FTR Further Explain Why They Decided To Stay In AEW

After months of rumour and speculation, FTR committed their futures to All Elite Wrestling, with the team defeating The Gunns for the AEW World Tag Team Championships on April 5 to end all doubt of what their next move would be.

During a recent conversation with Uproxx, the team of Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood shed some light on why they chose to stay with AEW, saying the following:

“To be able to go to Japan and do what we’ve done, to go to Mexico and do what we’ve done, to go work for these independents and do stuff with Bret (Hart), to do stuff that we’ve had on our bucket list, that from 2014 to 2020 was not even possible. There’s so much more we can do and we wanted to do,” Wheeler said. “There’s more to wrestling than one company. I love getting to go in front of 2,000 people, 20,000 people, whatever it is, as long as they care and they love what we do. It’s the passion that these fans bring to us that really helped elevate us to where we are now. So it’s hard to say bye.”

Many fans joked that Vince McMahon returning to WWE helped make FTR’s decision for them, and whilst Harwood admits that speculation of McMahon’s return helped, the team had already made their minds up ahead of the recent WWE sale to Endeavor, and Vince’s official return:

“I think that Tony [Khan] gets Dax and Cash, FTR, better than Vince,” Harwood said. “I think he understands that we are average, everyday human beings that just caught on with the fans because they can relate to us, because we’re either family men or just regular human beings. We just enjoy physicality and we enjoy fighting, and I think that they can live their lives through us. (Vince has) a business track record that proves that he is obviously very intelligent to the business, but I think he thinks he knows what the Revival was better than we did. That’s why he came up with all those cartoon costumes he gave us. In contrast, Tony understands that no one knows who we are better than us, and no one can display our characters or show our characteristics better than we can.”

Wheeler continued, “The conversations we have with Tony, the relationship we have with Tony compared to [Triple H] or Vince, we get along well with both those guys over there. Vince, to our faces anyway, was always very respectful, respected our work. Same with Hunter. But with Tony, I feel like we can have open, honest discussions with him about how we feel, where we think we need to change something or pivot. And I know that he’s receptive to it.”

The more relaxed touring schedule of AEW was another important factor, with Harwood revealing it gives him more time to spend with his family:

“I’m very glad and very fortunate that we made the decision to stay here in AEW. My family is very happy and very supportive of that because now I get to be home and go to Finley’s soccer games and dance practice and gymnastic meets and things like that,” Harwood said. “And overall, in the next few years, FTR will be able to continue to cement our legacy and hopefully, and I say this with humility, hopefully go down as at least one of the greatest tag teams of all time.”