Dax Harwood Talks His Physical State, Reiterates That FTR/Briscoes III Was His ‘Greatest Masterpiece’

Dax Harwood talks the Dog Collar Match between FTR and The Briscoes and gives an update on his current physical state.

Throughout the duration of 2022, FTR and The Briscoes have arguably put together not one, not two, but three classic matches against one another. Most recently, the two teams faced off against each other in a Dog Collar match at the Final Battle pay-per-view that occurred earlier this December.

On the latest (and final) episode of the Gentleman Villain podcast, Dax Harwood joined Matt Koon in the absence of William Regal. After Koon announced that Harwood will have a weekly podcast with AdFreeShows.com going forward, Harwood shed some more light into FTR’s recent Dog Collar match against The Briscoes.

“Well the match, the outcome… I talked to Cash about this and I always wondered why Bret Hart said the match with Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 was his greatest match ever. I love the match, I think it’s incredible. But I always thought, and he’s had matches that were technically better than that one, but as soon as that bell rung when we were finished, I knew right then why he thought that was his greatest match ever, as I feel about the Dog Collar match. I think the Dog Collar match, and I’m not a gimmick wrestler, I’m not a Blood & Guts kind of wrestler. I’m a lock up, gritty wrestler that tries to use wrestling holds or wrestling moves to tell the stories. But after that bell rung, after that last bell, I knew that was the greatest masterpiece I’ve ever structured and put together. It was a very emotional time for me walking to the back with those guys. It’s very cliche for me to say but it was indescribable. Physically, I feel like sh*t. I was telling you before we started recording that I still have a huge bruise on my ass, my lower back is in shambles. That’s the thing that I don’t understand about some of the wrestling today, is that they take these bumps and they get these bruises in these matches and then they get right back up. We’re kinda telling people that once you’ve fought for the last thirty, forty, twenty, however old you are years, it’s true that it’s fake, but it’s not fake when I’m flying home in discomfort. It’s not fake when I do get home and I can’t play with my eight year old daughter because I feel so physically bad. That’s one of the things that I wanted to express here is that wrestling is an art form and in my opinion, it’s the most beautiful art form, but man it does take a toll on your body.”

Harwood first said that the Dog Collar match against The Briscoes was his masterpiece in a reflective Instagram post on December 16. To learn more, click here.

In the first match since Final Battle, FTR took on The Gunns in a tag bout on the December 21 edition of AEW Dynamite. To see Fightful’s full report on that show, click here.

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.