BETTER THAN YOU

UNDER CONSTRUCTION (these will be elaborated upon later)

Dynamite 3/9/22

Watch here. The Dynamite directly following Revolution

CM Punk leaves the company

This stupid old man gets his dumb ass fired! Basically he got into real-life beef with Jack Perry based on a joke Jack made about using real glass in stunts. This escalated and Punk ended up shoot punching him in the face which led to him leaving the company.

MJF's first title run

MJF's short-lived run as AEW Men's World Champion

CM Punk returns to WWE

Despite his earlier tensions with the company, Punk goes back to WWE. Has some really cool stories with Drew Mcintyre and Seth Rollins

Raw 10/6/25

CM Punk says MJF's catchphrase on Monday Night Raw for literally no reason and I lose my mind

Saturday Night Main Event 11/1/25

CM Punk wins the Men's World Heavyweight Championship at Saturday Night Main Event

MJF's second title run

MJF wins the AEW Men's World Championship at World's End 2025

Revolution 2026

MJF defends the World Title against Hangman Adam Page in Revolution's main event, a Texas Death Match. Around halfway through the match, Hangman pulls out a pair of chained together dog collars, and attaches them to him and MJF. MJF comes out with the victory but there is so much more to it. Here's a long as hell history lesson on a bunch of shit.

AEW was founded by The Elite, a group that wrestled in Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. The Elite (at the time, they've had a lot of shifting members throughout the years) consisted of Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson), Hangman Adam Page, and Cody Rhodes. The Elite (and their era of Bullet Club) have probably my favorite story in all of professional wrestling, and I encourage reading this post about that story, which centers around the Golden Lovers (Kenny and Kota Ibushi). It's way too long to get into here but it's phenomenal.

The first major AEW event was Double or Nothing 2019, which included a Casino Battle Royale for who would get the first AEW Men's World Championship. The final two competitors were Hangman and MJF, and Hangman wins, becoming the first AEW Men's World Champion. Hangman is considered the "main character of AEW" for this reason, but both him and MJF are kind of poster boys for the promotion. MJF is super ride or die for AEW and is always talking it up over WWE (which he is entirely right about btw). This event cemented the way in which Hangman and MJF would have perpetually intertwined narratives.

I am not incredibly well versed in all of Hangman's history aside from his current stories and his involvement with The Elite/Bullet Club, but one other storyline of his that I am incredibly familiar with is his long rivalry with Swerve Strickland, which took place in 2023-2024. Here is a long compilation video that shows everything, but the basic beats are this. Swerve and Hangman had a long feud that was somewhat centered around the world title, but was more personal than anything. Swerve felt like Hangman didn't deserve the success that he got, and basically tormented and stalked him for months. This led to a generational heel run from Hangman, who forsook his morals and let his violent obsession with Swerve consume his life. Swerve broke into Hangman's house and threatened his infant son, Hangman responded by burning down Swerve's childhood home. They had a Texas Death Match that Swerve won (the only person to beat him in Texas Death until Revolution 2026), and then they had a Unsanctioned Lights Out Steel Cage Match that Hangman won. Both are absolutely worth a watch, they're bloody and violent and homoerotic and insane. Hangman later, at All In 2025, had a Texas Death Match against the then-title holder, Jon Moxley. I can't even explain everything that happens in this match because it's so insane and long and convoluted, but the important thing is this. Swerve shows up at the end, and instead of attacking Hangman, as one would think he would, he hands Hangman a chain, his signature weapon that he uses to hang his opponents over the ropes. Hangman hangs Mox, and wins the match, and the title. It's insane. And it begins a weird sort of friendship/truce between the two of them that to this day (early 2026) remains. Important notes for going into the MJF match: Hangman's thing is hanging people with a chain, and Swerve's the only person who's ever beat him in Texas Death.

Now we have to talk about Cody Rhodes. Cody was one of the founders of AEW with the rest of The Elite (though his prior kayfabe tension with The Elite cannot be overstated. Get into Evil Bisexual Cody Rhodes ASAP). However, in 2022, he left the company (for still unknown reasons) and re-signed with WWE. During his AEW run, though, Cody took on MJF as a sort of protege, which of course ended with MJF turning on him, making it so he couldn't win the title. MJF only let Cody have a match with him if he took ten lashes with a belt (which he did) and that if MJF beat him (which he did) he could never challenge for the title ever again. That part is the important note to take from this part of the story.

After MJF won the title at World's End, Hangman quickly became the number one contender for the belt. Hangman wanted the match to be special, but MJF just wanted a normal wrestling match. In order to get him to agree to a special match, Hangman offered up the Cody Stipulation: if MJF beat him, he would never challenge for the title again. This obviously got MJF interested, and he agreed. MJF cheated at the coin flip for who gets to decide the type of match, but he got caught, which meant that Hangman automatically got to decide. He chose Texas Death.

The death match itself is so full of callbacks and history. Several spots (ex. Hangman stapling paper to MJF's face, MJF sticking a syringe through Hangman's cheek, etc) are references to the Strickpage matches, and the whole thing is very reminiscent of "Hangman going sicko mode and abandoning all his morals." I can't get into all the themes and stuff here because this is a CMJF shrine but it's a really good match. The BIG thing that happens is at one moment, while MJF is dazed, Hangman goes beneath the ring and pulls out a chain from a small bag. It just looks like a normal chain, which would be normal for Hangman, until we see that there are two dog collars attached to the end of it. While MJF is dazed, Hangman attaches the collars with a big smile on his face. Immediately, commentary starts talking about how nearly exactly four years ago, at Revolution 2022, MJF had his dog collar match. They don't mention Punk by name (idk if they can), but he's obviously implied.

As soon as MJF realizes that the collar is around his neck, he panics, and says "not again, not again!" and tries to run away. The rest of the match, they have the dog collars on (doing some of the craziest spots everrr) and the ghost of MJF's past is haunting him. It also gets really sexual but that's kind of obvious. The match ends with MJF winning, by hanging Hangman over the ropes until he passes out. It's incredibly poetic for Hangman to be defeated by his own signature move, and for MJF to overcome his past by winning a dog collar match, when he lost last time. As of me writing this (day after Revolution 26), we don't know how Hangman is going to react to not being able to challenge for the title anymore, but the important thing is the match itself. CMJF in the big 26.