In February, it was revealed that AEW stars FTR had been named the Wrestling Observer Tag Team of the Year, beating The Briscoes and The Young Bucks at second and third place. They also took home the prize for Feud of the Year alongside The Briscoes.
Numerous AEW stars were the recipients of Wrestling Observer awards, and the company’s social media congratulated many of its wrestlers on their accomplishments, but noticeably didn’t include Dax Harwood or Cash Wheeler in their tweets, even omitting them from their Feud of the Year tweet congratulating The Briscoes.
Speaking on the latest episode of FTR with Dax Harwood, the former ROH Tag Team Champion spoke about the situation, admitting that the snub did make him feel slighted, especially as he and his tag team partner had worked so hard.
“Yeah, I did feel slighted. I can’t lie. I mean, yeah, it was, just because we worked so hard last year. And we did, you know, with what I feel was not the best content, not the best effort to maximize our momentum from last year. I feel we did our best to make everything work.
“And for them not to acknowledge us really did, you know, it hurt me a bit because and I’m sure Road Dogg will say I’m taking this too seriously. But it did hurt me a bit because I worked so hard last year, Cash and I both worked so extremely hard to make 2022 a year that, you know, will go down in the FTR history books.”
Dax Harwood Admits He Understands Why AEW Wouldn’t Highlight FTR During Their Hiatus
When the Wrestling Observer Awards were announced, Harwood and Wheeler were in the middle of an extended hiatus from All Elite Wrestling. Until their surprise return at AEW Revolution, it was believed that they might be off television until April, when their contracts were reportedly set to expire.
Continuing on his podcast, Harwood admits that he may have rushed his tweet expressing displeasure over being omitted from AEW’s social media congratulations. He said he now understands why the company may not have wanted to highlight FTR while their contract statuses were up in the air.
“But, you know, two things, I’m just so glad that they did at least acknowledge The Briscoes and give Jay that moment to shine. But the second thing was after I got my feelings hurt, and probably rushed to tweet, and so thinking about it and saying, hey, just delete it, don’t don’t say anything. I started thinking, and I’m like, okay, we are a team that’s got a little bit of buzz about us. We’ve been doing this for a while.
“And we have no clue, they have no clue more importantly, what our futures is going to be. So should I really be upset at the fact that they omitted us because I don’t know if I owned a company. And I didn’t know if, if my employee or my talent or whatever, wasn’t going to be there in a month? Would I highlight him? Or her?”
Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler made their surprise returns to All Elite Wrestling television at Revolution on March 5th, confronting AEW Tag Team Champions The Gunns after they retained their titles in a fatal four way match. The following Wednesday, FTR made their intentions clear when they called out The Gunns on Dynamite.
If you use any quotes from this transcription, please credit FTR with Dax Harwood and link back to this article with a h/t to Inside the Ropes.