An AEW star has revealed that Randy Orton recently contacted them to heap praise on one of their matches.
2022 has been the best year in the careers of Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood. FTR are currently the Ring of Honor, NJPW and AAA World Tag Team Titles and have competed in numerous acclaimed matches with some of the best teams that the world has to offer.
Harwood has also featured in a number of highly regarded singles matches, which has only added to claims that he should be in the conversation to be ‘Wrestler of the Year’ come December.
Speaking during a recent appearance on the MackMania podcast, Wheeler and Harwood were asked bout how much importance they place on rankings, and discussions over who is the greatest of all-time. In response, Wheeler explained that while it’s great to see their name in such conversations, he already believes they are the “absolute best.”
“I mean, no one’s gonna convince me otherwise that we’re not the best tag team on the planet. So anything that doesn’t have us at the top of the list, I’m gonna discredit. Really, I think it’s nice to get accolades, it’s nice to hear people enjoy what you do and they appreciate what you do. But at the end of the day, I don’t ever go into my match thinking about how I’m gonna get that approval. I don’t think about how it’s gonna be received by critics.
I think about what I care about and what makes me feel something, and what I perceive to be making realism in wrestling as believable as possible. That’s kind of what I follow. So yeah, it’s cool, especially now getting into discussions about where we rank on the all-time list and stuff like that. It’s something to be proud of, but at the end of the day, you’re never gonna convince me we’re not the absolute best.”
Harwood added that if they were concerned with rankings they would have been AEW World Tag Team Champions since April when they became the number one ranked team in the promotion. Instead, he said that the words of legends such as Arn Anderson, Bret Hart, Edge and Randy Orton are his measure of success.
“I mean, if we were worried about rankings, we’d be tag team champions right now. We’ve been number one in AEW since [April]. For the love of god, Tony, give us a shot. The thing is with that and the rankings and stuff and people saying we’re the greatest of all time or the greatest right now or we’re the fucking worst of all time, all that is subjective, and that’s cool. But the win for me is whenever Bret Hart texts me, or Randy Orton texts me, or Edge, or Arn Anderson, or any of these guys that I look up to text me and say, ‘That was a fucking classic.’”
To hammer home that point, Wheeler then read out a text he had received from Anderson that day.
“Today at 1 p.m., from Arn Anderson, in a green text, of course. ‘Reviewed y’all’s match the Briscoes for Ad Free Shows. My god, man. What a fight. I love you guys.’ Nobody can tell me nothing. Look at these long-ass arm hairs standing up.”
Following on, Harwood added that although it may get him into trouble, he was recently contacted by Randy Orton who was full of his praise for his match against Claudio Castagnoli.
“It might get him in trouble, but whatever. After my match with Claudio, Randy Orton texts me and Claudio and could not stop talking about how great the match was, and selling and what’s missing in wrestling. He said that match is what’s missing. Yeah man, I love getting accolades and I love fans caring about us and loving us and ranking us high. But when my peers and the people I look up to are the ones who give us the accolades, that’s pretty cool.
“At the end of the day, man, I’ve never, same with Cash, have never, ever constructed a match saying, ‘Oh, this has gotta be a five-star match. We’ve gotta make this a five-star match. I don’t give one single solitary shit about any one man or woman’s opinion. I care about the masse, and if I can make the people feel a certain way, man, that’s the shit that we live for.”
Swerve in our Glory are scheduled to defeat their AEW World Tag Team Titles against The Acclaimed at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam on September 21st. It is expected that FTR will face the winners of that match.
Meanwhile, Randy Orton remains out of action due to a back injury, having not wrestled since May.
H/t to Fightful for the transcription.