Signing With AEW In 2019

AEW World Champion MJF has famously benefitted from a reduced in-ring schedule in AEW, being presented as a special attraction who's wrestled less and less often as time has gone on. As such, he hasn't been taking any bookings to wrestle on independent shows since October 2019. For one night only this past weekend, though, that changed: On Saturday, Create A Pro Wrestling, the promotion whose school the AEW Champion broke in with, held an "MJF homecoming" show in Melville, New York that was promoted as featuring an MJF meet and greet. In actually, he wrestled an unadvertised match where he beat Leo Sparrow.

After defeating Nick Robles, Sparrow cut a promo saying that because he's a vegan, "I'm better than you...and you know it!" That brought out MJF in his wrestling gear with the AEW World Championship belt. "There's a dirty rumor about me amongst professional wrestling fans: People say I don't like to wrestle too much!" he said on the house mic. "That couldn't be further from the truth. I love to wrestle, actually!" His issue? Wrestling anywhere other than "the most magical place in the world," Long Island. So he vowed to "bash this vegan's nuts in" and the match was on, with MJF winning in about nine minutes with a LeBell Lock after a low blow.

Following the win, MJF cut a promo putting over the Create A Pro Wrestling Academy before pivoting to his AEW World Championship defense in less than two weeks at Double or Nothing: "Now let's go to Las Vegas, Nevada on May 28th, and let's prove who's the biggest, baddest pillar of them all!" In the Double or Nothing main event, MJF defends against his fellow members of the "four pillars of AEW": Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin, and "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry. It will be MJF's third defense of the title since winning it from Jon Moxley in November, having previously retained against Ricky Starks and Bryan Danielson.