This week on “FTR with Dax Harwood,” Dax talked about potential future opponents for FTR. He and Matt Koon did a watchalong of the American Alpha vs. Revival match from NXT Takeover: Dallas.
Dax talked about FTR finally getting to do an in-ring promo on AEW Dynamite:
“That’s something that me and Cash talked to Tony about. This is full disclosure and I hope I’m not saying anything out of place or out of turn, and I’m not trying to stir anything up. For one reason or another, whatever it is, I felt last year obviously was the biggest year of FTR’s career ever. I mean that creatively, I mean that artistically, and I mean that as far as getting over too, but I also feel that there was an opportunity missed. If you think about it and look back in June or July, we were, and I’m saying this humbly, outside of Punk in AEW, and maybe Bryan and Mox as well, and you correct me if you think I’m wrong and I won’t take offense to it at all, but we were probably the hottest babyfaces in the company at the time. On TV, there were no angles for us. No storylines. We ended up having like between six and seven tag team matches on television all year. I feel like, and I felt like, the boat was kind of missed on our momentum last year.”
“I told Tony, and Cash did as well, if we come back, because we had talks about what’s going to make us happy or what we need to stay here. Of course, I would love to have great matches, I would love to have a great match and what fans consider a great tag team match, I would love to have that every single week, but that doesn’t help us grow as characters, but also as entities in people’s minds, What we need is we need to connect with them on a deeper level. For example, the eight-year-old girl promo. After I cut that promo, I feel like we got even more over than any kind of five star match would have made us. We told Tony those are the things that we need. We need an opportunity to speak so the people can feel for us one way or the other. If they only feel for us as in we’re great wrestlers, there’s a ceiling to that. We got to make them feel. We got to humanize ourselves and make them feel for us. I think that is Tony maybe trying to make good and show that he’s on board and he wants to make this right. But yes, that’s the first time we’ve had an opportunity to really speak since the Philly promo and maybe those were the only two opportunities we’ve really had to speak in the ring.”
On who they would wrestle after The Gunns that would lead to their character growth:
“I feel like we are finally over. I feel like it started last year. I think now that we were gone for a bit, we came back, and the people actually missed us and we missed them. That’s the sign of being over, not just being cheered, or getting, ‘This is awesome’ chants, or people popping for your move. That’s not over. Being over is making these people feel and I’m just so blessed that Cash and I are fortunate enough that these people do feel a certain way about us. I feel that they also feel that we feel a certain way about them. So it’s reciprocated. But, you know, if we stick around in AEW after the thing with The Gunns is over with, we have to be presented as main event level guys. We have to be presented, no pun intended, as top guys. We need to work with main event level talent because if we don’t get an opportunity to sink our teeth into something that people perceive to be main event level stuff, main event quality stuff, then the same thing that happened last year is going to happen this year, I feel.”
If he were to go back to WWE, what tag team would he like to work with:
“Of course, first on the list has got to be The Usos. Right? They’re probably the most over tag team in the world right now, and I say that with a chip on my shoulder. That pisses me off because I feel like that’s what I think we should be presented and how we should be presented. Like, you could take those guys, singles or tag, and put them in a main event spot right now and no one would bat an eye on it and they could work with anybody.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.