The Beach Break hangover is real

Pour one out for the longest-reigning, most obnoxious, and somehow most entertaining AEW World Champion in history. Last Wednesday at Beach Break, the unthinkable happened.

Kenny Omega hit a thunderous V-Trigger, followed it with a devastating One-Winged Angel, and pinned Maxwell Jacob Friedman clean in the middle of the ring. Just like that, the summer of MJF ended with a thud.

The internet spent the last week melting down over the decision. Some fans are thrilled to see the Best Bout Machine back on the throne.

Others are furious that Tony Khan pulled the trigger on a title change just weeks before the biggest show of the year. The timing is bizarre, to say the least. Now, the company's biggest star is left wandering without a title or a clear direction.

Usually, a champion losing the belt triggers an immediate rematch clause. But this is AEW, where rankings and tournaments rule the day.

We are looking at a clean slate. AEW All In London is creeping up on us, and Wembley Stadium needs a massive draw. The question isn't just who MJF will face, but how AEW salvage their franchise player.

The booking mistake at Beach Break

Let's get one thing straight. The match on July 8 was a certified classic.

Omega and MJF went to war for twenty-seven minutes of pure, unadulterated professional wrestling. We saw MJF counter a snap dragon suplex into a rolling elbow, almost securing the win with a tight visual pin. But the ending left a bad taste in my mouth.

The finish involved a classic, overdone AEW trope: the referee distraction. Don Callis walked down the ramp, did his usual screaming routine, and distracted the official. This allowed Omega to hit a low blow before the final sequence.

Why do we need cheap heel tactics in a match between two of the greatest workers on the planet? It watered down Omega's big moment and made MJF look like a chump who couldn't protect his own blind spot.

If you are going to take the belt off your top guy, do it cleanly. Or, if you want him to lose dirty, don't make it look like a lazy Saturday night television finish.

This was a pay-per-view quality match given away on free cable. The fans deserved a finish that didn't rely on Callis acting like a cheap cartoon villain. Now, MJF is forced to reset, and the booking team has to scramble to find him a worthy opponent.

Wembley awaits: The primary suspects

Wembley Stadium is a massive cavern. You cannot put MJF in a mid-card cool-down match and expect the London crowd to stay hot.

The company needs to pivot immediately. There are only a few names big enough to share the marquee with Maxwell at this point.

The Will Ospreay dream match

This is the match that makes the most sense on paper. Will Ospreay is the hometown hero, the guy who can get a stadium of eighty thousand Brits to sing his name until they lose their voices.

MJF is the ultimate American heel, the guy who sneers at tea, crumpets, and the royal family. It is a natural dynamic that writes itself.

Imagine the workrate in this one. Ospreay flying around the ring, hitting Hidden Blades and OsCutters, while MJF slows the pace down, working the arm and mocking the crowd.

They have never faced each other in a singles match. This is a fresh feud that could easily headline any show in the world. As analysts debated about MJF's next All In opponent, this match stood out as the money option.

But there is a catch. Ospreay is currently locked in his own battles, and throwing him into a feud with MJF without proper build feels rushed.

AEW has a habit of booking dream matches with three days of television hype. If they go this route, they need to start building it immediately. Otherwise, it is just another high-flying exhibition without any emotional stakes.

The Adam Cole reunion of doom

We cannot talk about MJF without talking about Adam Cole. Their bromance was the best thing on television for months, culminating in that emotional main event at Wembley.

Then came the injury, the Devil reveal, and the ultimate betrayal. The storyline was dragged out, derailed by injuries, and eventually fizzled out into nothingness.

Maybe it is time to finish the story. Cole is back, healthy, and looking for a fight. MJF has every reason to want to tear Cole's head off after everything that happened.

The history is already there, baked into the minds of the fans. They do not need a title to make this match feel important.

However, the Devil storyline went on for so long that many fans grew sick of it. Reheating a cold feud for Wembley is a massive risk.

Cole's physical condition is also a question mark, as he has struggled to stay on the active roster. If Cole cannot go at one hundred percent, the match will fail to live up to the standard of their previous encounter.

The Swerve Strickland collision course

Swerve Strickland is the most charismatic heel in the company. MJF is the most charismatic babyface-adjacent character when he wants to be.

Seeing these two trade insults on the microphone would be absolutely worth the price of admission alone. Swerve has been on a tear, executing Swerve Stomps and House Calls on anyone who stands in his way.

A victory over MJF would cement Swerve as a permanent main eventer. For MJF, a feud with Swerve would allow him to show off his wrestling pedigree against a completely different style of opponent.

It is a fresh match that fans have been begging to see. They could easily tear the house down in London.

My concern is that both guys are natural heels at heart. Even when the crowd cheers them, they behave like absolute bastards.

A heel-versus-heel dynamic is incredibly difficult to pull off in front of a stadium crowd. One of them would have to play the clean babyface, and neither of them fits that mold perfectly right now.

The Hangman Page wildcard

Then there is Hangman Adam Page, the cowboy who has been playing a much darker character recently. Page is always a threat, and his history with the Elite could easily bleed into a feud with Maxwell. A match between these two would be a masterclass in psychological warfare.

Hangman could accuse MJF of being a fake leader who only cares about himself. MJF would retaliate by tearing down Page's fragile ego on the microphone. Their matches would be brutal, stiff, and full of raw emotion. This is the kind of feud that does not need a championship to feel like a main event.

Tony Khan's ultimate gamble

Taking the title off MJF before Wembley is a massive gamble. The belt gave MJF a shield, a reason to be the center of attention on every episode of Dynamite.

Without it, he is just another guy on the roster, albeit a very talented one. Tony Khan needs to prove that he can book a compelling storyline that does not revolve around a championship belt.

The next few weeks will define AEW's summer. If they slot MJF into a meaningless feud with a mid-carder, the fans will revolt.

The London crowd is smart, vocal, and ruthless. They will not accept a half-baked storyline for the biggest star in the promotion.

We need to see MJF back on the microphone, angry, motivated, and ready to prove why he is the best in the world. The loss to Kenny Omega should be fuel for a new character arc.

Let's see if the booking team has the guts to write a story that actually matters. If they fail, Wembley will be a very quiet place for the former champion.