"He was one of the first people I saw" - Tony Khan on how he discovered top AEW star

AEW president Tony Khan has revealed that it was during his scouting sessions before All Elite Wrestling began where he discovered now top star MJF.

Khan had eyes all over the wrestling world in the summer of 2018 before AEW was born, eyeing up potential talent he could poach to be a part of his fresh new idea.

This probably won’t be the last time @A_Train_92 is called an A-hole during an interview. Here’s a clip of @The_MJF after Fyter Fest discussing his thoughts about @theAdamPage being the fastest rising star in @AEWrestling.

Be on the lookout for the full interview tomorrow. https://t.co/GTvJV3GCN9

Khan beat a number of companies to Maxwell Jacob Friedman's signature in 2019, and when speaking to Freddie Prinze Jr. on the Wrestling With Freddie podcast, the AEW president revealed MJF was one of the first talents he had his eye on.

"The way I found him was on MLW, I was watching a ton of wrestling and a lot of other people liked him too. Like when I started talking to Cody [Rhodes] and he was a name that Cody brought up and felt would be great. But in my scouting he was one of the first people I saw," Khan said. [31:41-31:56].

Since signing for AEW in 2019, MJF has had multiple rivalries that could be considered some of the greatest in the company's history. His most famous feuds include Cody Rhodes, Chris Jericho and CM Punk.

Tony Khan and MJF recently had a falling out

Maxwell Jacob Friedman was recently a guest on Ariel Helwani's YouTube channel for a lengthy and in-depth interview that covered many different topics. One that caught the attention of many fans was MJF's contract situation.

MJF talked about how his contract was up in 2024, and that he was in the business of making money rather than being loyal to a single company. After the interview, there were reports that MJF and the AEW president had a "heated discussion".

"I know MJF is frustrated about his contract. Wants to be paid more and that's just the long and short of it.

There are a lot of people who have come in after him that are getting paid way more”

- Sean Ross Sapp
(via @FightfulSelect) https://t.co/hoo4gLwoAS

The reason for the tension was mainly down to the interview not being approved by the AEW media or PR team, meaning that MJF went against the grain in order to generate buzz around his name and contract situation. However, later reports claimed that the AEW star and Tony Khan were able to amicably settle the issue.

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Please credit "Wrestling With Freddie" with a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling when using quotes from this article.