Welcome to the AEW All Out 2024 PPVPreview presented by GrapPro.com
We will be previewing all matches from the pay per view this week as they are announced.
To find all AEW All Out 2024 PPVPreview’s click here.
To find the AEW All In 2024 PPVPreview’s click here.
Maxwell Jacob Friedman versus Daniel Garcia
Of course Daniel Garcia showed up at AEW All In 2024. I was pretty confident when I predicted his involvement soon after and sure enough Maxwell Jacob Friedman, with no AEW American or International Championship, now has the returning Red Death on his tail.
When MJF returned to All Elite Wrestling it felt like he was going to try and pick up where he left off with the AEW Men’s World Championship. Unfortunately for him, he decided to crack a few new wounds while some old wounds were still open. Before MJF can ever try to make it back up the ranks to win back his AEW Men’s World Championship? He has to deal with the problem he created in Daniel Garcia.
MJF actually defended his AEW Men’s World Championship in 2023 against Daniel Garcia on AEW Dynamite in Portland. It was one of the best episodes of Dynamite in 2023 , also including matches where Sting and Darby Allin lost to The Outrunners (in my head), Keith Lee faced Samoa Joe for the ROH World Television Championship, Swerve Strickland beat Penta El Zero Miedo, and Jay White had a great match against Mark Briscoe in the main event.
When MJF returned to AEW, he had Daniel Garcia confront him in Garcia’s hometown of Buffalo. Garcia credited MJF for lighting a fire in him and for being a great champion. Garcia called that loss to MJF one of his most embarrassing moments but ended up a great motivator.
MJF would appreciate it and challenge Daniel Garcia to a match at All In at Wembley Stadium, only for Will Ospreay to steal the spotlight and tell Garcia he’d give him a match for the AEW International Championship.
It’s pretty clear that Ospreay doing this sparked the jealousy of MJF that had been running through him for years. He just spent time as a good guy only for Adam Cole to betray their friendship and basically develop a crew just to ruin his career with the Undisputed Kingdom. Max would later admit to this jealousy of Will Ospreay later in their feud.
Daniel Garcia ended up just being a victim of it all. He was giving MJF his respect. He was fine getting a title shot against Ospreay. But that jealousy in MJF led to him throwing away all the goodwill he developed in his big return and instead turned on Daniel Garcia in a brutal beating that put him on the shelf for months.
It should not be forgotten that one could have blamed MJF for Garcia losing that International Championship match, as he tried to convince Garcia to cheat to win. Ospreay said some words to Garcia and walked out. MJF picked Garcia up, hugged him, then kicked him in the balls.
MJF crushed his Dynamite Diamond Ring into Garcia’s forehead cracking him open. The same ring Daniel Garcia would steal and pawn off to make his run-in at AEW All In (I’m sure he got a little more money than just a plane ticket with the pawning. I asked The Butcher if he was planning to look for it in the Buffalo pawn shops but he didn’t give me the response I was hoping for.) before putting Garcia up on the second turnbuckle and dropping him with a tombstone.
That beatdown happened in July.
This is essentially where MJF’s jealousy and doubt comes back to haunt him. If he wasn’t so frazzled by what happened with Adam Cole, he wouldn’t have reacted the way he did. Hurt people hurt people. But it was also a revelation that Maxwell Jacob Friedman is an evil man inside and it’s always just a matter of time, no matter how much people call him their Scumbag, that he’s going to eventually be his own worst enemy as well as everyone else’s.
Even though he would capture the AEW International Championship from Will Ospreay when the two wrestled against each other on AEW Dynamite in a near one hour match and hold the championship for a month and defend it all over the world, it would be a fleeting victory as his actions all came to haunt him.
All his tauntings of Will Ospreay being unable to hit the Tiger Driver 91 only led to Ospreay doing just that on Max and it being what cost him the match. That and the realization that Daniel Garcia had returned and would be his shadow until they had this match.
Someday MJF is going to have to cross paths with Will Ospreay again. Someday MJF is going to have Adam Cole back on him for revenge. These things will be in his way before he can ever try to make a run for the AEW Men’s World Championship again. This match with Daniel Garcia at All Out is just the beginning of his misery.
This match is also a way to elevate Daniel Garcia out of the midcard, as a great match with MJF at All Out and a great feud should move him into bigger and better things. I think a Scapegoat in the main event should make sure he watches this match because I feel like Daniel Garcia might gun for that TNT Championship soon after.
MJF shouldn’t be looking to just win. He needs to try and survive.
