‘F*ck ICE’ chants break out during ‘AEW Dynamite’ main event

Maxwell Jacob Friedman is known for embracing his role as the top heel in AEW.

But as he prepared to face Brody King in the main event of AEW Dynamite on Wednesday, the crowd in Las Vegas directed its ire at another entity.

With MJF and King standing across from each other inside the squared circle before their main event bout, chants of “f*ck ICE!” rang throughout the Pearl Theater at the Palms Casino Resort. In addition to serving as an obvious protest of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the chants also doubled as a sign of support for King, who has been vocal in his opposition to the agency in recent months.

As the chants crystalized on TBS’ broadcast, King looked at the crowd and nodded in approval. Meanwhile, MJF broke the fourth wall by staring at the camera with a Jim Halpert-esque reaction, seemingly aware of the magnitude (and viral nature) of the moment.

As it turned out, the crowd’s support of King would ultimately be rewarded.

In what marked an AEW Championship Eliminator Match — meaning if King won, he’d receive a title shot — the “Brooding Brawler” dominated MJF, earning a pinfall victory over the defending champion in one minute and 17 seconds. As a result, King will now face MJF with the AEW world championship on the line at AEW Grand Slam in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 14 — one of the company’s biggest shows of the year.

All things considered, it seems clear that AEW entered Wednesday looking to elevate King into its main event picture and establish the 38-year-old as a championship contender. And while his in-ring performance certainly helped accomplish that, it also didn’t hurt that he managed to organically attract some mainstream attention for the pro wrestling promotion along the way.