While Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler are coming off the back of arguably the best year of their professional careers, their time in AEW hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
FTR signed with the company back in mid-2020 and fans’ minds immediately began looking forward to the inevitable showdown with the Young Bucks. The two teams are widely regarded as two of the best tag teams on the planet, so a potential bout was a dream match for many around the world.
The two teams finally battled at Full Gear in November 2020 and the Young Bucks emerged victorious winning the AEW World Tag Team Titles. Heading into the match the Jackson brothers knew that if they lost they would never be able to challenge for the titles again.
However, while the match was praised by fans and awarded 5 1/4 stars by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, behind the scenes the match was something of a nightmare.
Speaking on a recent episode of his FTR podcast, Dax Harwood opened up about his struggles with anxity and how they came to the surface during this period. Harwood began by revealing that it was during the build-up to the match that his conflicts with Tony Khan began. Although he was quick to note that there were no problems with the Young Bucks, while delving into the root of his anxity.
When asked whether this was the start of his conflict with the Young Bucks, Harwood gave a simple, to the point answer.
“100% no. We were all on the exact same page here. If anything, this was probably the beginning — this is like therapy. I’ve kind of talked to my wife about this before and even my therapist — I’ve said before, the root of my anxiety stemmed from sleep. Speaking further, the root of that, was perfectionism and it all stemmed from, and we haven’t talked about this before, and maybe one day we’ll talk to my wife about it, was the miscarriage of our baby. This is post-Finley. This is about four and a half years ago.”
Dax Harwood On His Issues With Tony Khan
Harwood added this is probably where a lot of his bitterness with the world came from, before moving back to November 2020.
“I think at this point here is where the conflicts between myself and Tony [Khan] started. I say that knowing it was not Tony’s fault. I say that knowing that AEW is his company. I felt that this match was the most important match of our careers.”
Elsewhere during the episode Harwood explained that he felt FTR were the backdrop to the story involving the Young Bucks and Adam Page, revealing that is was in the aftermath that FTR’s realtionship with the Bucks deteriorated.
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