FTR wants to see tag team wrestling reach new heights, and they won’t be talking contracts with WWE or anyone else anytime soon.
AEW stars Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler of FTR recently appeared on The Sessions with Renée Paquette and discussed the ongoing rumors of WWE reportedly being interested in bringing the duo back to the company.
“I think we know about as much as everyone else does but we left that place because they hadn’t put a focus on tag team wrestling and we knew that there was a ceiling of where we could go in the company,” admitted Harwood. “We wanted to do more, we wanted to be known as the greatest tag team of all time and we had to leave there to do that and we knew that. That’s why we were so insistent on them giving us our releases and now, I sent him [Cash] a screenshot of all of the different news outlets or whatever saying they wanna re-sign us and that’s flattering.
“It’s cool, we got some more time and I told Tony [Khan] because obviously he heard about it, I told him that there’s no way that we would ever talk contracts with anybody while we were working for him, we have way too much respect for him and our word means something. Then I start thinking, do they want us or do they want AEW to not have us? It’s cool for Cody [Rhodes] to do what he’s done but there’s so many unknowns there, will they ever focus on tag-team wrestling like we’ve been able to the last two years? Money’s not everything for us, I do have a family,” Harwood added, “so I have to take care of them but it’s not all about the money, it’s about what we leave behind in wrestling too.”
Cash then explained how he and Dax’s aspirations not only in AEW but also overseas would prevent them from even considering a WWE return in the immediate future.
“I was in the airport when he sent me the screenshot and I asked him ‘is this legit, is this a real thing?’, that’s how I found out, sitting here at the airport about to board the plane and during the flight I’m thinking about how crazy all of this is and how crazy, like I said, this whole year has been,” Wheeler recalled. “And then that’s just one more thing where I’m like ‘how is this real?’ and I don’t know how much has changed there where how we want tag team wrestling to be and now, we’re showing everyone what tag team wrestling can be and what our vision of it is and it’s buzz right now, tag teams are killing it everywhere.
“It’s not just us, like we’re at the top of that, obviously, but tag team wrestling, in general, is killing it right now and it’s creating buzz and it’s got some of the best tag teams we’ve had in some time, in the past couple of decades. I would just say from everybody in IMPACT, New Japan, AEW, WWE, MLW, there’s so many ridiculously talented teams and we’re getting to help put a focus on that and that’s always what we’ve wanted to do. So, I was blown away when I read it and it makes you think about a bunch of different things,” Wheeler explained, “but right now we’re getting to paint what we see wrestling’s tag team picture as and I’m happier than I’ve been. I’m making more money than I’ve been, so I don’t wanna think about anything other than that and making tag team wrestling and ourselves, better.”
Wheeler went on to say that he not only wants to be the first two-time AEW Tag Team Champions, but also wants to win the IWGP Tag Team Titles. He said that he wants FTR to be the most talked-about tag team and wants to “add another star to the collection.”
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful recently responded to a report from Ringside News, who claimed there was “no real interest” from WWE about FTR. Sapp stated that there “absolutely” was interest in the team, but WWE backed down once they found out that FTR’s AEW contracts run until next year.
Harwood and Wheeler are set to clash against one another in an Owen Hart Foundation Tournament qualifier on the 4/27 edition of AEW Dynamite.
Related: FTR: Frustration Doesn’t Vary In Wrestling Or Life, We Get Frustrated Because We Love It
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