FTR was recently on Inside The Ropes and answered a variety of questions along with speaking on multiple topics. Check out some of the highlights below.
Transcription credit to Wrestling Inc.
On why they have not signed long-term with AEW (Dax Harwood):
We didn’t know if AEW was going to be our home and we’re still not 100% sure if this is going to be our forever home, but we knew for a while that we had to get out of WWE. They treated us very well monetarily. I got to take care of my family through everything WWE gave us. But I think that myself and Cash knew that if we wanted to leave the legacy that we had in mind, we needed to get out of the WWE. We haven’t officially signed anything long term yet because we’re just excited to have these opportunities. We have these choices and these options that we weren’t always sure we were going to have. We had 6 great years [in WWE]. For a while now we knew AEW had a tag division that we had to be a part of at some point. There’s too many good teams and talent there for us to not want to be there.
On how AEW is different from WWE (Cash Wheeler):
Every week I see it getting better and finding its groove and people getting established. Seeing what works and what doesn’t and not being afraid to switch it when something doesn’t. There’s no ego there, there’s no stubbornness there. We get texts from guys in charge there or Tony himself saying ‘What are you guys thinking for this week?’ cause they want the input cause they know the talent knows better than anybody else.
On communication differences between Vince McMahon & Tony Khan (Dax Harwood):
I don’t want to come off as bitter toward WWE cause we are not bitter. But, it’s honestly night and day. The biggest difference is Tony and AEW are not afraid of being pro wrestling, they embrace it. They embrace the qualities that pro wrestling brings, they embrace that phrase and they love pro wrestling. I think Vince loves pro wrestling too, but I think he wants it to be bigger and grander than his perception of pro wrestling. With Tony and AEW, they’re not afraid of that. It’s very busy on the television days, but it’s easier to get in contact with Tony than it is with Vince. With Vince, they have 30 writers that don’t belong [in WWE], they get paid a ton of money and get first class seats while we’re sitting coach. They’re afraid to talk to Vince, they’re afraid to see him face to face. They don’t even want to be known that they work there so they can keep collecting a paycheck. It’s such a broken system there.
They ended the interview by saying that Vince McMahon personally apologized to them before they left the company, admitting that the system was broke and that ideas pitched never got to his desk. You can watch the full interview below.
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