AEW is getting heat for a controversial segment on Tuesday’s “Dynamite” involving world champ Maxwell Jacob Friedman, who is Jewish, and an antisemitic trope that was used to advance Friedman’s feud with former New Japan world champ Jay White.
In the segment, White’s ally, Juice Robinson, brought out a roll of quarters with Friedman’s last name written on the packaging, in a reference to MJF’s 2019 origin story, in which the champ detailed how he was subjected to antisemitic abuse by his high-school football teammates.
“For those who aren’t aware, I am Jewish – the name might have given it away – and there were no other Jewish kids on my football team,” Friedman said in the promo that aired on a 2019 episode of “AEW Dark.”
“On the first day of practice, I beat out some of the other kids who had been there a little longer than me for the middle linebacker spot, and I remember the next week a band of douchebags walked up to me, and they said, Hey Jew boy, and they threw rolls of quarters at me, and they told me to pick it up. And I was pretty floored, and it messed me up pretty bad.
“I remember just going home and bawling my eyes out,” Friedman said. “I learned that day that you have to kill the person you were born to be to be the person you want to be. So, I was never going to let myself be bullied ever again, and I made it a point to go to the gym every day, eat right and train right.”
There it is right there: the roll of quarters brought out by Robinson, a heel who has used rolls of quarters as a weapon against opponents as part of his shtick, was a callback to an antisemitic incident from Friedman’s past that the champ has cited as something that fuels his fire.
Now, of course, and for some people, this doesn’t need to be said, but for the wider audience, no, Robinson didn’t go rogue with an antisemitic trope on the Jewish world champ MJF on live TV.
The way things work in televised pro wrestling, the segment was worked out by the group involved and approved by producers and Tony Khan, the company’s founder and president, ahead of time.
It is pushing a line, no doubt, but it’s supposed to – wrestling angles work better when they feel as close to real life as possible.
This one would be about as close to the line whenever it would be brought out, but it’s getting more heat for AEW given current events – Hamas terrorists, on Saturday, launched a coordinated attack on southern Israel that has killed more than 1,000 people, wounded thousands more, and Israel is now at war in Gaza.
It’s important to note that Friedman at the least signed off on the segment, and almost certainly suggested it, as a natural next step in the storyline involving him and White, who is Friedman’s scheduled challenger at the Nov. 9 AEW “Full Gear” pay-per-view.
It’s also fair to point out that the segment made some folks more than a little uncomfortable, and while good pro wrestling angles are supposed to do that, this one might be right at the line, if it didn’t get a toe or two over.
I haven’t seen anything from the ADL addressing this yet, but then, they have a lot more on their plate right now.
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Chris Graham
