"Pagel King" Steven Friedman on MJF's success, Bedrock Bakers' origins, his favorites in AEW & more (Exclusive)
Undeniably the fastest, youngest rising star in professional wrestling today, Maxwell Jacob Friedman -- MJF, for short -- has accomplished more within the first five years of his career than most other wrestlers will accomplish within their entire wrestling careers.
A title-holder within multiple wrestling companies prior to his signing with All Elite Wrestling, the AEW star has already worked alongside the likes of main event talent like Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes, and Diamond Dallas Page.
But most top-tier athletes you will encounter had a support system that helped them get to where they are, and MJF is no different. Parents Steven and Nina Friedman of the Long Island, New York suburb of Plainview were supportive of MJF's wrestling endeavors from the get-go. Steven Friedman also happens to be an avid cyclist following years of competitive sports, in addition to "The Pagel King" founding the nutritionally-sound Bedrock Bakers.
What is a pagel, you ask? Imagine a New York-style bagel, only paleo-friendly and gluten-free. It is made with cassava flour, rather than a traditional bread flour with gluten. For the Sportskeeda readers not based on or around Long Island, said pagels can be ordered online through the Bedrock Bakers website.
In the words of WWE Hall Of Famer Diamond Dallas Page, when directly asked for a comment about Bedrock Bakers' pagels: "Pagels are f'n amazing. Definitely a great gateway into eating Non-GMO and gluten-free, which I highly recommend."
I had the pleasure of speaking with Steven Friedman by phone on May 28, 2020, not only about Bedrock Bakers and pagels, but also the past, present and future of MJF. Audio from the conversation is embedded below, while part of the interview has been exclusively transcribed for Sportskeeda.
On what led to him becoming "The Pagel King"
Steven Friedman: "We went on a family vacation, the five of us, to St. Lucia. I discovered cassava flour, which was the key ingredient to the pagel. We came back and I started messing around with bread recipes. As a Jew from Long Island, I said, [since starting a paleo-style diet] 'Man, I miss a good bagel.' Trial and error through many, many years, we have the pagel as it is in its current form."
On whether he has tried DDPY yet, as someone followed on Instagram by Diamond Dallas Page
Steven Friedman: "Not yet. I used to belong, prior to the lockdown, to Lifetime [Fitness] over in Syosset [New York]. They have a great yoga program. So the combination of CrossFit and yoga is great for me. Yoga, aside from the flexibility, was good for my mental state."
On whether he has any favorites on the AEW roster besides MJF
Steven Friedman: I love [Chris] Jericho because anyone who can recreate themselves the way that he has, it's just awesome to watch. The fact that Max was able to hold his own in the ring with Chris, I thought was unbelievable. I was never really a fan of Goldust, but I find myself being a fan of Dustin Rhodes, because he's 50. I'm 57. He's like a peer. (laughs) I've gotten to meet a bunch of guys on the roster, and they're all great guys.
On whether it's true that MJF dropped out of college to become a full-time wrestler without his parents' permission
Steven Friedman: With the whole college story, as you know... When he came home from school after that week of not even being in a classroom, just going up there to practice football for the upcoming season. [I remember] Him showing up at two in the morning, and then having a conversation with him after the dust settled a few days later on the patio in the backyard. I looked him in the face and I was like, "Dude, we're gonna give you the same four years that we gave your sisters... Four years, you got it. We'll support you." The kid did it in two. He put 84,000 miles on his truck in a year... So now, five years later, he's a top name in the business, it's crazy, so crazy!"
On whether MJF's appreciation of professional wrestling comes from him or his wife
Steven Friedman: "No, it came from my brother-in-law. When Max was five years old, Nina's brother Alan brought over as a birthday gift some wrestling figures. He just fell in love with it... From five years old, the thousands of dollars that [mother] Nina spent at Blockbuster and Hollywood Video was just incredible...
Max was an unbelievable football player, but he wasn't a football player, and I'm a big big football fan -- [New York] Giants, just any football, college football. I got him involved in P.A.L. football at a young age, he really didn't take to it. It wasn't for him. He just wanted to be involved with wrestling. Then later, as he got a little bit older, he got back into football. But he would only watch a quarter of a game with me. He didn't really care, he wasn't a fan of the game. He would leave and go in the back room and put his DVDs in and just watch wrestling.
Right after his bar mitzvah... I thought his mania for consuming [wrestling] content was over. But I didn't realize that he was just watching it now online... He's just a student of the game, and now his profession."