The Top Guys are in, as FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) have re-signed with All Elite Wrestling.
Harwood previously discussed how FTR’s contracts were coming up in April, and FTR took several weeks off as they healed their bodies and came to a decision about their futures. The duo returned at AEW Revolution and reignited their feud with The Gunns. Harwood and Wheeler then defeated The Gunns in a Titles vs. AEW Careers match to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship on the April 5 episode of AEW Dynamite.
Speaking about their contracts on the newest episode of FTR with Dax Harwood, he stated that their best course of action was to stay with AEW.
“As I’ve said a million times, never did I want a bidding war between WWE and AEW or to play one side against the other,” Harwood said. “I appreciate everyone that reached out to me, through other, no pun intended, endeavors or avenues and were interested in having us back, wanted to have us back, said they made a mistake in letting us go. For me, Cash, Maria (his wife), Finley (his daughter), the best course of action for us was to stick around in AEW.”
Harwood highlighted travel and legacy as two factors that made an important impact in the decision, as AEW could provide them in a way that WWE couldn’t match. He then confirmed that he and Wheeler have re-signed with AEW, and they made the choice before Vince McMahon returned to WWE.
“Yes. We have re-signed with AEW,” Harwood said. “If you think…Vince has officially been back in charge since right before WrestleMania? If you think that we put pen to paper as soon as that happened and Tony (Khan) made all the adjustments as soon as that happened. I don’t know if you understand how business or contracts work. If you think we went into the building Wednesday night with no contract signed and said, ‘we’re not going to sign unless you give us these belts.’ You’re so short-sighted. I said on the podcast months ago, we knew what we wanted to do and everything was getting fine tuned. We knew way before Vince came back in charge what was going to happen. Yes, we have re-signed with AEW.”
Harwood went on to describe how, when he was working for Vince McMahon during his previous WWE run, he felt like he was just a number. On the other hand, he stated that AEW CEO Tony Khan treats him like a human being.
“I felt that, working for Vince, I was just a number,” Harwood said. “Vince has taught his minions underneath him into thinking everyone is replaceable and everyone is just an object and he places these objects where he wants to. We’re not. Maybe in wrestling we are objects, but wrestling should be just a percentage, a small percentage, of what your life is. For better or worse, that’s how Vince runs his business. I was just a number, just an object to Vince. To Tony, I am a human being. He cares about me, my feelings, my family. Working for someone like that, obviously, is going to make our decision much easier when comparing and contrasting to a person who just has us as a number.” (Transcription credit of Jeremy Lambert of Fightful)
FTR with Dax Harwood will premiere on Wednesday, April 12, on all major podcast platforms.
