AEW world champ MJF suffered knee injury during title defense in Richmond

AEW world champ MJF hyperextended his knee during his successful title defense in Richmond on Wednesday’s “Dynamite,” and according to Bryan Alvarez at F4WOnline, company officials are reduced, at the moment, to “hoping it’s not serious.”

The news first broke about the injury from a social media post by Beyond Wrestling, the indy company that was supposed to have MJF on a card for Friday night to defend the AEW title against its homegrown star, Bobby Orlando.

Beyond Wrestling said in the post that MJF had not been “medically cleared to travel or compete,” and would be unable to attend the show in Cranston, Rhode Island.

Having watched the “Dynamite” match, in which MJF was defending the AEW world title against Rush, the injury seemed to take place during a floor spot, which had MJF deliver a tombstone piledriver to Rush on an upturned table on the floor.

MJF was limping noticeably after the spot after it appeared that he hit his right knee on one of the support arms of the table.

It can be hard to tell with a guy at the level of MJF if they’re selling or legit injured, and to his credit, he finished out the match and got the win by submission with a stepover crossface/hammerlock combination, then continued with a preplanned post-match angle that involved a run-in by Mark Briscoe and members of The Conglomeration.

An interview segment later in the show had MJF talking with Renee Paquette from a cold tub, which at the time looked to be part of the selling of the intensity of the match with Rush, but now could have well been a treatment for the knee.

In character, MJF addressed Paquette’s question about Briscoe demanding a title shot with his usual snark:

“Color me awfully shocked that that hick Mark Briscoe wants a shot at glory. No match for you, you bumpkin.”