During a recent appearance on “The Wrestling Classic” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley lavished praise on fellow Long Islander Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF).
MJF and Foley previously had a meeting during which the AEW star pitched a six-week program to Foley, but those plans eventually fell through.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On if he will ever be interacting with MJF on TV: “Oh, man. It doesn’t look like it. It does not look like it, but I was just flattered. It’s pretty cool. Two Long Island guys meeting at a steakhouse. We didn’t even take a photo of the situation, but it was cool. I don’t want to tell you. It’s up to him whether he wants to share his ideas, but they were good ideas. If I could have carried it off, it could have been a really good six-week program.”
On MJF: “He’s so good and such a great pro that you know he would have lifted my game on the microphone and you know we could have probably found a way to work around my weaknesses in the ring, accentuate the positives and even if it wasn’t a great match, I bet you we could have convinced a lot of people it was a great match.”
During a recent appearance on the “Johnjay & Rich: After Words” podcast, Will Ospreay discussed the Hayabusa-themed ring gear he wore at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024.
Ospreay asked Hayabusa’s daughter for permission to wear the mask and donated the money from the sale to Hayabusa’s family.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his Hayabusa-inspired attire: “It was 2022, I really wanted to don the mask. I wanted to wear the mask because it hadn’t been donned on a wrestler in Japan for years. It was almost like, ‘We don’t want to talk about it because it brings up a bad memory.’ I sourced out where his daughter was and I found her on Instagram. I said, ‘I wrestle for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, your dad inspired me. Could I take you out to dinner?’ I took her out for lunch in Japan and I asked for her blessing to wear the mask at one of these big stages. She was honored. She was like, ‘No one talks about my dad anymore.’ Not only that, she was like, ‘Thank you so much.’”
On how he got the mask for Forbidden Door: “It got around, and the guy who originally made his mask contacted me and was like, ‘Can I please make you one Hayabusa mask to wear?’ Goosebumps. He is one of the icons when it comes to high-flying wrestling. His name is the flying assassin, there is a connection because I was the Aerial Assassin, a connection came through that. Obviously, it came from Assassin’s Creed, but Hayabusa was the Flying Assassin and I wanted to combine that and pay homage. That’s why I went to the daughter first. A lot of wrestlers now will be like, ‘Today, I’m cosplaying as this wrestler,’ and I feel there might be some dark untold truths where when you pay homage to that, it brings up bad memories. I wanted to ensure it was okay to do that. I sold the mask and all the money I made, I sent over to the family.”
