Harwood also spoke about D.I.Y. using the Shatter Machine.
The duo of FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) have held Tag Team Championships in WWE, AEW, Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro-Wrestling and AAA.
Harwood reached 20 years in the wrestling business and celebrated by hosting a Q&A on Instagram Live. He was asked to give his Mount Rushmore of tag teams and among those he mentioned during his response was The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods & Big E). Harwood said without them, there would not have been a resurgence of tag team wrestling.
If I had to go off the top of my head for a Mount Rushmore of tag teams, I would have to say — and obviously, I’m gonna exclude us (FTR). But I’d have to say, obviously Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. I think Bobby (Eaton) and Dennis (Condrey), the greatest working tag team of all-time. I want to put Tully (Blanchard) and Arn (Anderson) there but the fact is they were only a team for a few short years but I’ll put Tully and Arn there, and maybe The Usos — excuse me, The Usos definitely should be there but I meant to say maybe The New Day. Someone wrote The Usos down here but Usos, any day of the week I could flip-flop. But maybe New Day. I think without The New Day, you wouldn’t have seen the resurgence of tag team wrestling. They were so key in helping us but, also to reintroduce tag team wrestling to a national mainstream audience.
A fellow tag team in WWE that Harwood and Wheeler have clashed with on multiple occasions is D.I.Y. (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa).
He spoke about Ciampa and Gargano using the Shatter Machine finisher and said he loves it. Harwood feels he owes D.I.Y. a big part of his career. Ciampa let Harwood know that D.I.Y. would start using the move.
Thoughts on D.I.Y. using the Shatter Machine? Uh, I love it. I love those guys. I owe those guys a big part of my career and if I’m being honest, I was texting with Tommaso (Ciampa) before that and he let me know that they were going to use the Shatter Machine in their match to try to win the belts and I was very, very — I get really emotional, especially on the other side, the other team, WWE. When I see the move done and I hear it called Shatter Machine because you gotta understand man, it’s really hard to come up with something authentic or something new and I feel that we did that with the Shatter Machine. We came up with this new move and we named it. There was nobody in the office that started calling us The Revival or nobody in the office that called us Top Guys, nobody in the office that gave us, ‘No flips, just fists’ or nobody in the office that gave us Shatter Machine. We came up with all that and so, I get really emotional when I see people use it and… they still call it the Shatter Machine. Out of respect, just out of respect for us. That’s why I will never have a terrible thing to say.
Harwood and Wheeler were looking to become three-time AEW World Tag Team Champions when they challenged The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson & Nicholas Jackson) at All In.
They were unsuccessful in their attempt and after the match, Harwood was ambushed by Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake). Gibson and Drake attacked FTR again on the 8/31 AEW Collision.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the original source with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
