The genre of pro wrestling is at its most compelling when the audience is trying to delineate between whether and to what extent the storyline is real versus scripted.

On Wednesday night’s edition of “AEW Dynamite,” MJF cut his own version of the infamous CM Punk “pipe bomb” promo, eviscerating the company’s owner and founder, Tony Khan, and griping about all the money and attention Khan has lavished on ex-WWE performers while his segments outdraw most of theirs in the ratings.

“When this company first started, it was All Friends Wrestling,” MJF said in his promo, in which he told the crowd it was “Max Friedman” — the person, not the character — speaking.

“Everyone was handed a ticket — except for me. See, I had to write my own, and boy do I have good penmanship, because I created moment after moment after moment for this company and I still get no respect. No one is on my level. No one! Everything I touch turns to gold. There is nothing I can’t do. Every time I come out here, I am not expected to hit home runs, I’m expected to hit grand slams — and I do that s–t on a weekly basis.”

MJF ripped his fellow wrestlers for chasing “star ratings” — the ratings matches are given by longtime wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer — and ultimately concluded his promo by daring Khan to fire him. The promo harkened back to CM Punk’s still-discussed “pipe bomb,” given during his real-life disgruntlement with WWE in 2011.

Warning: Graphic language

“I’m a generational talent, and you people consistently take me for granted — but it’s not just you,” MJF passionately yelled. “It’s the big man in the back, too. Here’s something you guys can’t take for granted, here’s something he doesn’t want you to know. Do you guys know who the second biggest minute-for-minute draw is in this entire company? Nope, you wish. It’s me! It’s me! And if you don’t believe me, do me a favor: ask Stat Boy Tony, see what he’s got to say. But whatever you do, don’t ask him to reach into his pockets and pay the man who’s been busting his ass for him since Day One.

“No, make sure he hoards all that money, so he can give it to all the new ex-WWE guys he keeps bringing in that CAN’T LACE MY GODDAMN BOOTS. Hey boss, would you treat me better if I was an ex-WWE guy? Maybe you don’t get it man. Here’s the problem with you boss, you got a position of power in a wrestling company when the only position you should be assuming is behind the guardrail with all of them. I don’t want to wait until 2024, but you don’t want to listen to me, but allow me to make it a little easier for you. Tony, I want you to fire me.”

There is, obviously, a lot to unpack here. Anyone in the audience who claims to know for sure whether this was real or a work — the wrestling terminology for scripted storyline — is lying.

MJF’s microphone cut out at the end of his promo. The announcers did not talk about it when “Dynamite” came back from break. AEW has not shared clips of the promo on its YouTube or Twitter feeds. This came after a weekend in which MJF no-showed a fan event and people were unsure whether he would show up to his long-booked match against his former protégé Wardlow at the “Double or Nothing” pay-per-view in Las Vegas.

MJF lost the match to Wardlow in squash fashion, absorbing over a dozen powerbombs while getting zero offense in the fight, and neglected to mention the defeat in his promo on Wednesday.

Several months ago, Cody Rhodes was giving promos that gave a nod to what were at that point internet rumors that he was disgruntled about not receiving a long-term contract. It was difficult for the audience to delineate between whether he was conveying genuine emotion or advancing the storyline — or perhaps a bit of both — and he wound up leaving AEW and making a stunning return to WWE.

Yet, if Tony Khan and MJF were booking a storyline to maximize how compelling it would be, it would be impossible for them to script it any better. The character MJF plays would feel entitled to championship opportunities and a massive raise in AEW based on how he has performed for the company since its inception in 2019. The character would blow off fans. He would deflect from an embarrassing loss by changing the subject to how he has been underappreciated.

MJF, through immaculate performance artistry, has created a persona where no one is quite sure where the fault line is between the actor and his character. At just 26 years old, he has the potential to be an all-time legend in the pro wrestling business, and all eyes will be on him for the foreseeable future.