Rambling about Wresting #5
A REAL MAXIMANIAC SEEKS OUT EMOTIONAL SUPPORT IN TIMES OF NEED BROTHER! (An overview of the emotional impact of (07/29/23) Collision and my feelings the supposed face-if-i-cation of MJF.)
Characters Discussed: MJF, Adam Cole, FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood), CM Punk, Sammy Guevara
Brief Mentions: Bryan Danielson, Jack Perry, Darby Allin, Roderick Strong.
I have had A LOT of issues in my life in order to fixate onto MJF. As I have referenced before, the only true MJF fan is irreparably damaged girls who, due to particular instances of bullying in high school, didn't have friends, and the few friends they had gave them emotional issues for life but anyways. I love him, but I'm sure he's lying. I don't know who he's lying to, whether himself or Adam Cole, but he is.
But then, is he? MJF, as of (07/29/23) has more or less gone face. As we all know, the last time he was near a kid, sometime in March, in his Bryan Danielson match, he dunked a cup full of water on a little dude. But he hugged a child yesterday, and they both looked into the camera and yelled, "DOUBLE CLOTHESLINE!" both of them with big smiles on their faces as Cole got into the ring. He did that. The guy who would get into screaming matches on each Wednesday about a month ago, and not to mention the several months before, hugged a kid and his companion almost every time they were on-screen together. And it sucks!
Like not in the lousy writing way, in the kind of "not going to last" way. It's all over Twitter, and it's all over here; we're all waiting for it to end. We held our breath when MJF looked at Cole (07/26/23).
You saw his expression falter just momentarily as MJF's signature look of hate and doubt flooded back in before they hugged it out, all because Cole held the world championship belt. But Collision hurt as it shone that small light of honesty onto MJF's character that we saw a little bit during the CM Punk feud. He's childish and afraid, but he hides behind that bravado we all know and love.
He was pretty nasty to FTR, specifically Dax Harwood, and don't get me wrong, it was funny, but it brings back that bravado that's been in hiding for a bit, and Cole is there for it. He knows these guys have a history, and it was brought up about The Pinnacle. (Forgive me if I don't know much about them; I have been into wrestling for a year.) But it was a bitter severance, and I am sure FTR pummeled my guy into the mat.
It's a good fight, a plain and straightforward grudge match, as they treat Cole with some semblance of decency but go to town on Max. It's the duel of the two groups of men moving back and forth, and notably, towards the end, FTR goes to perform their signature on a downed Cole, and Max shoves him out of the way and takes it. But sadly, Dax rolls up Max, and FTR wins. Max, distraught, curls up in the corner of the ring as Cole and FTR shake hands out of respect. The two FTR members yell at the camera, showing their success and bragging that no one can do what they do.
Max shows his true nature of weakness. In his mind, he finally had a friend who he could show off to. He could win the belts and finally have someone who wants to be around him. And by losing, he thinks it's over. He broke down and sat in the corner distraught, and with a reddened face, he yelled out to Cole,
"I BLEW IT! I BLEW IT! I BLEW IT!"
His voice falters and quakes, but Cole puts his hand on Max's forearm and looks him right in the eye, and yells back,
"WE BLEW IT! WE BLEW IT! DON'T FORGET THIS-"
The referee slides the world championship belt over to Cole, hands Max the belt, and puts it on his lap. Cole reassures him he has nothing to be ashamed of for losing a match. Max yells back that he lost the match, and Cole holds him by the shoulder and tells him,
"It's okay." He reassured him once more that he was the world champion and told him, "I love you." with a pat on the shoulder, he turned away to get the crowd's approval. Max doesn't make eye contact with him most of the time as his face is red and wet with sweat; there is a specific sheen to his under eyes which make it look like he started crying, a nice indirect touch, as he stands with a quivering lip. He holds the belt preparing to strike the supposedly unassuming Cole. Who is well aware of what he's doing. Cole puts his hands on his hips and shakes his head in disappointment voicing that he knew it would happen. He opens his arms and, without turning around, and says,
"Do what you gotta to do. Just do it then Max."
Accepting the anger and sadness so commonly expressed by Max in defeat, and honestly, reminding me of this, but that's not important. What's important is Cole expects it and waits, but the flustered Max throws the belt to the side. Cole turns around, and Max shakes his head, saying he can't do it. Cole is shocked and repeats Max in the form of a question before he quickly steps over to hug the distraught Max.
That hurt. That hurt a lot because we all know about Max's usual intentions. We know how weak he is because we saw him openly shed tears in front of CM Punk in both situations where he confessed how Punk inspired him, and when he hugged Punk after he opened his arms to him, we know what happened after that hug. We know how he was with Sammy Guevara with the matching jackets, theme mashup, and hugs. But this time, he allowed himself to be hugged; he was filled with that same anger he holds against all his idols and supposed friends, but he dropped the belt on the ground and let Cole hug him. That's what he let him do; every betrayal and lie towards the other party (Punk and Sammy) was all his initiative; he chose Sammy to turn against Darby Allin and Jack Perry, and he opened up to the audience to lure in Punk. But Cole has been the one more or less in control here. He takes Max out to the gym and restaurants, and he invites Max to play games with him and do advertisements with him; he's the one who hugs Max instead of Max grabbing him as he did with Sammy.
And I'm almost sure Cole might be doing the turning if anything happens. It's highly theorized because Max is too earnest for his usual character, and people are typically 50/50 on who will turn on who. Because that's good writing, you don't know what's going to happen because you're just too invested in the fact that your boy has a friend. But, like all, unable to trust other people anti-social cave monsters (like me), I think Cole will turn, and it will only make MJF worse. When or if Cole turns on him, Max will crash and burn hard because he's allowing himself to be earnestly vulnerable, and he's not using his already vulnerable nature for his own gain because Cole is bringing it out of him naturally, like an actual friend. But the idea of him turning against Max is also good because he revealed the true nature of MJF to the people, and by doing that, it lets in even worse characters to mess with him *cough cough* Punk and Roderick Strong *cough cough*
But it's so good to see him have something that doesn't, for now, appear to be fake. They, as the characters, have a strong friendship because Cole understands Max's true nature. And once that goes down the toilet, I'm sure we'll be left with an emotionally distant and violent MJF who cannot trust anyone. Locking away that kindness behind the heel he always has been.
The character of Max hides behind the monster of MJF. As I have stated here, he wants his idols and rivals to picture that sad teen/young adult alone in his room, watching his favorite wrestler destroy the competition in the ring. And Cole is well aware of that because, as we have seen throughout the bits, they have attempted to bond together to great success. He was ready to work out with someone and spot Cole even though they had just argued the previous week, he showed off in front of Cole when they were at the bar, and he was honestly open yet still hesitant to play games with Cole but confesses his deep-seated reason of why he doesn't like games. And after that, they're inseparable as they eat together, match their gear, and hug as if they've been friends since the beginning. We're seeing the honest Max character, the fun-loving, still kind of an asshole guy who loves to get assists in the ring by someone willing to help him. After every loss, he still stomps his feet and curls up into a ball, but that's part of his charm. This is as open as he can get before Punk or Strong intervenes and mess it up for everybody because we know that's coming, too, after the fake championship reveal. And hopefully, Max and Cole can remain side by side against the inevitable rematch with Punk.