FTR: Older WWE Producers Would Tell Us, ‘This Isn’t The Vince McMahon I Used To Work For’
FTR (formerly known as The Revival in WWE), was regarded as one of the best tag teams in the world during their time in NXT. But once they got to the main roster, they were doing relatively short television matches and less serious storylines.
Many have put the blame on Vince McMahon for his handling of NXT-to-main-roster talents, and WWE’s current direction has baffled Jim Cornette, who doesn’t believe Vince would be making these choices decades ago.
“The Vince that I knew would’ve cussed at the Vince of today because he’s doing things that the other Vince would’ve said, ‘No, that’s not right,'” said Cornette on his podcast The Jim Cornette Experience.
FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) were guests on Cornette’s podcast and they echoed Cornette’s sentiments.
“A lot guys that are producers there now that were working there in the 90s, they said exactly what you said. After one of our matches, a producer came up to us and said, ‘There’s not a tag team in the world that is better than you guys. There’s not many workers in the world better than you guys. I don’t know what is wrong with Vince, this is not the Vince that I worked for. Keep working hard, and you’ll get where you want to go.’ Vince has the things he likes and doesn’t, and that’s okay. We told him, ‘we know we’re not your cup of tea, and that’s okay. We’re not here to please everybody, but what we do know is that nobody is better than us, and we’re going to work harder than everybody.’ It didn’t work out that way,” said Dax.
FTR went on to say that Vince told them, “Everyone tells me you’re the next Arn & Tully and the next great tag team That’s the problem, you’re just great professional wrestlers” following a match with New Day, which would seem like a compliment, but was meant as an insult.
Cash was unsure why Vince didn’t like them but noted that many top guys wanted to work with them despite Vince’s apparent lack of interest.
Fightful reported in November 2019 that Randy Orton pushed to extend team FTRKO following their program against The New Day, even going directly to Vince, but the two parties were split in the WWE Draft.
Vince wanted to turn the duo into a comedy team during their final months under contract, and despite gear mock-ups, the idea never came to fruition. You can find FTR’s comments on the infamous comedy gear by clicking here.
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