Dax Harwood Says ‘Nothing Has Changed’ Regarding FTR’s Status With AEW

At AEW Revolution, FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) made their return to the promotion, confronting the Gunns (Austin & Colten Gunn), who had successfully retained their AEW Tag Team Titles in a four-way bout. 

FTR had not been on AEW television since they lost to the Gunns on the December 21 episode of AEW Dynamite. The Gunns held a funeral for FTR on a subsequent episode of AEW Dynamite, saying FTR would not return to AEW. 

On his FTR podcast, Dax stated that FTR was granted time off from the promotion to heal up and indicated that their contracts were up in April. He later stated that they were willing to return early if Tony Khan made that call. 

After their return, it was reported that their absence was storyline based and “the belief” was they had re-signed with the company. 

Addressing the report on FTR with Matt Koon, Harwood said, “Zero has changed. We got a call from Tony, this was maybe five days before the pay-per-view. I don’t know, I’m just guessing. He either heard a clip, this was the podcast where the headline was, I said we were ready to comeback, our bodies were healed, we wanted to do right by business because we are contracted. Cash and I aren’t trying to hold up anybody. We’re not trying to play the game, ‘they’re offering us this, they’re gonna offer us this.’ It’s not about that. Money is a big factor, but it’s about what’s going to make us happy. There are a ton of options. Tony Khan is onto something incredible, changing the industry, over the last three or four years, he’s done exactly that. Whatever you want to say, he’s completely changed our industry.”

Harwood praised Khan for the success of AEW and entering the market at a time where WWE was stagnant, saying WWE has since stepped their game up. 

He continued, “For monetary gain, I would never play someone, especially someone as who I’m as close to as I am with Tony, especially someone who I was close to with Hunter [Triple H], who I owe a lot to. I would never play that for monetary gain. Our choice, right now, is strictly on happiness. The pros of staying in AEW is the great schedule where I can come home and be with my family. The pros of WWE is they are the number one money making wrestling company in the world. They can offer us a great deal, but I don’t feel we could have the kind of schedule we would like. Another pro for AEW is that, unless Tony changes his mind come April, we would be able to do independent bookings, great relationship with New Japan, doing Comic Cons and meeting our fans. In WWE, they’re on a creative high right now and I think they could keep that creative high up. They are the number one wrestling promotion, one of the top entertainment acts in the world, and have a proven track record. Strictly comes down to happiness. I don’t want to say that report is right or wrong because it doesn’t matter. Half the people are going to on Twitter and say I’m lying or trying to work.”

Harwood stated there is no benefit to lying or working the fans, Tony, or Triple H. 

“These reports are going to say what they want, and that’s okay. I will say, nothing has changed and please allow everything to play out and come April, you’ll be able to understand what we’re doing and where we’re going,” he stated.

Earlier in the podcast, while promoting his live FTR show during WrestleMania weekend, Harwood indicated that FTR’s contracts were still up in April by saying, “We have a month and 18 days left to make a decision on what we’re going to do. I’m not in any kind of peril as far as getting ourselves in trouble.” 

Harwood said FTR will be in San Francisco for the March 8 episode of AEW Dynamite, but wasn’t sure what they will be doing on the show. 

Fightful will continue to update fans on FTR’s contract situation as more is known. 

Fans can check out Fightful’s coverage of AEW Revolution by clicking here. 

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