[15] Friedman was trained by Brian Myers and Pat Buck,[16] and made his in-ring debut in their Create A Pro Wrestling Academy in Hicksville, New York, on February 15, 2015.

[19] Friedman worked under the new ring name Pete Lightning in several CZW Dojo Wars events since 2015, usually in tag team matches with Hous Blazer and Penelope Ford.

On the September 7, 2016 edition of CZW Dojo Wars, he returned to his previous ring name Maxwell Jacob Friedman, he entered the Dramatic Destination Series tournament.

Two months later at CZW Cage of Death 19, Friedman won the title back after defeating Janela in a rematch.

On July 29, MJF defeated Joey Ryan to become the first-ever World Middleweight Champion at the Battle Riot special.

On the September 21 episode of Fusion, MJF and Blake defeated Joey Ryan and Taya Valkyrie in a mixed tag team match.

[22] MJF returned from his injury on the February 16, 2019 episode of Fusion, where he unsuccessfully challenged the new champion Teddy Hart for the World Middleweight Championship.

He left the promotion in January 2020, but would wrestle Mance Warner in a loser leaves town, empty arena match in April 2020.

[25][26] He debuted as a heel at Double or Nothing as a part of the pre-show Casino Battle Royale for an AEW World Championship opportunity.

[41] On the May 27 episode of Dynamite, MJF unsuccessfully competed in a battle royal to face Cody for the AEW TNT Championship, being eliminated by Jungle Boy.

[44] On the October 28 episode of Dynamite, Chris Jericho and MJF agreed to wrestle each other at Full Gear during a confrontational "Town Hall Meeting" with Eric Bischoff.

[49][50] On November 11 episode of Dynamite, MJF appeared for the first time as a member of The Inner Circle, where he gave a speech talking the struggles he overcame to get this far in wrestling, and then brought out a surprise birthday party for Jericho, the group's leader, which involved free tickets to Las Vegas and leading the crowd in a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday".

[54] Jericho last eliminated Dante Martin of Top Flight to win the battle royal, earning himself and MJF a title match at Revolution.

Later on in the episode, following MJF and Jericho's victory against The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens and Max Caster) in a tag team match, Guevara announced his departure from The Inner Circle.

[56] On the March 10, 2021 episode of Dynamite, MJF was kicked out from The Inner Circle after it was revealed that he was secretly planning to perform a coup of the group.

However, he then revealed that he had been building his own group with Wardlow, Shawn Spears, Tully Blanchard and FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood), who appeared and violently attacked The Inner Circle.

Wearing a mask, he won the Casino Ladder match as the "joker" entrant with the help of Stokely Hathaway, securing himself a future shot for the AEW World Championship.

He was revealed to be the person behind the mask at the end of the event, when he came out and stared down the newly crowned AEW World Champion CM Punk on the entrance stage.

Regal slid them into the ring for MJF, helping to make him the youngest AEW World Champion in the history of the company.

[81] On December 14 at Winter Is Coming, MJF successfully defended the AEW World Championship against Ricky Starks and won the Dynamite Diamond Ring for the fourth time.

[82] On March 5, 2023, at Revolution, MJF defeated Bryan Danielson in the overtime of their sixty-minute Iron Man match, which had ended in a tie.

[91] The two men would form a strong friendship and bond in various matches, segments, and skits over the next few weeks and MJF would show signs of a face turn.

Despite the loss, MJF would grant Cole his rematch in the main event of All In while also challenging Aussie Open to a match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship on All In: Zero Hour.

[97] At WrestleDream in October 2023, MJF successfully defended the ROH World Tag Team titles against The Righteous (Dutch and Vincent) in a handicap match after Cole suffered a broken ankle.

On the December 27 episode of Dynamite: New Years Smash, MJF and Samoa Joe were scheduled to defend the ROH World Tag Team Championship against The Devil's Masked Men, but an apparently injured Samoa Joe was shown backstage, causing MJF to unsuccessfully defend the titles on his own.

During his reign, MJF successfully defended his title in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) against Templario[113] and in Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro) against Michael Oku.

[114] On August 25 at All In, MJF lost the title back to Ospreay after interference from a returning Daniel Garcia, ending his reign at 39 days.

[119][120] MJF made his Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre debut on August 3, 2024 at Viernes Espectacular successfully defending his AEW American Championship against Templario.

[48] Many people within the wrestling industry have praised him for his aggressive villainous character, largely due to his ability to blur the line between storylines and reality; he often insults fans and other non-professional wrestling celebrities on social media,[122][123] and fellow wrestler Dasher Hatfield praised him for being able to "walk on the edge" and be a "heel without people calling him racist or homophobic".

[131] In a statement to The Players' Tribune, in relation to the Israeli-Hamas war, Friedman said he did not "support terrorism, Zionism, genocide [and] genocidal governments, dead innocent Palestinians [and] dead innocent Israelis [...] And I’m sick that Hamas, a literal terrorist organization, has fans on this side of the world".