#mjf tactics

[purplehairsecretlair]

A beautiful thing that happened recently:

[purplehairsecretlair]

I am jubilant over last night's Texas Deathmatch, to be honest. When they first announced the stipulations I was like "wow, this is a way to get MJF to believably do a Texas Deathmatch, and potentially a huge, interesting thing they can do with Hangman, to give him some distance from the world title for a bit". But then people seemed to think they would never let Hangman be in a position where he 'couldn't' challenge for the big belt again, including people who've been watching wrestling a lot longer than me. And I started to doubt and think maybe they were just giving the title back to Hangman, pointlessly, after a just a couple of months, in the middle of building a bunch of other storylines and opponents for Max. I kept seeing things that suggested Max was keeping the belt, like indie bookings and face-offs with other wrestlers in the world title picture, but even so I had that little doubt.

But he won, and he kept the belt, and he beat Hangman in a Texas Deathmatch, and he fucked Hangman up after the Ls last year, and he's still champion \o/ And it was kind of Hangman's fault - not only did he want a TDM, and maybe fix the odds a little to get it, but he's won a lot of those matches, and never by using dog collars. He specifically used the dog collars to upset Max - because he was trying to hurt Max, not just win the match (maybe he thought that was a given). But he either didn't consider or overlooked the fact that Max has more experience in dog collar matches than him - has Hangman been in a single dog collar match? Max has been in 3 total, 1 just in AEW. Max knew how to use dog collars better than Hangman, knew the pitfalls of them, and that worked out badly for Hangman. And also because Hangman got distracted - after all the calling for the crowd's support in recent matches, he spent time playing to them rather than keeping an eye on Max, and it gave Max all the opportunity he needed. And it was a little similar to Max at World's End 2023, when he lost his world title - lots of little mistakes because he was playing to the crowd, trying to be The Face, rather than keeping his eye on his match and his opponent. Maybe in that moment, Max saw his old self in Hangman - or his desire for the audience's approval. And either hatred for that way of thinking was good motivation for him, or having come up with a way to function while denying that part of himself meant he could see the moment for what it was, in a fight rather than anything to do with the audience's approval, and take advantage. Or both.

And the callback to the Dog Collar Match was amazing, anyway. It's hard for me because I don't really want to think about CM Punk or CMJF anymore, or act like it's the most important thing about Max's character - but it was a huge moment in his career and his character, and it's good to acknowledge that as part of him rather than act like it never happened. It makes sense to acknowledge it as part of his character. To be honest - I see 'callbacks' a lot probably just because I'm trying to see them, but there have been a lot of little moments in the MJF-Hangman feud for the last year or so that have made me think about Max and Punk or Hangman and Punk. Things that might have been deliberate references. The dog collars was a big one last night, but so was 'pissing on your enemy's grave', and there've been quite a few others although they don't come to mind right now. And I think it's nice if Max and Hangman can now sort of acknowledge/deal with/process some of that stuff even though Punk left, so they can't do it directly. Maybe they can exorcise some of those demons rather than leaving it as a big gaping hole, and move on to developing their characters past that.

But anyway, mostly I'm just happy Max won and is still champ, and still has some reason to maybe interact with Joe again, and - honestly I have struggled with the writing when it comes to Hangman for months now, so I'm genuinely interested in where he might go now. Whether he sticks to the stipulation or not. If he'd won it would have felt a lot like More Of The Same to me. And it'd be nice for him and Max to have some space from each other, after all the time they've now spent feuding. Now they have a good reason to - and a good reason to feud again, and take things very personally with each other, eventually. Or maybe even to make up one day. See eye-to-eye a little, at least.

And - even when I thought Max would probably win, I really thought it might be because of outside interference. Iirc, Hangman's only ever lost one TDM before, against Swerve, and Swerve had a huge assist from other members of the Mogul Embassy to bring Hangman down. So I thought history might repeat itself - there might be a lot of people on the roster with an interest in Hangman 'never' being able to challenge for the belt again. Or pissed off over the whole 'main character' thing. Or Max might cut a deal, like he's done plenty of times before. And it'd all be legal under TDM rules. It was the Ides of March, and I know Max knows about that, I thought 23 people might rebel against Hangman being seen as the top guy and want him out of the way, including Kevin Knight or even Kenny, and he'd be like 'et tu Brutus?'. But no - Max didn't need any outside help. He didn't have any, and he didn't need any. He took Hangman down, in a Texas Deathmatch, by himself, because he's very very good at wrestling and very very good at ring tactics and very very good at biding his time and waiting for good opportunities and making the most of them. And because Hangman made stupid mistakes, thinking he could overlook Max because he's Hangman and it's a TDM. And Max is a counter-wrestler, who works on pissing people off and playing on their pride and getting them to make mistakes he can then use against them, and ohhhhhh. My baby. The king. Jacob stealing his older brother's birthright, because he's literally better. <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3 \o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/

[purplehairsecretlair]

Look at this shit:

The MJF Effect

[purplehairsecretlair]

What's that "I'm dying" song they play for Mistico?

[purplehairsecretlair]

Max with the 'protect me, squire!' energy

Okada the only one he can count on

Maybe having a team made up of 10,000 people who hate you wasn't the best play, Max

God, Roddy constantly going after Max

And then them having to hug when everyone gathered together so Takeshita had someplace to land <3

Don getting off to Roddy's wrestling was a wonderful experience

Also, that spotlight on Kyle's ass was really something

Kyle-on-Kyle action in the year of our lord 2026 <3

MJF-on-Orange action in the year of our lord 2026 <3

Takeshita getting double-teamed by Protokada, oh noooo 👀

Max getting the pin on Roddy 😍

[purplehairsecretlair]

Max did a new interview released yesterday where he revealed that the Dynamite Diamond Ring isn't a ring you have to win every year, like a belt, it's actually a ring you win each year and then get to keep forever. Which explains why he still had the ring at the World's End match, when I was wondering if he was a time traveller, or had stolen it back. But it's also the funniest retcon I've ever heard. Tony Khan produces a new diamond encrusted ring every year for the contest. Max being a 6x winner (by my count) means he actually has 6 of them. Also that Bandido gets to keep that ring forever, even if he doesn't win again, I guess.

Max should come out wearing all 6 of them. He should try to win a match using the DDR, get caught and have it taken away from him, and then just pull another one out. He should come out with his trunks BULGING with diamonds, swearing innocence to the ref.

[purplehairsecretlair]

Happiest of birthdays to youuu 😁🥳

Aaaaaaaaaahhhh oh my god what a gift! Thank you!! <3<3<3

[purplehairsecretlair]

Relief.

Honestly - I kept seeing signs that made me think Max was winning or maybe I'm insane, but they seem so determined to put Darby over I really didn't know what to expect. And now I'm just happy for Max, despite it all - when he lost the belt, it did occur to me he'd be a 3-time champ if he won it back, but I didn't realise being a 3-time champ by 30 was such a big deal. And even after he brought it up, it was like - he'd have another 9 months to possibly achieve that, even if he didn't do it in this match. But he did do it. Here it is \o/

And then he kissed me 🥰 And all of us. Killed one camera and kissed the next one, the duality of Max.