Dax Harwood recalls another pitch for The Revival during their time in WWE.
It's fair to say that FTR's Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler have a great love and respect for the tag teams that paved the way for them. Even in their presentation, their respect for tag team wrestling shines through. FTR has moves named after The Brain Busters and a theme song inspired by The Midnight Express.
Therefore, when FTR was working for WWE, and they were pitched a gimmick where they would mimic teams of the past for the purposes of comedy, it never sat well with Dax.
"Before the clown outfits were presented to us, the initial idea was, Cash and I were going to be a different 80s wrestler or tag team every week. Bruce (Prichard) told us this," Dax recalled on the FTR podcast. "He tried to sell us, ‘this is the greatest thing in the world. Week one, you’re going to come in as The Fantastics. We’re going to give you the little trunks with your ass cheeks hanging out. You’re going to wear coattails and high-top hats, you come strutting out, sequins everywhere. Next week, you’re gonna be the Bushwhackers, you come out and lick each other’s heads and do the walk. The next week, you’re going to come out in tassels and wearing old rock n roll headbands, you’ll be the Rock N Roll Express. The following week, you’ll be Bobby (Eaton) and Dennis (Condrey), and we’ll give you mullets.’
"You think this is money? This was when we had turned down the contracts," Dax added. "You’re going to waste television time to have us do this, just to embarrass us? That’s the part to me that’s stupid. Not giving us the characters that is stupid, you’re going to waste television time to embarrass us, why, to make Vince (McMahon) laugh? Bruce is going to call us in his office to try to sell us on it, as it’s this great visionary idea. I looked at Bruce, we kind of had words, ‘You think this is good?’ ‘This is great for you guys, it’s what you need.’ I’m going to be making fun of the people that I think have built this business and legacy. We’re not only going to shit on me and Cash, we’re going to shit on them too, ‘the Rock N Roll Express are nothing but jokes. The Fantastics and Fabulous Ones were corny 80s wrestling.’ These are my heroes. The next week they told us that, they gave us the verbiage of ‘going down yonder to sit on the creek with our grandma and grandpa to shoot some muskrats.’ Whatever they think rednecks say. I had the mic to say the verbiage and I said, ‘this is some real Martin Scorsese shit,’ and I threw it down."
Dax then recalled being called into Triple H and Bruce Prichard's office. Once there, Hunter laughed at what Dax had done. Bruce, however, spoke to Dax about the comparisons between FTR and The Brain Busters, Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard. According to Dax, Prichard claimed the former Horsemen "never draw money" as a team.
"I got called to Hunter [Triple H] and Bruce’s office. Hunter did laugh, he thought it was funny. They never devoted TV time to let us develop as characters, but they were willing to devote TV time for this and to try and embarrass guys who I considered to be heroes. That’s what bothered me," said Dax. "Bruce could have easily said, ‘I know this isn’t the greatest creative in the world, but as professionals, just go out there and show 'em. Show 'em you can make this work,’ but he didn’t. He tried to sell it to us. He said, ‘everyone compares you guys to Arn (Anderson) and Tully (Blanchard), being this great tag team. Honestly, Arn and Tully never drew money.’ ‘You think so?’ ‘Yeah, they never drew money.’ ‘You’re telling me 1985-1986 Crockett, they didn’t draw money?’ ‘No, they didn’t draw money.’ ‘With the Four Horsemen?’ ‘No, they didn’t draw money.’ Whatever."
Since leaving WWE, FTR has had the honor of headlining multiple TV shows and pay-per-views in AEW and ROH. FTR is taking a hiatus to heal their bodies after a long 2022 inside the squared circle.
Recently, Tony Khan said he'd be open to having FTR return to AEW. Read more here.
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