Dax Harwood describes why he and his FTR tag team partner, Cash Wheeler, are committed to making AEW as successful as possible.
FTR, then known as The Revival, were the first WWE Tag Team Triple Crown Winners, but they asked for their release and eventually received it in 2020. The duo signed with AEW in May 2020, and they captured the AEW World Tag Team Championship at AEW All Out 2020. Over the next two years, FTR went on to win the ROH, AAA, and IWGP World Tag Team Championship. The duo’s contracts were set to expire in April 2023, but they recently re-signed with the company.
Speaking on FTR with Dax Harwood, co-host Matt Koon noted that Harwood and Wheeler are committed to making AEW the best wrestling company in the world. Harwood responded by stating that he and Wheeler will do everything they can, within the realms of safety, to make AEW successful.
“Yes. I think that I and Cash, I’m gonna speak for us two, because I don’t want to get too much unnecessary heat. I think that Cash and I will do anything, within the realms of being safe, to make AEW successful,” Harwood said. “I feel, and I’ve said this from the day that we started, the reason we want AEW to be successful is not just for us, not just for the fans, either. Not just for Tony, but for the wrestlers ten years down the road, 15, 20 years down the road, so they can have a viable place to make a living. Because if it’s monopolized by one place, it obviously limits the amount of people who can make a living, but also it limits the amount of money that you can make because you don’t have two territories to go to that you can say, ‘This guy’s offering me this, but this guy’s offering me this, but this guy’s offering me a less schedule, or this guy’s offering me more,’ whatever. You have the opportunity to pick and choose where you want to go, and that hasn’t happened since WCW. Now, with Tony Khan and AEW, it has happened, and it’s not just a flash in the pan. They’ve been successful for almost four years now, holding great ratings.
Shifting gears, Harwood highlighted WWE’s strong TV ratings and noted that the company’s flagship shows have been on TV for a long time, whereas AEW is a company that started from the ground up with a television deal. He stated that the company didn’t have the benefit of following the territory model, as everyone is learning on the job.
“You think about RAW, and RAW draws a 1.5 or a 1.8 or whatever, but also, that is a rating, and that’s a brand that has been there since January of 1993,” Harwood said. “Monday night has become wrestling night, so people have associated that with wrestling night, so people have associated that with wrestling. So they tune in just because that’s what they’ve done for years and years and years. SmackDown’s been on the air since 1999, and it’s on a station of FOX, which is multiple times bigger than any kind of cable television, in every single household, all around the world.
“Then you’ve got this company, AEW, who started from the ground up on television. They didn’t have what territories were. Territories, before they fit TV or whatever, they traveled around and they had word of mouth, and they paid for a TV spot here and a syndicated spot here, and then maybe go here and finally reach out here. They didn’t have all that to learn. They had to learn on the job. Everybody learned on the job, and that’s what they’re still doing now.
Harwood then emphasized that he and Wheeler will work as hard as they can, within the realms of safety, to make sure that AEW is a viable alternative to WWE. He stated that this mission does not stem from any ill feelings toward WWE; instead, it’s motivated by a love of wrestling and the duo’s love of wrestling and desire to give back to the sport.
“Cash and I will diligently work as hard as we possibly can, again in the realms of being safe, to make sure AEW is a viable alternative to WWE,” Harwood said. “We’ll do whatever we can to continue to make it a rival to WWE, not because we have any kind of ill feelings towards WWE or any sort of insecurities because of WWE. It’s because we love wrestling so much, and this is our way, our catalog of matches too, but this is our way of giving back. We will do whatever, work with whoever, as long as it increases the financial ability of AEW, and the marketability of AEW, too.”
The video version of the podcast can be found here.
On the April 5 episode of AEW Dynamite, FTR beat The Gunns in a Titles vs. AEW Careers match to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship.
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