For many Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler enjoyed arguably the best year of their careers in 2022. FTR’s trio of matches with The Briscoes saw them climb to new heights and stake a claim as the best tag team in the world.
The pair debuted in AEW back in May 2020 and fans immediately began looking forward to a clash between the former WWE stars and the Young Bucks. The two teams finally met at Full Gear that November with the stipulation that if the Bucks lost, they would never be able to challenge for the titles again.
In the end, it was the Jackson brothers who grabbed the win after Cash missed a 450 Splash. After the match, Kenny Omega celebrated with the Young Bucks, while Hangman Adam Page looked on, playing into their ongoing story.
Dax Harwood Had Issues With Tony Khan
Speaking on his podcast, also titled FTR, Harwood recalled feeling as though he and Wheeler were simply the background to the story involving the Young Bucks and Adam Page. The star explained that he already wasn’t in the best place mentally, and this only added to the injustice he felt. Harwood said that at the time he felt lied to by Tony Khan and FTR’s relationship with the Young Bucks collapsed.
“I felt like we were a backdrop. I felt that everything we had been promised, when we came in, we were promised that the tag division was going to be built around these two teams, and I felt it wasn’t being built around us. I felt we were lied to and at the time we were being lied to. I think my relationship with Tony got even more strained, I felt the relationship with the Bucks completely deteriorated. I take the blame for that. I take the blame for it because I shouldn’t have taken wrestling so seriously.
If Tony decided that he didn’t think we were in that league or we should’ve been presented in a certain way, it’s his company. Same thing with Vince (McMahon). I hold no ill will towards Vince or Tony (Khan). Tony is one of my closest buds now and I love him for what he’s done for me and my family. I should’ve looked back and said, ‘If Tony doesn’t look at us in this light, what can I do to prove him wrong?’
Instead, I had the same thought, but I was going to be combative and fight for it, and I shouldn’t have. It’s his company. If there were, if there are ill feelings between us and the Young Bucks, it was because we took it personally and we shouldn’t have taken it personally. I think they took how we felt personally, and they probably should have because we probably weren’t being the best team players at that point. I can speak for me, I wasn’t being the best team player because of all the shit I had going on in my brain.”
Harwood wouldn’t be drawn on FTR’s current relationship with Matt and Nick Jackson.
H/t to Fightful