In August 2023 it was reported that Cash Wheeler was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a firearm. Wheeler allegedly flashed a gun at the alleged victim.
He continued to appear and perform on AEW television until the case was dropped in May 2024.
Speaking to Renee Paquette on Close Up, Cash opened up regarding the situation.
"It was a very rough patch. From August, when I found out about it, to May when everything finally got dismissed, as it should have been the whole time. It was a long stretch. There was a point in time where I couldn't think about life after May because I knew everything hinged on that. That was the be all, end all. I told my lawyers when it happened; I would not take any sort of plea deal, I would not plead guilty to any charge. I was not guilty and I would not take any sort of plea. On the flip of that, it means I faced the full repercussions if they do find me guilty," he said.
Asked what would have happened had he been found guilty, Cash said, "I don't know for sure because it's based on priors and history, which I don't have. The maximum, if the judge sees fit, is five years in prison. I knew that, but I also knew that I didn't do it and I was not going to sit here and be like, 'I'll take any charge to not go to jail.' If I do that, AEW has to get rid of me. I can never leave the country again. Everything I ever worked for, over something that never happened. The way it all went about, I don't see how it ever got that far. I didn't find out about it until a week after the fact. They never pulled me over and found anything. They never came to my house and searched. They never had a witness, a picture, a video. All they had was one guy's statement and that was it. I found out a week later that there was already an arrest warrant for me."
Asked what it was like coming into work every week, Dax gave his side of things to start.
"I don't want to speak for him. From my perspective, he told me when everything happened. I guess a week after he told me what happened, he said, we have two separate contracts. He said, 'I think I'm going to retire because I don't want to subject you to any of this stuff that I'm going through.' He knew the backlash on Twitter because it's a cesspool. 'I'm just going to retire. You don't have to worry because your contract is with you. I'm going to leave wrestling.' I had to talk him into not retiring," said Dax.
Cash continued, "For me, I didn't love it. At the same time, it was the only chance I had to escape from that. I literally didn't know which match would be the last one. Every time we were going out there, 'Alright, let's go out there.'"
Dax said, "I was afraid. I was afraid for him, but I was afraid for us. We've worked so hard...now, it's almost cliche to say, 'I bet on myself.' If you really think about it, we were the first guys that left the other company because we believed in what we thought we could be. We had done so much great stuff and had built this legacy that I am so proud of. I remember all those days, coming into work, talking to him on the phone, I had to be so positive for him because I knew, if it were me, there is no way I could sleep at night. Sometimes, if you have that calming voice...when we went to Wembley and wrestled The Bucks in front of 80,000 people, that's when I was like, 'I think we're going to be okay.' I was expecting the fans to turn on us. They didn't. They embraced us and loved us more."
FTR traveled to London weeks after the arrest became public to face The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson & Nicholas Jackson) for the AEW Tag Team Titles at AEW All In 2023.
Cash said about coming into work, "The things about coming into work. I'm sure there were people that talked when I wasn't around and I'm sure there were people that had whispers and whatever, but I never wasted too much thought about that. I can't. I have to be able to compartmentalize these things. I did what I could with it. I knew I was innocent and that's the one thing I think kept me from being too stressed out about it. I'm taking all the precautions I can. I'm thinking, if it goes to trial, there is a good chance that somebody finds me guilty. I did what I could. When we got back from Wembley, the day that I landed, I paid thousands of dollars out of pocket to drive to Tampa to take a polygraph test, which I passed. The general public are going to have their thoughts and beliefs. The ones that want to think I'm guilty are going to think it no matter what. The ones that believe me, they believed me the whole time. It was something that I was willing to do. It's an hour long process. It's the same ten questions, they ask in a different order and they ask four times. I was willing to go through it. I did everything I could on my end to make sure the people who did believe in me (were justified)."
Cash detailed the polygraph experience, explaining what they hook you up to and how they monitor your answers. He said that he told HR and Dax when he found out about things, and he wanted to turn himself in, but the person working his case "fell off the map for weeks."
Once it was arranged that he would turn himself in, he called his family to inform them of the situation.
Dax said when Cash first pulled him aside to talk to him, he thought it was going to be an intervention and Cash was going to say he was an alcoholic because Dax, admittedly, likes to have a drink after his matches.
FTR are set to compete on Saturday's AEW Collision.
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