AEW superstars FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) spoke to Wrestling Inc. to talk about their relationship with The Elite, how Cody Rhodes insulted them by saying they rehearse matches, and more. Highlights are below.
FTR’s relationship with members of The Elite:
I think that the perception is that we have been friends with these guys for years and we were okay with them doing that. We’ve had discussions with them and discussions with Cody as well. When they first started the whole FTR thing, that really didn’t bother us as they’re trying to make a name for a couple of guys who are carrying tag team wrestling. For so long they carried tag team wrestling – I’ll give them that. But then here comes two 5-foot-10 North Carolinians who don’t have to go out there and do ‘Too Sweet’ and superkicks and all that nostalgia stuff. We go out there and work and we grab the audience’s attention. I think they got a little jealous of that and that’s okay, as I said, we’ve had discussions about that.
Fires back at Cody Rhodes for saying that FTR rehearses their matches:
I have never – in over 15+ years in this glorious business – have I ever practiced a wrestling match. For Cody and The Young Bucks to say that we were practicing for weeks, that was a little too much for me. So the FTR thing – whatever – but don’t try to discredit our legacy.
Wheeler says Harwood was not initially cleared for epic tag bout at Takeover Toronto against DIY:
Dax wasn’t cleared to wrestle from TakeOver: Brooklyn to TakeOver: Toronto. He had his knee scoped to get some lose cartilage out there and some bone chips. So, he wasn’t cleared until the Thursday before Toronto. We didn’t have any idea – we had zero clue what we were gonna be doing until that Saturday. So, to tell us that we knew what was gonna happen months prior is an insult and it pisses me off to this day. And Cody knows that because we told him.
On tag teams not following the rules:
It bothers us when EVERY tag team doesn’t adhere to the rules or is very lax with the rules. But at the same time, that’s another reason that we’re here. That’s one of our main mission statements when we got here. We want to change the tag team division for the better. We’re not here to just do what everybody else does. We’re not here to just run with the crowd and blend in. We’re here to stand out and to help make the tag team division mean as much as humanly possible to the point where, hopefully, when it’s all said and done people will say this was the golden era of tag team wrestling. We have the talent for it and now we just need all of the other pieces to fall into place.