FTR have responded to recent speculation suggesting WWE are interested in re-signing them, questioning the true motives of the sports entertainment giant.
Throughout the early months of 2022 FTR have been on arguably the most impressive run of their careers. Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler currently stand as the AAA and Ring of Honor World Tag Team Champions, and have delivered a series of matches which have been praised across the board.
With their stock never higher, on April 19th it was reported that WWE were now interested in re-signing the pair who performed as The Revival in the company from 2014 until 2020.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Sessions with Renee Paquette, FTR addressed the rumours and reflected on why they chose to leave WWE back in 2020. Harwood explained that they had to switch from WWE as they knew there was a limit on what they could achieve there, adding that the pair would never negotiate with another company while under contract, out of respect for Tony Khan.
“I think we know about as much as everyone else does,” Dax said. “We left that place because they didn’t put a focus on tag team wrestling and we knew there was a ceiling to where we could go in the company. We wanted to do more, we wanted to be known as the greatest tag team of all time and we had to leave there to do that. We knew that and that’s why we were so persistent on them giving us our releases.
“Now, I see on the screenshot of all the different news outlets saying they want to resign us. And that’s flattering, that’s cool, we’ve got some more time left but I told Tony that there’s no way that we would ever talk contracts with anybody while we were working for him. We have way too much respect for him and our word means something.”
Continuing on, Harwood even suggested that the interest could be more to do with keeping the team away from AEW, than the team actually being wanted in WWE.
“Then I started thinking do they want us or do they want AEW to not have us? It’s cool for Cody to do what he has done but there’s just so many unknowns there. Would they ever be able to focus on tag team wrestling like we’ve been able to the last few years? Money is not everything for us, I do have a family so I could take care of them but it’s not all about the money, it’s about what we leave behind for wrestling too.”
Meanwhile, it has been announced that FTR will be squaring off against each other on the April 27th episode of AEW Dynamite in a qualifying match in the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. The two men have since revealed that it was their idea to wrestle each other.
H/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.