FTR’s pro wrestling future has been the subject of a great deal of interest. The decorated duo dominated the AEW, ROH, AAA, and NJPW tag team divisions in 2022 but had been conspicuously absent from AEW TV since the beginning of the year. Their disappearance coincided with comments made by Dax Harwood that he and Cash had begun weighing their decision on where to sign when their AEW contracts expire in April.
Since that time, speculation has run wild about what FTR’s next move will be, including some fans believing the duo could somehow make a surprise WWE return during WrestleMania 38. That speculation has only gained steam in recent weeks as Harwood has announced an FTR w/ Dax live podcast recording in Los Angeles, where WrestleMania 39 is being held, for the Thursday before the big show.
In a Haus of Wrestling exclusive interview, Harwood clarified when FTR’s contracts will expire in April. “It is not April 1st,” Harwood stated. “No, it is April 17th? Maybe 13th? I have to talk to my gimmick attorney Mike Dawkins, he’s got it all in this big folder deal. That’s when our contract is up. Actually, just a few days ago was three years since we got our release from WWE.”
Harwood has made it clear in recent days that FTR has decided what their next move will be but are not yet ready to make it public. One of the factors the two men have weighed when making that decision is the creative direction they will be given wherever they sign. The landscape in WWE has changed greatly since FTR last wrestled there with their former NXT boss, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, taking the creative reigns over from Vince McMahon. However, new reporting has indicated that Vince McMahon may be back in the WWE fold and is possibly quietly putting his fingerprints on various parts of the product.
“I don’t know exactly what the creative vibe backstage (at WWE) is but I will say they are producing some pretty great television, especially with The Bloodline angle that everyone is talking about,” Harwood began. “I see that Hunter has put some stock back into the mid-card titles, like the Intercontinental and United States titles, which is promising.
“I will say, God dang, I am already going to get myself in trouble, Nick. I will say, I feel that WWE could still put a little more stock in their tag team division and that was our biggest gripe before we left. We wanted the opportunity to make more money in WWE but we wanted the opportunity to prove that we could make money and to do that we needed to work money-making angles with tag teams, and they weren’t pushing the tag team division then. I feel now, and I don’t watch the product every week but the things I see, I still think they could do a lot with the tag team division that they aren’t doing.”
Over in AEW, FTR seems poised for a collision with The Gunns to potentially reclaim their AEW Tag Team Championships. If that happens, it would seemingly cement FTR’s decision going forward as they would become the focal point of the All Elite tag division.
“I feel that, and listen, FTR had a great 2022,” Harwood prefaced. “I feel that there was a missed opportunity with our momentum. I feel that outside of The Briscoes angle, and even that wasn’t on television, outside of that we had no distinct storylines for television. Our opportunity to grow as characters maybe wasn’t there like I would have liked it. There’s a lot of different factors that I have to think about. I don’t want to go somewhere just to be there, I want to go somewhere that wants me and Cash. I think was my biggest ‘thought hurdle’ in deciding where we were going to go. Who really wants us and who just wants us away from the competition?”
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