Dax Harwood Announces He Is Ending His FTR Podcast

Dax Harwood announced today that his FTR podcast with Matt Koon is coming to an end after just 17 episodes.

Harwood acknowledged on today's episode, titled 'ANXIETY', that the podcast wasn't good for his mental health and he and Koon both feel the podcast was doing more damage than good for professional wrestling.

"When we started this podcast, we just wanted to do good for wrestling. I was looking forward to and, I still did, looking forward to bringing my thoughts on psychology, in-ring action, what I thought was good wrestling, my love for Bret Hart, and break down some of the things that we had done in our career and some of our biggest moments. Never in a million years, I knew that we probably would ruffle a few feathers, I know that I can," Harwood began.

Dax then noted that he stood up for what he believes in during the course of the podcast, before he continued: 

"The only thing I should apologise for is how the journalists and the news sites took a section of something I said and made it seem like I was such a bad human being. I want to apologise to not only my fans...I want to apologise to the people who already didn't like me and fans of, for example, the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, fans of MJF, or anybody else who I may have upset. I want to apologise to them because I never wanted you to hate me so much that you would say some of the things you said to me. Going into this podcast, I never thought that would happen and I hate that it happened. 

"Again, I thought I was way more mentally tough than I am but I admit that I'm not and I don't think I can handle some of the things that are said. I also don't know if I want my daughter 10 years from now to read some of the things that are said about me. But, ultimately, we all wanted to do good for wrestling and I don't think that this podcast, as much as we tried, as hard as we tried, I don't think the podcast was reflecting that for whatever reason." 

Both Dax Harwood and Matt Koon said the podcast made life more difficult for their colleagues and fans and it was ultimately more of a detriment to professional wrestling than they thought it was going to be. Harwood also revealed that his FTR tag team partner Cash Wheeler had heat after Dax mentioned he wanted to wrestle with CM Punk during one of the episodes. 

Earlier in the podcast, Harwood did read out a recent text from Wheeler after Dax received hate on social media over the weekend, in which some wished for him to lose his job.

Wheeler's text said: "I want you to know, history is going to remember this very differently when it's all said and done. By the time we're retired and set, the truth will come out and you'll be one of the ones people respect for actually being transparent and honest. Add to that...you have more integrity than pretty much anyone in wrestling and are one of the few not afraid to speak the truth without hiding behind a source."

Matt Koon stated that All Elite Wrestling did not ask or pressure Harwood to end the podcast. They simply didn't feel good about continuing it if they felt the podcast harmed AEW and pro wrestling. 

Neither ruled out bringing back FTR as a podcast in the future.