FTR Give More Details On Their "Handshake Deal" With AEW
FTR joined AEW a few weeks ago after a six-year run in NXT and WWE. AEW has allowed some of their talent to wrestle elsewhere, like New Japan Pro Wrestling, and the duo were asked if they have any restrictions on where they could perform when they joined The Wrestling Inc Daily podcast.
"The pandemic ? that's the only restriction we have right now and hopefully things are gonna start lightening up soon," said Dax Hardwood. "But yeah, it is almost a handshake deal. Tony trusts us and we trust Tony. We've had a lot of conversations with a lot of different guys and Cash and myself are extremely excited about the opportunities we have in front of us."
"As he said, the only restriction is the pandemic which is obviously a huge restriction. But we have our fate in our hands right now. We get to call the shots and control and say what we want to do when we want to do it," said Dax Hardwood.
"I'll say this humbly: we are a hot commodity right now. There are tons of things we want to do as we've always been extremely ambitions. We know that tag team wrestling hasn't always been seen as the sexiest form of wrestling; it's no surprise to us. But we've always been so ambitious and we set goals for ourselves that we 100 percent always think we can obtain. One of those goals is to wrestle for every company against every tag team that thinks they're better than us and prove them wrong."
FTR has revived the spike piledriver in AEW after being banned from using it in WWE. They spoke about the stigma of the move being too dangerous to use in pro wrestling.
"I think every time we ? not just me and Cash ? we step through the ropes, we are putting our health at risk and life at risk because this is something we love," said Dax. "We absolutely love it and we love entertaining the fans. We love making magic out there whether it's a straight kick to the stomach or a spike piledriver, you're putting your health at risk every time. Yes, there are some things that are more dangerous than others but that's up to the performer to make sure everything comes off the way it should come off."
"If it's executed correctly, it's no more dangerous than a straight kick to the stomach. I've watched guys take Canadian Destroyers to the apron, Canadian Destroyers off the ropes to the floor, top rope hurricanranas, reverse-ranas," Cash said before noting the wrestler that broke his neck last year in California.
"There's so many things that can go wrong out there even if you're just even one tiny step out of place or you're the least bit careless. That's wrestling and that's what we do every single day, night in and night out. We put ourselves at-risk, willingly, to entertain the fans. If you're telling me a spike piledriver is more dangerous than any of those things I just listed and then some, then I don't know what to tell you. We're seeing crazier moves now than we've ever seen in history. But people think the spike piledriver, which has been around and as far as I can tell, Arn and Tully never hurt anybody with it. It's all about how you do it; it's not just what you do."
At Fight for the Fallen, FTR will square off against the Lucha Bros after both teams were involved in an 8-person tag at Fyter Fest. FTR discussed what fans can expect when the two teams step in the ring for a traditional tag match this Wednesday night.
"We're extremely excited about it. We came to AEW for a reason and it's because the amount of extremely talented tag teams they have there and obviously near the top of that list you're gonna have the Lucha Bros," stated Cash. "They may not follow the rules like we do; they don't FTR. They don't exactly adhere to the 10-seconds or 5-seconds or 60-seconds. They don't tag in the same corner or even in their corner half of the time. But when it comes to what they can do in the ring, there's nobody like them. We're excited because I always felt that the best matches come when there's a clash of styles. I don't think it's when two teams or people wrestle the same style. I think it's when there's a nice clash and there's not much more of a clash than this match right here."
Dax continued, "Going off with what Cash said ? we came into AEW and we have a different style than everybody else and everybody else in the world, not just AEW. But they do have the top tag teams from across the country and across the world. So, we're very excited about joining AEW and working with these guys."
"The thing with the Lucha Bros is they are the complete antithesis to what Cash and myself are. We are traditional tag team wrestlers. We follow the rules and our style with their style is gonna be something intriguing for the fans. I guarantee we'll give them the best American tag team wrestling match they've ever had."
FTR can be seen every Wednesday night, 8/7c, as part of AEW Dynamite on TNT. FTR's full interview aired as part of today's episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.