Dax Harwood Discusses His In-Ring Future, Whether CM Punk Has A Path Forward In AEW, Mark Briscoe's Singles Run, And More - EXCLUSIVE
In a professional wrestling world dominated by twists and turns, Dax Harwood has seemingly steered his own path in recent months alongside tag team partner Cash Wheeler. The nine-time tag champions have enjoyed one of the most decorated careers of any pair in history, winning titles across the world with major promotions like WWE, AEW, NJPW, AAA, and most recently, ROH.
But Harwood, 38, and Wheeler, 35, have been vocal about their careers winding down -– despite the fact they're still contending for world tag team titles. "Physically, I don't know if I want to or if I can go any further," Harwood told Wrestling Inc. in an exclusive interview.
With FTR's AEW contracts coming to an end –- "around April 16 or April 17," to be more precise — there's plenty of uncertainty and anticipation surrounding Harwood and Wheeler's decision coming in the next few weeks. Wrestling Inc. caught up with Harwood ahead of his live podcast taping this Thursday in Los Angeles (hosted by FITE TV and Thuzio) to talk about the career-altering decision he's soon set to announce, recent drama surrounding the AEW roster he's currently still apart of, and how FTR's upcoming "title vs. career" match on next week's "Dynamite" against The Gunns "could possibly rank up the biggest matches" of their careers.
Dax on Today's Professional Wrestling Landscape
This is an enormous week for you and for everybody in wrestling. You've got WrestleMania, ROH Supercard, AEW's even debuting a new show. What's it like to be a pro wrestler right now?
Yeah, man, I think being a pro wrestler and being a pro wrestling fan is probably better than it's ever been. I know a lot of people –- especially a lot of my fans who are the old school fans -– are probably going to scoff at that. I mean, you think about it, dude, we got wrestling on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, you can even find it on Thursdays if you look hard enough, and Fridays. For wrestlers too, for so long we weren't making the money that a lot of people think. We weren't being compensated. The people that were making money were the promoters. That's why Vince [McMahon] is a billionaire. Then you see people, one of my favorite human beings and wrestlers of all time, Bobby Eaton, and he kind of died without anything. But it's because someone like him wasn't making the money that he deserved.
I think now we have avenues and ventures, like we have at WrestleCon. This is me and Cash's first ever WrestleCon. Dude, I'm very, very, very excited about that, because our last few meet and greets — which we've only done a handful of them –- but our last few meet and greets have been packed, man. I love meeting those people, but WrestleCon is a place that we're allowed to, one, our exposure goes through the roof, but also we're allowed to profit monetarily too. But not just our exposure profits, but tour money profits too.
There's a lot of great things going on for the wrestler nowadays and professional wrestling, but I think above all, man, if you're a fan of hardcore, Mid South-style, Mid Atlantic-style wrestling fan, you can find that –- especially with myself and Cash, pat us on the back. If you want to find something like Lucha libre, that's right on TV too, you know what I mean? Being a wrestling fan right now is hotter than it's ever been.
Dax Shares His Thoughts on CM Punk and the AEW Locker Room
I want to ask you more about your career and the podcast in a second. But over in AEW, where you're at right now, things have been a little tense over the past few months with everything at All Out, and it all kicked back up again this week. What was your response when you saw all that come back up again with Punk's accusations in his Instagram post and Jon Moxley's response the next day in his interview?
Everyone's talking about it. Everyone has their own opinion, and I have my own opinion too. It doesn't mean it's right, it doesn't mean it's wrong. However, you preface this with that there's a lot of tenseness, I guess, in the locker room. But man, there really isn't. There really is not. There have been some things that have happened, but this is a sporting company. This is a professional wrestling company. The same thing has happened in any kind of sports. Okay, so I played football in high school, I played basketball in high school and even after, in community college I've played as well. If you knew how many times -– especially my hot-head ass -– how many times I got into a scuffle with my teammate and then picked him up off the ground and said, "Hey, dude, that was f*****g stupid, I'm sorry." It would blow your mind.
The same thing in WWE happened. How many fights we saw in the back at WWE, or how many fights we almost see happen, and they were broken up? It happens everywhere. It just so happens that now in 2022, 2023, social media is so prevalent and everyone is an expert and they want to get their opinions out there as fact. There is only one real fact, and I don't know if anybody will ever know, because you got two parties to that one instance you're speaking about, and you never know what's going to be true. What I do know to be true is that both parties want AEW to survive. Both parties want AEW to be your best ever. I know that for a fact. And to do that, we all have to work together because they're all a vital part of the company. They're all a vital part of professional wrestling.
With the Punk situation, I can understand where he is coming from, why he put that out there. I don't know if it's true or if it's not true, that's for him and everyone else to discuss. What I do know is that if I read and if I heard -– which I have through Bryan Alvarez so much, especially recently about myself -– if I read and I heard for over six months about how s**t of a person I am or how much heat I have in the locker room, or how everyone hates me or I'm a cancer, I would probably explode too at some point. I probably would've exploded a lot sooner than he did. That's not taken up for him, that's just telling you my truth like I do on my podcast.
Does Punk have a path back?
Yeah, I appreciate that perspective. Obviously, you and a select few people in the world have ever crossed that sacred boundary into the locker room space.
I think it's because no one wants to ruffle feathers. I'm not afraid of ruffling feathers. I don't want to ruffle feathers, but I also want everyone to know that each party is not the s**t human that they're being made out to be. If someone said, "Sean is a piece of s**t. Sean is a terrible human being, Sean is the sh*t on the bottom of my shoe," eventually you're going to say, "Okay. F***, enough, man. Enough. Now I want to get my truth out." And I get that from him. I get that from every other party too. We just need to make a way –- find a way -– to make some money off of this and make AEW the best possible brand because we have the best talent and we have the best stories, if we're allowed to tell them. If things happen where I do stick around and Cash sticks around, I would love to be part of that story.
Do you see a path forward for CM Punk to come back to AEW?
Well, I've always been a pretty optimistic person, even to the point where it's failed in my life and made me fail. I feel like yes there is, and I feel like there could be a point that he comes back. I do also feel that he should come back and he has to finish his story. If he comes back, I want him to come back with a clear head and a clear mind, because he deserves to have a finish to his career that he wants. Regardless of what anyone thinks, he's a future hall of famer. Regardless of what anyone thinks, he's one of the greatest wrestlers of all time –- drawing wise, match wise, and personality wise. He deserves that. And he also deserves peace of mind. Above all, he deserves peace of mind. If him coming back and finishing his career and finishing his storybook career here gives him peace of mind, then I think it should happen and will happen.
Dax Discusses Mark Briscoe's Future and ROH Television Title Match
I mean, pro wrestling can be such a healing thing for people. I wanted to ask you one other thing about what's going on in the wrestling world. This weekend at ROH Supercard, you've got Mark Briscoe going for his first major singles title. What do you see for him and his future?
I think this could probably be the most important match in his career. It goes far beyond wrestling, you know what I mean? It goes far beyond the small wrestling bubble that some of us live in. This is personal. This is real life. I think he has an opportunity to put a beautiful cap on a beautiful story. I don't know where the story's going. I don't know what's going to happen, but I do know that above all, man, Mark is going to do this for Jay, and he wants to do well for Jay.
Dax Talks Retirement and FTR's Upcoming Career vs. Titles Match With The Gunns
You just mentioned that might be the biggest match in Mark's career. Next week, you've got a career vs. titles match with The Gunns. How do you rank that up there with others in your career, in terms of importance?
Man, we've had so many important matches. The Dog Collar Match. Every match with Briscoes –- which April 1, the day after my live show, will be a year since we had our first match with Briscoes. Yeah, I'd say our three matches with the Briscoes. We've got an opportunity to work with Brett [Hart]. We had Ricky Steamboat's very last match. We've won nine different championships, hopefully next week we'll have the tenth. I think this could possibly rank up the biggest matches of our career — only because so many people, whether they're a casual wrestling fan who just followed the weekly TV show or they're a diehard wrestling fan who has followed social media, they all have their opinions. They're all involved in this story, whether you're involved backstage and following my podcast or whatever in interviews I've done, like with you, and over the last year.
I've talked about, and I've been very transparent, that our contracts come up in April. I've been very transparent. You can look back at the Renee [Paquette] podcast I did over a year ago. You can look at any interview. I've been very transparent with that, and that's the real life stuff. Then also, if you look back on my match with CM Punk that I had a year and a week ago, at the very end of that match, Cash is carrying me out and in the stands on the way back is The Gunns. They're making fun of us because I lost. Now it's a year later, and we're going to put a bow on the feud. Whatever you think, whatever you've been following, you can follow this story because wrestling is so beautiful when the story is done right, and I think regardless if you're a jaded wrestling fan and you study it so hard, or you just tune in every Wednesday night, you can follow this story and you're invested.
I forgot where you might have said this — and please correct me if I'm remembering wrong — but I recall you mentioning in recent months that this next move for you and Cash might be the last of your career. Do you feel that time is running short on your career? Have you legitimately thought about retirement?
We've made our decision. I'll put that there. We've made our decision — no pen to paper, because we still have three weeks left. I think around April 16 or April 17 is when our contracts come up. We've made our decision, and it's the most important decision of our career. But it's the last decision of our career, too. That's because physically, I don't know if I want to or if I can go any further. I put this post out the other day because so many people were kind of — I don't know, I try to ignore the Twitter mentions. I go to our meet and greets and our lines are out the door. I go to these live events and the people are f*****g crying because we're coming out, and I love that. Then every once in a while, you go on Twitter and you hear the people say some negative stuff. I put on Twitter that I have to get this three inch needle injected to my knee just to make sure I have cartilage, because I have legit zero cartilage. I've had two knee surgeries on my right knee, one knee surgery on my left knee, bicep tear here [points to shoulder] that I got replaced, bicep tear here [points to other shoulder] that I haven't got replaced, and I won't get replaced, labrum tear here, labrum tear here. I want to be able, at the end of our contract, whatever we decide to do, I want to be able to play with my daughter. I want to be able to comfortably go to her soccer games or her dance meets. I feel that if I continue to push the envelope on my career just for monetary gain, that I won't be able to be the father that I want to be to her.
Dax Talks Anxiety and His FTR With Dax Harwood Podcast
I'm curious about this, too: You debuted the podcast in December. Was part of that thinking to kind of set up a safety net for your career outside of in-ring performing?
Honestly, dude, not really. Not really. I have quote-unquote safety nets. The safety nets are Airbnbs and some long-term rentals and things like that. I am a very simple man, as you can see in my plain t-shirt. I'm not very extravagant, and I've done well with saving. The reason I decided to do the podcast is because I'd been asked for years, man, and the day that I left WWE, people came to me and asked for a podcast. The whole genre of professional wrestling podcasts are so oversaturated now.
Very true.
I always said, "No, no, no." Matt Koon came to me and he said, "Hey, would you want to do a podcast?" I said, "Nah, man, I don't think so." He said, "I think you would do well at it." I said, "Look, okay, if we're going to do a podcast, obviously we have to do it under the umbrella of professional wrestling, and that's fine." I said, "Underneath it, I want it to be about anxiety and my struggles with anxiety and let people know that, man, you're not alone." When I was going through my anxiety attacks, I really thought I was the only person in the world going through it, and I was scared to death. Then, I find out through therapy and through talking to my beautiful, perfect wife and talking to a lot of people, I realized there's millions of people going through it, but nobody's really speaking up because they're afraid to. I wanted to speak up. Also, I wanted to speak about the struggles that I had with being on the road and trying to be a family man too, and all those things as a backdrop to a professional wrestling podcast. That was my ultimate goal. Monetary gain for a podcast? I wasn't worried about that at all.
Thank you, I know our time here is running a little short.
Nah, what else you got?
I saw Shawn Spears will be on your live show this week in Los Angeles. How is he doing? I know he's had a bit of a tumultuous past year and has been off AEW television a while.
Yeah. Shawn Spears is probably, top-five, one most talented wrestlers I've ever worked with in the ring. Incredible talent, incredible mind. I think, and he'll tell you this, that too late in his career he decided to be a little abrasive. I think if he was a little more abrasive up front in his career, we'd be talking about a whole different Shawn Spears or a whole different Tye Dillinger or whatever, because he's got the size man. He's tall, he's athletic, he's muscular. He looks like a million bucks. He can speak. On top of that, he's an incredible wrestler. However, I will say, I'll let him tell his own story at my live event. He's going to be there unfiltered. He's allowed to say what he wants to say, and I think he has no worries about saying what he wants to say.