I know that some people who might read this will be confused due to not understanding what “theatre in the round” is. The term theatre in the round means a stage that is surrounded on all sides by the crowd. Typically a theatrical stage has the audience on one side and they act toward that side. If an actor were to turn away from the crowd and face the back of the stage their faces are not seen. During that time they could have a small chuckle at something that happened, have a look of dread for a dropped line of dialogue that they can’t remember, or as another way to break character for a moment. However with theatre in the round, if the actor turns to face away from the crowd that they were facing the actor then find new faces starring back at him. Pro Wrestling, outside of the pandemic era, has that. Sure they have the entrance way on one side of the arena, but up to the entrance ramp fans line that area thus making it almost impossible for a character break, the time they stop being the “character” they portray and react to a situation (comical or serious) in a manner that the character might not, but the person who plays the character might.
Some wrestling characters do everything they can to remain in character any time a camera is on, and even the extreme ones try to maintain the character any time a fan is around. Wrestlier like Chris Jericho, John Cena, Cody Rhodes, and tone of others will play their character in the ring and on screen for the wrestling promotion to the nth degree, but as soon as they are in an interview with a news outlet, podcast, or any other fan based interaction that is not 100% controlled by the likes of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) or All Elite Wrestling (AEW) they stop being the chartacter and start being the himan being. Chris Jericho will stop answering as Chris Jericho and speak as Christopher Irvine, his real name and persona. Cody Rhodes will become Cody Runnels, etc. However for all the ones who split their personalities, there are the ones like Maxwell Jacbob Friedman better known as MJF. MJF no matter when will remain in character when doing any sort of interview or appearance, as was the normal in the heyday of wrestling prior to the 1990s. In those days the heel (bad guy) wrestlers would not allow themselves to be seen out of character as they thought that any semblance of not being the character they were seen as at wrestling shows or on tv would hurt the business. The term for maintaining character outside of the wrestling show is called “kayfabe”, and many of today’s wrestliers only keep kayfabe when at the shows, but ones like MJF maintain it any time they are seen with fans.
One incident with MJF that had a lot of other people outside of wrestling looking at him as some sort of mean, asshole, spoiled asshole (which is is wrestling character) was at an autograph meet and greet., The young fan and his dad wanted to get a picture with the up and coming star, and he allowed them to do so. However, at the moment it struck him that he needed to do something befitting what his character. So, in an instant he decided to flip the child and his parent off while the picture was being taken. MJF had maintained kayfave, but at the same time it made it appear that Maxwell T. Freidman was inseparable from Maxwell Jaccob Freidman that both entities were one and the same, even tho when not around the fans or cameras has been described as one of the best people to know. However in that instant, MJF was looked at in a negative light, and sure the act of flipping off the child might not look the best for the man who once preformed “You are My Sunshine” in a 2001 episode of The Rosie O’Donnell Show as a five year old prodigy. Was the the wrong thing for him to do? Maybe. Maybe it would have been better to not have taken the picture, or maybe it would have been better to do something else. However that one incident showed how far Maxwell T. Friedman would go to protect the character of MJF. With that said, one of the best things I have ever seen MJF do while maintaining character was from this past December (December 30, 2020) at the John Heuber/Brodie Lee tribute episode of AEW’s weekly tv show Dynamite. After the sudden and unexpected passing of John Heuber, who was known in the WWE as Luke Harper and as Brodie Lee in AEW and the independent wrestling scene on December 26, 2020, the staff, crew, announcers, and every involved with AEW put on a show for their fallen friend and his family. His wife Amanda and his sons 8 (now 9) year old Brodie Gorilla Heuber (named after him father and the late and great wrestler/announcer Gorilla Monsoon) and his youngest son Nolan Ryan Heuber. AEW owner president Tony Kahn had a member of Brodie Lee’s stable, “The Dark Order” in every match, and even had a 6 man tag team match that had Dark Order members of John Silver and Alex Reynolds teaming with ‘Hangman’ Adam Page against the tag team of Santana and Ortiz a.k.a. ‘Proud and Powerful’ and MJF. At the end of the match, MJF went out to Brodie Lee Jr (Bordie Gorilla), ripped the dark order mask off his head and pretend to spit on it and then tossed it to the ground as a “show of disrespect” toward the child. However, it backfired on MJF as he seemed to forget that Brodie Lee Jr’s seems to have his kendo stick around him at all times, and Jr got said Kendo Stick and clobbered seemingly suprised MJF on top of his head thus making him a non factor in the rest of the match, while Silver used Brodie Lee’s finishing move of the discus lariat (spinning clothesline) against Ortiz to pick up the tearful victory for the team. In that one moment, MJF was able to do something totally awesome for a grieving child who had just lost his father, give the fans something they wanted, and have everyone in the arena nearly in tears all while keeping up the asshole character. Not too many people could really pull that off well, keep a straight face, and not be crying in that situation… Not many people are that good as maintaining character than MJF.
While that scene was happening, there was no where for MJF to break character until he got backstage. There was no way for him to hug the child who flawlessly pulled off that shot and let the kid know until he got backstage. Well, I mean, the seats around the rng were filled with fellow AEW wrestliers, but still it would have been on camera. MJF was still showing his ‘anger’ and selling (pretending the hit hurt) the hit until he and his ‘Inner Circle’ friends were backstage where the camera were not rolling. I know that had to mean a lot of Amanda, who was married to John/Brodie for 13 years, and it had to mean the world to Brodie Jr that he got to be involved in a real meaningful way to the end of the match. However, had it been on a stage instead of tv and at a wrestling show, there would have been more ways for Maxwell to let Brodie know that the plan went off without a hitch, but as I stated. Wrestling is Theatre in the Round.
The Randomness of Random 