MJF opens up on the ‘less famous Miz’ moment WWE couldn’t ignore

Maxwell Jacob Friedman believes WWE was put in a position where it had to mention his promo with CM Punk on its programming.

“We gave them no choice but to speak about us,” MJF said in a Zoom interview with The Post ahead of All Elite Wrestling’s “Dynamite” show at UBS Arena on Wednesday (8 p.m., TNT).

During CM Punk and his promo battle two weeks ago on Dynamite, the former WWE star told MJF he was a “less famous Miz.” The segment was then alluded to the next week on “Monday Night Raw” during a promo involving The Miz and Edge. Acknowledging the competition is something rarely done in WWE, though veterans such as Edge and Miz are often given a little more freedom in their promos.

“You have people in other shows saying your name just to get a cheap reaction,” Edge told Miz during the segment. “You live rent-free in a lot of heads.”

The 25-year-old Friedman wasn’t surprised at all that his segment with Punk was referenced by WWE after how it was received throughout the industry and it getting nearly three million views on YouTube. WWE had “no other option” in his mind. 

“We were the talk of the town,” MJF said. “We were the talk of the world. We were trending at one point No. 1 on all of YouTube. I don’t know if you know about this app YouTube. But Google it, a lot of videos pop up every point three seconds there are probably thousands of videos that pop up. We were numerous uno, number one, in the world. That’s the power of CM Punk versus MJF.” 

While Edge vs. The Miz had been announced for WWE’s Day 1 pay-per-view on New Year’s Day, a match between MJF and the 43-year-old CM Punk — which has an old school vs. new school feel — has yet to be realized.

“It’s something people have wanted to see,” MJF said of a potential encounter with Punk. “I don’t blame Adam Copeland, Edge for talking about MJF-CM Punk on Raw. How could I? It was the most special thing that happened in our sport in decades.”