I don't understand MJF's plan.

[Deleted]

So Max spent six months hanging out with Jericho so that he could drive a wedge in between the Inner Circle, entirely with the endgame of giving them a common opponent to get them back on the same page (and even then he only actually managed to flip one of the five), all the while covertly building a faction that already existed anyway. And what was his plan if he and Jericho had won the tag titles?

All this while also aligning with the one guy in the company who might lead him to have to hang out with Lacey Evans.

[Dub H]

The idea is distract then with his shenanigans and chaos while he got the pinnacle on the same page.

Basically dont let then kill the stable while it is still forming,intimidating then or trying to "steal" one of then.

Plus if he managed to actually break up someone,that is a plus.

[Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby]

I think it would have been better if he had said that he figured the Inner Circle members siding with him could be a nice bonus, but that he didn't need it. He's basically bragging about putting one over on the audience, but like...there isn't a lot of visible benefit to him except that he was able to challenge for the tag titles off the back of his Inner Circle association. (He could have done that with Wardlow, even.)

Kind of a major detriment to the Inner Circle stuff being very...contained? If MJF had, say, defeated a rival, or otherwise done anything external to the Inner Circle, it would feel like he got more out of it. Instead, the entire Inner Circle drama played out mostly among themselves with other wrestlers as occasional props.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

I feel like MJF wants to kill the Inner Circle himself with his group. He spent six months studying and being close with the group, to seemingly make his own group better and make sure what was happening with Inner Circle doesn't happen to Pinnacle.

Pretty sure he knew in the end they would never turn on Jericho or something would happen, either way, his group got the big last laugh... until Inner Circle comes back anyway, then we have a war.

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

I think it makes sense MJF would want to pull a Lindsay Lohan from Mean Girls on the inner circle. Fits his character. He managed to derail Sammy and the Circles relationships. He builds a backup cause IC have been mainly doubtful of him the whole time. Back up plan makes sense. If he’d won the tag titles, he might have continued to milk things but since they lost, that might have been the determining factor in imploding things.

A “I would have taken you Inner Circle lapdogs (P&P and Hager) in but there’s no room for scraps” line could have helped make sense of it.

[Allie Kitsune]

I'm still having trouble figuring out why people so much older than MJF want to be his goon henchmen.

[sportatorium]

He really should have explained that he always had these guys at the ready & they would have waited out the Inner circle & destroyed them little by little or something like that. The overall current explanation is a bit convoluted.

[Wardlow on Wardlow 54]

I said it in the Dynamite thread last night, but MJF and Wardlow are not a good a fit with Tully, FTR and Spears. It feels like they wanted Tully managing a Horsemen-esque stable, but also needed to give MJF backup to go against The Inner Circle, so they just said the hell with it and through them all together. I mean, it's not a terrible stable, but it just doesn't really work for me, especially since, in theory, MJF should be low man on the totem pole, since the others were already a faction without him and Wardlow.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Mar 18, 2021 20:28:29 GMT -5 Wardlow on Wardlow 54 said:

I said it in the Dynamite thread last night, but MJF and Wardlow are not a good a fit with Tully, FTR and Spears. It feels like they wanted Tully managing a Horsemen-esque stable, but also needed to give MJF backup to go against The Inner Circle, so they just said the hell with it and through them all together. I mean, it's not a terrible stable, but it just doesn't really work for me, especially since, in theory, MJF should be low man on the totem pole, since the others were already a faction without him and Wardlow.

They had planetd seeds for this for a long time. MJF had a good relationship with Spears after MJF turned on Cody and they would gamble together on some Dynamites. MJF would comment and talk to FTR on socials a lot and seemed to think quite highly of them. It was subtle stuff but the fact they're all together now adds up to me

And idk about you but I think Tully could be fun with Wardlow... Wardlow is fine on the stick but Tully can probably sell him all the more.

[Deleted]

Mar 18, 2021 20:28:29 GMT -5 Wardlow on Wardlow 54 said:

I said it in the Dynamite thread last night, but MJF and Wardlow are not a good a fit with Tully, FTR and Spears. It feels like they wanted Tully managing a Horsemen-esque stable, but also needed to give MJF backup to go against The Inner Circle, so they just said the hell with it and through them all together. I mean, it's not a terrible stable, but it just doesn't really work for me, especially since, in theory, MJF should be low man on the totem pole, since the others were already a faction without him and Wardlow.

There's a decent basis for it but they need to call back to it. It feels like they were positioning to do this when MJF was talking himself up as this real old-school technical wrestler during the Moxley feud, but since then he's fallen away from that so the connection isn't really there for it now.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Mar 18, 2021 20:41:01 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Mar 18, 2021 20:28:29 GMT -5 Wardlow on Wardlow 54 said:

I said it in the Dynamite thread last night, but MJF and Wardlow are not a good a fit with Tully, FTR and Spears. It feels like they wanted Tully managing a Horsemen-esque stable, but also needed to give MJF backup to go against The Inner Circle, so they just said the hell with it and through them all together. I mean, it's not a terrible stable, but it just doesn't really work for me, especially since, in theory, MJF should be low man on the totem pole, since the others were already a faction without him and Wardlow.

There's a decent basis for it but they need to call back to it. It feels like they were positioning to do this when MJF was talking himself up as this real old-school technical wrestler during the Moxley feud, but since then he's fallen away from that so the connection isn't really there for it now.

Makes sense since that's when he began the whole Inner Circle Plan, so there is basis to call back to it if they so choose. Excalibur did already make reference on commentary to how Spears and MJF were close when the pandemic era began, so they definitely are trying to show the groundwork.

[Urethra Franklin]

Mar 18, 2021 20:43:47 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

Mar 18, 2021 20:41:01 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

There's a decent basis for it but they need to call back to it. It feels like they were positioning to do this when MJF was talking himself up as this real old-school technical wrestler during the Moxley feud, but since then he's fallen away from that so the connection isn't really there for it now.

Makes sense since that's when he began the whole Inner Circle Plan, so there is basis to call back to it if they so choose. Excalibur did already make reference on commentary to how Spears and MJF were close when the pandemic era began, so they definitely are trying to show the groundwork.

I just wonder if Spears isn’t going to get lost in the shuffle here.

He’s the one guy without a defined role and that says to me he’s likely to be the group’s designated job guy.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Mar 18, 2021 20:54:59 GMT -5 Urethra Franklin said:

Mar 18, 2021 20:43:47 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

Makes sense since that's when he began the whole Inner Circle Plan, so there is basis to call back to it if they so choose. Excalibur did already make reference on commentary to how Spears and MJF were close when the pandemic era began, so they definitely are trying to show the groundwork.

I just wonder if Spears isn’t going to get lost in the shuffle here.

He’s the one guy without a defined role and that says to me he’s likely to be the group’s designated job guy.

That's a fine role for him. He's gonna be the guy in matches tha can take a fall more than others, but he's been pegged as the veteran of the group with over 15 years wrestling experience. So I am sure he's gonna be doing some stuff, it's more than what he'd been doing for awhile here.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Mar 18, 2021 20:03:35 GMT -5 Allie Kitsune said:

I'm still having trouble figuring out why people so much older than MJF want to be his goon henchmen.

Because MJF is filthy rich, that's why. Which one of the six paid for that private jet, you think?

MJF being so good in the ring that he's wrestled for the world title in a flagship PPV before age 25 doesn't hurt either, because they can ride those coattails for the rest of their careers if they play their cards right.

[Bad Moon]

I think he originally wanted to take the group over from within and when he figured out he couldn't, he went and formed his own group out of sour grapes. Except for Wardlow and Hager, every single one of his guys is a huge step down from their equivalent opposite in the IC.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Mar 19, 2021 5:25:54 GMT -5 Bad Moon said:

I think he originally wanted to take the group over from within and when he figured out he couldn't, he went and formed his own group out of sour grapes. Except for Wardlow and Hager, every single one of his guys is a huge step down from their equivalent opposite in the IC.

FTR being a downgrade from PnP is debatable at best, considering FTR won the AEW Tag Titles within a few months of their debut, whereas PnP have never been able to stay in the rankings consistently enough to get a real shot at the gold.

[Malibu Albino]

I think he needs to explain this part more, but it seemed like his plan all along was to cause in-fighting between the Inner Circle so that the group he was actually forming could take their place as the top faction in AEW. Of course, due to it being wrestling this plan probably won’t work the way MJF expects it to.

[Allie Kitsune]

Mar 19, 2021 7:42:02 GMT -5 Malibu Albino said:

I think he needs to explain this part more, but it seemed like his plan all along was to cause in-fighting between the Inner Circle so that the group he was actually forming could take their place as the top faction in AEW. Of course, due to it being wrestling this plan probably won’t work the way MJF expects it to.

It also doesn't help that there is absolutely ZERO foreshadowing that FTR, Spears, and Tully got together previously because of MJF. Or alternatively, zero foreshadowing that they, as a pre-existing faction, were in negotiations to become his underlings.

[toodarkmark]

The point was MJF wanted to make Jericho look stupid and take his spot in the industry. He made friends with Spears gambling on matches, and it led to him meeting everyone else. Tully took a liking to him. Now, you have stories that will happen out of this. If everything isn't revealed from day one, it's revealed over time. But the point is to give matches purpose, and that's what they're doing.

[smokinvokoun86]

One thing I’m wondering is what if rest of the Inner Circle turned on Jericho. Because I feel like even if they did, MJF would have stabbed them in the back too. Because one way of killing the whole group is having them turn on Jericho, thinking MJF is the new leader and then The Pinnacle lay waste to what’s left of the IC. Which would have killed the group.