The last time Maxwell Jacob Friedman was in his hometown, he dropped the AEW World Championship to Samoa Joe. Sunday night, MJF received a hometown welcome as he made his way to face CMLL's Hechicero in the opening match of Forbidden Door 2024. When the smoke cleared out of Long Island, Friedman had his hand raised, and Hechicero was defeated.
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MJF opened Sunday's event with some classic disrespect after Hechicero accepted Friedman's handshake, MJF quickly shattered any veneer of sportsmanship by kicking Hechicero in the gut, before proceeding to reference several other wrestlers, including AEW associate Ric Flair. The two men went back and forth, with Hechicero putting the pressure on the hometown hero's shoulder several times during the match. In the end, Hechicero became the victim of a Sheer Drop Brainbuster from Friedman, who the won the match via pinfall.
Sunday's contest marked MJF's first pay-per-view appearance since World's End 2023. Now with Forbidden Door just barely in the rear-view window, MJF has All In 2024 to look forward to, assuming fellow AEW star Daniel Garcia accepts his challenge to fight at the UK-based event.
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Shortly after the match, which was brief for an AEW PPV opener, MJF took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to reveal that he had left the building almost directly afterward.
"Easy dub," MJF wrote. Grabbed some ice. Hit the pay window. Bagel boss time."
