MJF Defends Booker T After Being Named Worst TV Announcer of the Year

MJF is one of AEW's top talents and continues to prove he's the salt of the earth by coming to the defense of WWE Hall of Famer Booker T.

Last week, the Wrestling Observer revealed their 2025 WON Awards winners. While many awards are positive ones, there are quite a few negative ones as well. One of them was the Worst Television Announcer, which went to NXT commentator Booker T in an utter landslide.

The WWE Hall of Famer secured a staggering 516 votes. His closest competition came from Pat McAfee, who received only 123 votes. The list was rounded out with Michael Cole, Vic Joseph, and Tony Schiavone.

While the subject of the award has been highly debated in recent days, very few within the industry have really stepped forward to defend the WWE Hall of Famer. But now Booker T is getting support from an unlikely source: current AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman.

MJF took to social media this evening to defend Booker T, calling him the blueprint for people like himself and asking people to show the WWE Hall of Famer some respect.

"@BookerT5x in a lot of ways is a blueprint to me. A completely homegrown top guy with massive drawing power on Warner TV without having to have worked for McMahon. If you dislike what he does in the booth, that's fine. But You guys talk crazy on legends. Show some respect, he's earned it," MJF said in his post.

.@BookerT5x in a lot of ways is a blueprint to me. A completely homegrown top guy with massive drawing power on Warner TV without having to have worked for McMahon.

If you dislike what he does in the booth, that’s fine.

But You guys talk crazy on legends.

Show some respect,…
— Maxwell Jacob Friedman™️ (@The_MJF) February 17, 2026

While Booker T hasn't publicly responded to the post, he did retweet it, seemingly showing his appreciation to the AEW World Champion for having his back.

MJF isn't the only one who would like to see wrestling tribalism between WWE and AEW fans come to an end

Whether you agree with MJF's stance or not is one thing. But what it has done is continue to normalize AEW and WWE stars going to bat for one another on social media. The more wrestlers continue to do things like this, the easier it will be to end the tribalistic war amongst the fan bases.

Current WWE producer Shane "Hurricane" Helms also attempted to put an end to wrestling tribalism on his timeline recently in hilarious fashion, tweeting a troll the following message after being sent an anti-AEW tweet:

"Y’all Mafaka’s need to understand that Shane Helms is not anti-AEW! I got friends and peeps there, I would never root against their success. Do I support my team more, or course! But the IWC’s tribalism is annoying and dorkyAF to me. Leave me out of that bulls--t."

Y’all Mafaka’s need to understand that Shane Helms is not anti-AEW! I got friends and peeps there, I would never root against their success. Do I support my team more, or course! But the IWC’s tribalism is annoying and dorkyAF to me. Leave me out of that bullshit. https://t.co/BcVZZwN6fi
— Hurricane Helms (@ShaneHelmsCom) February 15, 2026

The more talents like MJF who speak up for people in WWE, and vice versa, the more likely it will have a positive effect on fans. While it's likely that things like tribalism will never end, the more wrestling fans can be open to enjoying one or more products without feeling the need to bash others, the better off the industry will be.

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