Maxwell Jacob Friedman won the Men’s Casino Gauntlet at All In 2025, allowing him to have a title shot at any time he wants for the AEW Men’s World Championship.
Tony Khan had an opportunity to kill the Instashot stipulation and turn this into a contract you had to submit with a designated date. He has instead decided it would be better to ruin the concept of AEW as a sporting competition and allow people to just randomly cash in a title match because they are carrying a piece of paper around.
We know it’s in effect since Athena, the winner of the Women’s Casino Gauntlet, tried to do a cash in on Toni Storm but failed to execute it. MJF hasn’t been able to try this, likely due to the fact he’s had other issues.
Despite seeming thick as thieves at All In London, the Hurt Syndicate looks like it’s already breaking down. MVP agreed to help Adam Copeland ruin the night of FTR, which was… look I’m trying very hard to not write about my issues with All Elite Wrestling’s booking coming out of All In Texas so I don’t sound like a whiner, but boy I hated this angle. Instashot returns, Copeland sending Hurt Syndicate to be his APA, old men beating young men for midcard titles, did AEW forget what got them all of this momentum? It wasn’t booking like Bruce Pritchard, I can assure you that. Anyway.
It looks like things are already rocky for MJF and Hurt Syndicate. Out of nowhere the cohesion went from, “we tolerate him” to, “we can’t stand you” and it’s either being done to end this storyline early so Hurt Syndicate can turn babyface against FTR, or it’s being done as a ruse to trick babyfaces into thinking Max doesn’t have the help of Hurt Syndicate anymore.
Instead of going right into Max versus Hangman, it looks like Hangman Adam Page, the new AEW Men’s World Champion, is instead fighting Jon Moxley in a rematch this week on AEW Dynamite with no interference allowed. It’s possible AEW will do this so Hangman can win but be so beat up, MJF can come down to the ring for his attempted cash-in. Sigh. This also might just be their way to end the Page/Death Riders angle and allow Death Riders to move onto something else.
Delaying MJF and Hangman makes sense on two levels. The first is that the next pay per view is Forbidden Door, which is more about building interpromotional matches between AEW, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, and New Japan Pro Wrestling. While AEW has done AEW versus AEW on the show (last year it was main evented by Will Ospreay versus Swerve Strickland), and could do it here? I feel like they have a different plan, which is the second level: MJF has unfinished business.
Místico
MJF is still working his program with Místico, as their only match was on Dynamite: Grand Slam Mexico where Místico won by disqualification. During the Casino Gauntlet, it was pretty clear that MJF and Místico still need to resolve their issues in the ring.
A lot of folks theorized that with MJF obsessed with the mask of Místico, they might try to do Mask versus Hair at some point with MJF ending up bald like his Hurt Syndicate brethren. They might also be able to have MJF put up his contract without a mask stipulation at Forbidden Door, with Max winning with a lot of cheating. They can have their rubber match in CMLL, maybe at 92. Aniversario on September 19, 2025.
Either way, this conflict with Místico is going to keep MJF busy and unable to focus at all on Hangman Adam Page. You can finish this up in AEW around Forbidden Door, which does keep MJF open for All Out in Toronto. Unfortunately for Max, it isn’t just Místico he has unfinished business with.
Mark Briscoe
Max has been feuding with Mark Briscoe, constantly bringing up his fallen brother Jay Briscoe and saying that Mark hasn’t made his brother proud. He keeps pushing Mark to break his current fun loving country boy pesonality and get him to lose his cool and be the ruthless member of DEM BOYS he used to be. MJF is playing with fire, but it makes sense. Mark Briscoe is everything MJF the character could possibly hate.
Max over and over expressed how Mark isn’t a top guy. It’s his way of getting under Mark’s skin, but I do believe there’s a larger purpose. You see, Mark Briscoe and Maxwell Jacob Friedman haven’t had a singles match yet. MJF was able to steal the pin from him at the Men’s Casino Gauntlet, but the two have yet to go one on one with a referee in the ring.
MJF is telling us over and over that Mark Briscoe isn’t good enough, isn’t on his level, is a joke, and won’t ever be as good as his brother. He’s doing this to build a program. A program that I think ends up involving that contract won in the Men’s Casino Gauntlet.
My guess is that MJF has been constantly prodding and poking at Briscoe to get him angry and irrational, and will eventually try to get him to put his career on the line. But to make it even? Mark will demand the contract get put on the line as well.
It’s here, likely at All Out, or maybe WrestleDream, that MJF and Mark Briscoe will have their match. And it won’t be about giving MJF a win before going onto Hangman. It’s going to be the opposite. It’s going to be Mark Briscoe defeating Maxwell Jacob Friedman and winning the Casino Gauntlet contract.
Briscoe and Hangman Adam Page would be two babyfaces going toe to toe with the fans having to choose between seeing Briscoe prove MJF wrong or Hangman defeat a beloved babyface, but I think it would be the kind of match that would be more about showing Mark Briscoe can hang, and he is as good, and should be treated as an important member of the roster going forward even if he doesn’t wear the top gold.
I could see them doing the match either near Mark Briscoe’s hometown, or if Briscoe wins at All Out? You can have him call his shot at WrestleDream and that way the quick turnaround between the two shows isn’t as much of a problem.
No Shot Max
So if AEW takes away the Instashot from MJF, what can he do to get back onto the top?
It’s a basic story for MJF to just have his Instashot and tease it a bunch of times and maybe he cashes it in when Hangman is beaten down so he can steal an easy win. Typical, obvious MJF booking. Easy way out. No climbing a mountain. Boo this man.
But what if MJF loses everything, from the Hurt Syndicate to the Casino Gauntlet shot, and has to find a way back up the mountain with nothing to lose? What does a desperate, angry, bitter, defeated MJF look like in the AEW Men’s singles division? What lengths would Maxwell Jacob Friedman go to get a title shot at say Full Gear against Hangman Adam Page?
Understand I’m no soothsayer and I don’t have the spoilers. I thought we were heading down Another Bummer Hangman Summer and there was no way for the company to go all in on Hangman Page ever again as a babyface. But I don’t think it was an accident that MJF already tried telling Page he could beat him without cashing in his shot:
From my perspective, the best thing to do isn’t to have MJF immediately get his shot against Hangman. Winning that Casino Gauntlet was just to put the idea back into your head that MJF is no longer trying to muck it up with Jeff Jarrett or give lavish gifts to the Hurt Syndicate each week. He’s trying to be a serious title contender to face Hangman in a rematch down the road.
And down the road I think is the best way to go. Hangman Page can face the best NJPW or CMLL has to offer at Forbidden Door. You can build up a heel opponent for him at All Out. He can face Mark Briscoe at WrestleDream. Then you can hit the accelerator on Maxwell Jacob Friedman versus Hangman Adam Page, and have MJF get a shot three years since the event he won the AEW Men’s World Championship in the first place: Full Gear.
If it was up to me? That show would be booked in Long Island, New York as well. The UBS Arena for Full Gear. Maxwell Jacob Friedman versus Hangman Adam Page II. No Instashot. No unfinished business. Just the face of the company versus the villain.
Hangman said Max wasn’t going to earn his shot because he’s a gutless coward. Max is going to have to prove he isn’t a coward the same way Hangman had to prove to Jon Moxley he was worthy of becoming champion. Just don’t be surprised if the two men have a different definition of what makes someone a coward. For Page it’s confronting your problems head on. For Max it’s doing everything necessary to get what you want.
MJF won’t cash in, but MJF will get his day with the Cowboy.
