He’s Maxwell Jacob Friedman and now, not only is he better than you and you know it, but he’s also the first-ever Limitless Wrestling World Champion. Crowned over the weekend at Welcome to the Dance, MJF took part in a four-way match that also featured Anthony Greene, JT Dunn and Ace Romero. According to live reports from the event, the match was a show-stealer as all four men proved why they belonged in that stage, fighting to be #AndFirst.
The finish ultimately came when after hitting everyone with his Death by Elbow finisher, Dunn fell to the mat in exhaustion as MJF well, fell on top of Greene to ultimately get the pinfall. As they say in life, sometimes better lucky than good. Following his title win, Ashley Vox came out to challenge the new champ, and the match was set for May 10 at the Pinetree State Pro Wrestling Party.
https://twitter.com/Meech73/status/1104939233414967296
But to reduce MJF’s career to an idea that his success has been all luck would be a travesty and such an understatement. One of the top faces on the indie scene, a man who has become even more well known recently with his signing to All Elite Wrestling and becoming Cody‘s protege, MJF has had an incredible career thus far. And as just a four-year pro and at just 22 years old, he’s only just getting started.
A student of Pat Buck and Brian Myers (WWE‘s Curt Hawkins) at the Create-A-Pro Wrestling Academy, MJF quickly showed his potential from day one. It didn’t take long for him to find a home on the indies either as in his first year as a pro, MJF wrestled nine matches for Combat Zone Wrestling and their Dojo Wars under the ring name Pete Lightning. A chance for new wrestlers to get exposure, MJF remained with Dojo Wars, taking part in their weekly showcases until 2017, at which point he began wrestling on CZW’s regular cards. MJF quickly climbed the ladder in CZW, winning his first title with the promotion (fourth career title overall: A1 Outer Limits Champion, American Luchacore Champion and MCW Rage Television Champion) in just his third match outside of the dojo, defeating Johnny Yuma to become the Wired Champion. He lost the title to Joey Janela 154 days later only to win it back at Cage of Death 19.
Congrats man! 💎 https://t.co/0GPtOfxct4
— Cody Rhodes (@CodyRhodes) March 10, 2019
2017 was really the breakthrough year for MJF as he won his first title and five total, and worked 100 matches for the first time in his career. These were spread primarily across CZW, Alpha-1 Wrestling, Rockstar Pro Wrestling, MCW Pro Wrestling, WrestlePro, Chaotic Wrestling, Beyond Wrestling, Northeast Wrestling and Limitless Wrestling, which had just opened its doors two years prior. Additionally, MJF made his televised wrestling debut for the newly revived Major League Wrestling. But as much as 2017 was the breakthrough year, 2018 was really the breakout.
In addition to several promotions mentioned above, MJF became a regular for AAW: Professional Wrestling Redefined, IWA Mid-South, Absolute Intense Wrestling and Inspire Pro Wrestling, making his impact felt wherever he went. MJF won five titles last year, including the CZW World Heavyweight Championship, which he never lost (had to vacate due to injury) and the MLW Middleweight Championship of which he was the first, much like the title he just won, his first of 2019.
https://twitter.com/tctapes/status/1106023453876981760
Last year, MJF also competed at All In, winning his spot alongside Madison Rayne as the two were chosen in a random draw to face Flip Gordon and Brandi Rhodes at Cody’s Golden Tickets opportunity. At All In, he wrestled Matt Cross and despite the loss, clearly impressed enough to earn an AEW contract a few months later. While Double or Nothing is still a few months off, MJF has continued to work up and down the independent circuit including most notably in AAW, MLW, CW and CZW. And not to mention, he has been able to show off his personality as a guest on Being the Elite, where he’s found a way to get under just about everyone’s skin as a good heel does.
2018 was the breakout, and now, we’re in 2019, the year of Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
