After their run with WWE came to an end last year, Mansoor and Mason Madden (AKA Mace) almost immediately dove headfirst into the independent scene, eventually leading to the tag team being brought into AEW this past July. The duo, now known as the MxM Collective, made a recent appearance on “AEW Unrestricted,” with Mansoor explaining what they took away from their time in WWE.

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“One of the biggest lessons we learned in our previous place of employment is that every single second of television matters an incredible amount,” Mansoor said. “[If] we’re on camera for five seconds, we want to make sure that those five seconds we’re on TV is what people are gonna remember out of that segment. TV time is a gift — it really is — and every moment and opportunity you’re on TV, you have an opportunity to endear yourself further with the audience.”

While not an exact continuation of their WWE characters, both Mansoor and Madden have continued iterating on traits that originated during their time as Maximum Male Models. That gimmick was divisive, and Mansoor was aware that the current versions of their characters may rub some AEW fans the wrong way at first. However, the wrestler was confident in his ability to win viewers over, given the opportunity.

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Mansoor referred to his ability to change the audience’s initial reaction to him as a “mark of pride,” and he looked back on MxM’s match against FTR in July as an opportunity to do just that. Despite the fact that the two tag teams are almost diametrically opposed in aesthetics, they were able to put on a good showing, which Mansoor believes helped legitimize MxM in the eyes of the AEW fanbase.

“Even if you were a fan of us before, nobody knew that we could wrestle at all,” Madden said.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “AEW Unrestricted” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.