MJF has opened up about a disturbing and bizarre moment from his time in AEW, recalling an incident where a man allegedly attempted to abduct him backstage at an event.

Speaking during an appearance on The Adam Friedland Show, MJF detailed how the situation unfolded in a way that initially seemed legitimate. According to him, a man approached backstage claiming to be a pilot and informed him that he would be flying him home to Long Island immediately after the show. Given that MJF had previously travelled on Tony Khan’s jet, the claim did not seem out of place at first. On top of that, his father had recently suffered a heart attack, making the offer feel like a thoughtful gesture from his boss.

“A pilot walks up to me and he goes ‘Mr. Friedman, I’m going to be flying you out back home after the show’s proceedings’ which to be fair I’ve flown on the jet with my boss up to that point anyway. Not to the island, well, to the island, as in Long Island, the only island that matters.”

Believing Tony Khan had arranged the flight, MJF went to personally thank him. Instead, he was met with confusion and immediate concern.

“So, I find my boss after this pilot says this to me and I knock on his door and he opens the door and he goes ‘Max!’, I go ‘Yeah, it’s me. I want you to know how much this means to me the fact that you’re trying to fly me back to my dad as soon as possible, after he had the heart attack.’ Cause he did know, my boss Tony Khan and he goes ‘What the fck are you talking about?’. And I go ‘The pilot just told me’. He goes ‘I didn’t fcking book you a jet to go back home tonight’”

Realising something was seriously wrong, MJF quickly returned with QT Marshall to confront the man. During the exchange, the individual doubled down on his claim that Tony Khan had hired him. However, when asked to provide proof, things quickly fell apart.

“So, now I go back over with one of my bosses, one of the EVPs of the company, QT Marshall. And QT goes, ‘So, who did you say hired you, again?’. He goes, ‘Tony Khan’. Tony Khan’s my boss. We go, ‘Okay, are you sure about that?’. And then security comes and they grab this guy, and QT goes, before the guy leaves, he goes ‘wait a minute, wait a minute, we’ll let you stay if you show us your pilot’s license’. And the guy, I sht you not does this (pats himself imitating his search). ‘Ah, I left it at home’. Get the fck outta here. So, then they f*cking throw, I guess they throw the guy in whatever you call the brig or whatever.”

Security detained and removed the individual, but what came next made the entire situation even more unsettling. When questioned about his intentions, the man allegedly admitted what he had planned.

“We still don’t know how he got there. We still don’t know how he got backstage. To be fair our security team has changed since then but it probably was the building security, not even AEW security fault but they asked this guy ‘What were you planning on doing?’. And he was honest he said gonna f*cking abduct me”

MJF noted that to this day, there are still no clear answers as to how the individual managed to gain backstage access in the first place. While he did not specify exactly when the incident took place, he has previously referenced the story publicly dating back to 2020.

Probably the most craziest story of the year
A fake pilot was going to abduct MJF
That’s absolutely mental 😂 pic.twitter.com/RWeOympcJL

, Ace Humphreys 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🦢 (@Ace109610) April 8, 2026