Stokely Hathaway retrieved the chip in the Casino Ladder Match at AEW All Out 2022 that gave the winner a shot at the AEW World Title. He immediately pass the chip to "The Devil."
At the end of the night, "The Devil was revealed as MJF, who was returning to the promotion for the first time since the AEW Dynamite episode after AEW Double or Nothing. MJF had gone radio silent after he begged Tony Khan to "fire him" on the June 1, 2022 episode of AEW Dynamite and was removed from AEW advertising.
Speaking on Talk Is Jericho, Stokely revealed that he was the only member of The Firm to know MJF would be returning.
"I felt bad, I wouldn’t say lying, but I knew for a certain period of time that Max was coming back. I knew that he was coming back, but it’s not up to me to tell other people. Plus, I was sworn to secrecy, and I wanted this act to play out. As you know, you tell one person, they tell this person, and everyone knows. No one else in the group knew until a few minutes after we did the ladder deal," he said.
When asked what he told people if they asked him if he knew anything, he replied, "I would just say, ‘Oh, I don’t know. Little old me? I have no clue.’ Afterward, we went into this tour bus and Max was hidden in this tour bus, and that’s when everyone else found out what the plan was."
Ahead of MJF's return, Hathaway handed out business cards to The Gunns (Austin & Colten Gunn), Big Bill, Ethan Page, and Lee Moriarty to form The Firm.
Elsewhere during the interview, Hathaway discussed his decision to turn The Firm into more of a comedy group. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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