FTR is currently on a hiatus from AEW, which was requested. On the latest episode of his FTR podcast, Dax Harwood discussed the 2020 AEW Full Gear pay-per-view, which saw current AEW World Trios Champions The Young Bucks capture the AEW World Tag Team Titles from Harwood and Cash Wheeler. FTR debuted with AEW in late May 2020, signed multi-year contracts in July 2020, won the titles at All Out that September, but then dropped them two months later to The Bucks at Full Gear. Harwood also took a deep dive into the FTR – Bucks build-up, the relationship with The Bucks and AEW President Tony Khan, and more. Below are highlights from the discussion:
Khan not being sold on FTR yet at that point:
“I think about this time we knew Tony wanted it. None of us, none of the four wanted to it right now. But Tony said, he really needed it for the PPV, he needed it for a selling point of the PPV. And, you know, we begged and begged, please, let’s just try to wait it out and see when we can get fans back because we felt that we owed it to the fans to give them this match live. And I understand Tony’s point, you know, he wanted his perennial baby face tag team to have the belts. Also, I’m not sure that Tony was sold on us yet, you know. I could be wrong, but I think that him also saying that he needed it for the PPV as a selling point, I don’t think that is just lip service, I really think he thought that.”
The FTR “Brush With Greatness” idea and why it didn’t work:
“The idea was, we would give anyone, any tag team a title shot for the AEW Tag Team Championships, they just had to beat us within the 20 minutes allotted. And if they didn’t beat us within the 20 minutes, then we were still the champions. It was a way to have us get more matches on television as a tag team, for us to get over, but also have fresh matches that you might you not see again because these tag teams may have not been in the Top 5 contenders, and, you know, initially, it was pitched to bring in a few independent teams to work with too.
That’s why we called it a brush with greatness because you got one opportunity to wrestle the greatest tag team, the AEW World Tag Team Champions, and if you could get it done in 20 minutes, you got it done. And if you couldn’t, goodbye, so that was the initial plan for me. It never really materialized to that, but yeah, it was a bit confusing. To nobody’s fault, I would put the blame on us because we kind of pushed for that idea because we felt we needed to be on TV, especially when he figured out that we were going to The Bucks next for the PPV. We needed to get on TV to have a few more matches and just reintroduce ourselves to this audience.”
If Dax can relate to The Young Bucks’ journey:
“I guess I never, I mean, I know the struggles, and you know, it’s well documented the struggles they’ve had. I know them, but at the time, again, I wasn’t mentally mature enough to think about that. I was thinking about the moment. But again, at this moment, we were on good terms, there was nothing that had happened, you know, in this moment. We were fine with each other, and we agreed on a lot of things and we were all working together to make this the biggest possible tag match that the wrestling world had ever seen, that was our idea.
So, again, like I said, it wasn’t an issue with them, it wasn’t an issue with The Bucks, it was my issue with Tony at the time. And it was me not realizing that there is more to the wrestling world than Dax Harwood and I should have and I was wrong for that. Even if I realized at the time I was wrong, I probably wouldn’t have admitted it because, again, I was mentally immature and I felt that I had to fight for everything. So, you know, I’m taking it on the chin.”
The relationship with Khan and The Young Bucks:
“When we came in, we were promised that the tag division was going to be built around these two teams and I felt it wasn’t being built around us. And I felt that we were being lied to. At the time I felt that we were being lied to and I think my relationship with Tony got even more strained. I felt that the relationship with The Bucks completely deteriorated because of that. And, look, dude, I’m here, right now, on this podcast telling you and the world that I take the blame for that. I take the blame for it because I shouldn’t have taken wrestling so seriously.
If Tony decided that he didn’t think we were in that league or we should have been presented in a certain way, it’s his company, dude. Same thing with Vince. I hold no ill will towards Vince and I hold no ill will towards Tony of course. Tony’s one of my closet buds and I love him so much for what he’s done for me and my family. But I should have looked back and said, okay, if Tony doesn’t look at us in this light, what can I do to prove him wrong. And instead, I had the same thought, but also I had it with I’m gonna be combative and I’m gonna fight for it, you know what I mean and I shouldn’t have because it’s his company.”
You can click here for Harwood’s previous comments on how important Jon Moxley is to AEW.
The full episode from Harwood can be found at this link. If using any of these quotes in your own article on other websites, please credit Joshie Lopez with a H/T link back to WrestlingHeadlines.com for the transcription. Check out the latest episode of The Hoots Podcast below:
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