AEW's Dax Harwood Looks Back On FTR's Runs With WWE's Randy Orton, CM Punk

Currently, FTR's Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler find themselves in an alliance with "The Rated R Superstar" Adam Copeland on AEW television. Together, the three have dubbed themselves Rated FTR. During a recent interview with "WrestleZone," Harwood noted that this program is similar to their previous ones alongside CM Punk and Randy Orton, as all of the third pieces explicitly expressed interest in working with FTR. As Harwood points out, there's also some differences.

"I do think this is different. I think the run that we had, or the run that we could have had, with Punk was kind of altered by a few injuries. I think that would have been very successful. Again, it was three really good friends. I think our run with Randy would have been extremely successful. It lasted for two months and what we did was great. It could have gone on a lot longer, but this with Adam I think is way different ... We call and talk to each other every single day. We're very likeminded. Even outside the business, we're very like-minded, like Adam said, goal oriented but also family oriented."

In June 2022, an AEW World Champion CM Punk and FTR successfully defeated Max Caster and The Gunn Club (Austin & Colten Gunn) on "AEW Dynamite." Two days later, Punk announced that he sustained a foot injury that would require surgery. This effectively put the CMFTR alliance on hold until the summer of 2023, when the trio began teaming again, this time on "AEW Collision." Punk re-joined WWE in late 2023.

As for FTR's run with Randy Orton, which occurred under the banner of WWE, the three briefly worked together in the weeks following the 2019 SummerSlam event, with The New Day as their primary rivals. That October, they were split up in the WWE Draft. FTR (then known as The Revival) were assigned to "WWE SmackDown," while Orton moved to "WWE Raw."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "WrestleZone" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.