FTR Praise The Creative Process In AEW, Call Tony Khan’s Appreciation Of Talent Input ‘Gratifying’

FTR, formerly known as The Revival, details the differences between working for Tony Khan and working for Vince McMahon.

FTR chose to dedicate their careers to the art of tag team wrestling during a time where tag team wrestling on a mainstream level was all but a thing of the past. They care so much about tag team wrestling that despite being a large success in WWE by modern standards, they chose to leave the top promotion in the world to bet on themselves in AEW in hopes of more opportunity and larger creative freedom.

Speaking on the Sunday Night’s Main Event podcast, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler explained just how important that creative freedom is to them and how liberating it has been for them to work with Tony Khan who wants as much input from his performers as he can get.

Dax began, “I think AEW is for the wrestler’s wrestler, and I don’t mean the wrestler who can go out there and be the technical wrestler, or the best striker, or the best flyer, I mean the person who cares about wrestling. Man, I’m not trying to pat myself on the back, and sometimes I actually feel bad about it, but I care almost too much about wrestling. So, for me to be able to sit at my kitchen table and think about where I want to go next and what I want out of FTR next, and who we want to make the next big stars, that’s a huge accomplishment for me but also this gratification for me and for Cash as well.

“Obviously in WWE, you have one man who thinks it’s right or wrong and that’s okay because he’s become a multi-billionaire and created a whole brand that’s tied into professional wrestling, whether he likes it or not, he’s created a whole brand. So who’s to tell him he’s wrong? But with Tony Khan, he may not be 100% on board with what you’re presenting to him but he will take the time to listen to it and we will ping pong it back and forth until we get the perfect scenario. That’s what I love the most about AEW so far.” 

Wheeler followed up, “Like Dax said, Vince has a vision he has what he likes and he sticks to that. Who can argue with his success? He’s been around longer than any wrestling promoter ever and he’s made more money than any of them, so I can’t tell him he’s wrong. But for Tony’s approach to be so open-minded [and] for him to know that he’s going to get the most out of his performers if he listens to them and what they’re passionate about and he finds a way to make that work around his vision. He wants people to talk and to figure it out he doesn’t want it to be, ‘Alright, this is what it is. Go do it.’ He says, ‘What’s your strength, what do you enjoy, what are you best at, what do you feel?’ and you go from there. Like Dax said, it’s so liberating and it’s so fulfilling for us.” 

As it stands right now, Dax and Cash are the only tag team in wrestling to hold the WWE Raw, WWE SmackDown, WWE NXT, and All Elite Wrestling Tag Team Championship. A seal of approval for two men that have dedicated a major portion of their careers to tag team wrestling.

Currently, they are embroiled in a feud with Jurassic Express on AEW TV. Fightful has live coverage of AEW Dark every Tuesday and AEW Dynamite every Wednesday. If you miss any of the action, you can catch up with the results in our results section.

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