After more than three months away, MJF made his return to AEW tonight at All Out, winning the Casino Ladder match for a future World Title shot and setting up a renewed feud against new World Champ CM Punk.
On the opening match of the main PPV, the Casino Ladder match, Stokely Hathaway’s stable ran in and attacked everyone in the match and grabbed the casino chip. The “joker” entrant then came down, dressed in a devil mask as the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” played. Stokely Hathaway handed the chip to the mystery man, giving him the victory and a future shot at the world title.
The mystery man (later revealed to be MJF) teased unmasking himself, but he didn’t, and walked back down the ramp.
Who is this Joker?? Order #AEWAllOut LIVE on PPV right now on major providers, @BleacherReport, intl @FiteTV+@ppv_com pic.twitter.com/64YePbDJIh
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) September 5, 2022
After the main event, where CM Punk defeated Jon Moxley to regain the AEW World Championship, the lights went out and audio of a Tony Khan “voicemail” to MJF began to play.
“So it’s been a few months now and your continuous, unexcused extended absence is hurting the company, and it’s definitely hurting the fans,” Khan said in the voicemail. “And I know you don’t care about the fans at all, but I do. So if you will show up at All Out, I am willing to swallow a very bitter pill for the sake of the fans. I’ll put you in the Casino Ladder Match, I won’t force you to sign an extension and I will pay you [bleep] dollars. But you have to show up at All Out. This is my final offer, and you’re not gonna get a better one.”
A clip of CM Punk from ROH saying, “The greatest thing the devil ever did was making people believe he didn’t exist” then played.
The man in the devil mask then showed up on screen and unmasked, revealing himself to be MJF.
“And I am the devil himself,” MJF said.
MJF’s theme hit in the arena and he walked out onto the ramp to a monstrous pop from the Chicago crowd. He stared down CM Punk in the ring and signaled that he was coming for Punk’s World Championship.
👀👀👀!!!
Order #AEWAllOut LIVE on PPV on major providers, @BleacherReport, intl @FiteTV+@ppv_com pic.twitter.com/jX7LDk4XSJ— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) September 5, 2022
Well, the devil is back.#AEWAllOut pic.twitter.com/miYxhFZUQG
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) September 5, 2022
MJF has been away from AEW since the Dynamite after Double or Nothing on June 1.