On the latest “FTR” podcast, Dax Harwood talked about what happened when he got split open on his run-in with The Gunns on the Revolution PPV:
“Just like the dog collar match and the match with the Briscoes before the two out of three falls, I got my eye split open. Anybody who’s been in a real fight before knows that if you get caught right on the eyebrow, you’re gonna get split up. Austin just got lucky and he caught me right in the eyebrow. Didn’t get lucky enough though because we beat that ass for real and we were all throwing punches, and you know, shit happens. I got a black eye, got a few stitches in it, and I’m ready to get back to work.”
Dax was asked if the rumors and reports are true that he does have a long-term contract and he is working the fans for storyline purposes saying he will make his decision in April on what he wants to do going forward:
“Zero has changed. Let’s put it that way. We got a call from Tony and this was maybe five days before the pay-per-view. Maybe it could have been four days before the pay-per-view. I don’t know and I’m just guessing that he either heard a clip, listened to the podcast, or read one of the headlines where I said, ‘We were ready to come back, our bodies were healed, we were just waiting for the call and we wanted to do what was right by business because we are we are contracted through April.’
“You and I’ve been talking over the last couple of months, but just recently we’ve been talking about, you know, what my status is with the company. Here’s the thing. Cash and I never ever work. We’re not trying to hold up anybody, AEW or WWE or New Japan. We’re not trying to hold anybody up for more money. We’re not trying to play the game, as far as like, ‘Well, they’re gonna offer us this and they’re offering us this. It’s not even about that. Money is a big factor, but what’s gonna make us happy? Weighing options, there are a ton of options.”
“Tony Khan is on to something incredible changing the industry. Over the last three or four years, he has done exactly that. Whatever you believe or think about him, or, you know, whatever you want to say, he has completely changed our industry, because for so long, there was one place to go. There was one place that fans could go and watch and that’s it. I think that I am being a realist when I say this, and I think there’s other people that believe this too. The product, WWE, had gotten stagnant for a very long time because there was that one place to go. Tony came along and he is a heavy hitter and he brought in some heavy hitters with him and that made WWE step their game up as you can see the last couple of months. They really have.”
“But I would never, you know, for monetary gain, I would never play someone, especially someone I’m as close to as Tony. Especially someone who I was as close to Hunter, who I owe a lot to. I would never play them for monetary gain. Our choice right now is strictly on happiness. That’s all.”
“So the pros of staying in AEW is a great schedule where I can come home and be with my family. The pros of WWE is they are the number one, and at least for the foreseeable future, too, they are the number one money making professional wrestling company in the world. They could offer us a great deal too. I don’t think WWE, I don’t feel like we will be able to have the kind of schedule that we would like to. Another pro for AEW is that, well, unless Tony changes his mind come April, we will be able to do independent bookings. We have a great relationship with New Japan. New Japan is a huge dream for me and Cash being able to work there. Doing WrestleKingdom was, you know, I can’t explain it. I can’t put it towards how emotional that was for us. But doing New Japan, doing the Independents, going out and being able to do Comic-Cons and things and meeting some of our fans, those are the pros in AEW. WWE, they’re on a creative high right now and I think that they could be able to keep that creative high up. They are the number one, like I said, wrestling promotion, one of the top entertainment acts in the whole wide world. They have a proven track record. So there’s a lot of things that we got to weigh. Like I said, it strictly comes down to happiness.”
“I don’t want to say that the report is right or wrong because it doesn’t matter. Half the people are going to go on Twitter and most of them will say that I’m lying and trying to work them. I have pitched things to you for the podcast that didn’t go through my mind initially thinking that we were going to work our fans, but it was working our fans and you pitched back, ‘Hey, I don’t think that’s the thing to do because it looks and sounds like we’re working our fans.’ I said, ‘You’re exactly right. That’s the last thing we want to do is work our fans.’”
‘There’s no gain for me. There’s zero gain for me and Cash right now if we’re lying to the public. No gain at all. What is it going to do if I lie to you and say, ‘Oh, no, we’ve signed a deal,’ or, ‘No, we haven’t signed a deal.’ There’s zero gain in that. If anything, it’s hurting us because if we’re lying, then that goes against our word with either Tony or Hunter or Vince or whoever or New Japan or AAA or, you know, whatever. So there’s zero gain in that.”
“I will say that these reports are going to say whatever they want and that’s okay. I will just say nothing has changed and please allow everything to play out because come April, you’ll be able to understand what we’re doing and where we’re going.”
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.
