Dax Harwood on his goals for 2025, helping out after Hurricane Helene, more

Speaking with 3NT Wrestling Podcast, Dax Harwood revealed that he told Cash Wheeler he’d be happy if they retired. This was due to all they have accomplished as a team in wrestling.

He also explained how their goal in 2024 was to build up other wrestlers, using Daniel Garcia as a prime example:

“I talked to Cash, and we had taken a step back to look at our career. I was very, very happy and content with what we’d accomplished. I told him at the beginning of 2024, ‘If we retired today, I’d be happy. I’d be okay with what we’ve done.”

“So, for 2024, our goal was to help make wrestlers—to help create younger stars. Again, I don’t like getting into too much inside baseball. But if you look at our 2024, we lost more than we won. You could say that was by design. We wanted to help the company as much as we could but also bring up these younger stars.”

“My idea for 2024 was to focus on guys like Rush, Dralistico, and Daniel Garcia, that was a pet project of mine. I saw something in Garcia. I wanted to help bring him up.”

“At the same time, I wanted to reintroduce guys who I think are still incredible wrestlers and big stars for us, like the House of Black. That was our game plan for 2024. To elevate the next generation and remind people of just how great some of these talents still are.”

Dax Harwood On His Goal For 2025:

“Now 2025 is rolling around, and I feel like we might have done ourselves a disservice in 2024 by being maybe a little too giving keeping ourselves in the background a bit too much. For 2025, I want to continue building AEW, growing our television shows, and strengthening our relationship with Max now that we’ve started streaming there. But, selfishly, I also want to remind people that FTR are the greatest tag team in the world. Even though we’ve got a little bit of age on us, I turned 40 this year, I feel better physically than I ever have in my life.”

“I’m ready to remind people what tag team wrestling truly is. Unfortunately, I think it might have taken a step back this year, and I believe it’s our job, our duty as FTR, to bring tag team wrestling back to the main event scene.”

Dax Harwood On Helping Out After Hurricane Helene:

“You don’t even think about your position, per se. I just remember, whenever this happened, my first thought was, ‘How do I keep my family safe?’. But then, after the storm subsided and I realized all the damage that had gone on, the very first thing my wife and I thought of was, ‘What can we do to help?’

“We felt so helpless. Thankfully, we’re employed by an incredible human being who gave me the time off I needed but also continued to pay me during that time. There are so many families and individuals who don’t have that luxury. They went to sleep the night before and woke up the next morning with nothing—no job, no food, no home to return to. You’re in a state of helplessness, and the first thing I wanted to do was figure out how we could help.”

“The level of excitement to bring awareness is obviously there. I’m fortunate enough to have the ability to reach hundreds of thousands, even millions of people, and use that platform to continue raising awareness for Western North Carolina. It was very frustrating to see the national news media not focus on this area not until tragedy started striking. Then, as the week went on, they moved on. I get it—the world moves on. But we still need help, and that’s what AEW is here to do: to help.”

On AEW Fight For The Fallen:

Dax continued, speaking about AEW Fight for the Fallen and all the good Tony Khan and AEW have done for the victims of Hurricane Helene.

“Asheville, you know, January 1st is an extremely important day. For the first time ever, we’re going to be simulcast on both TBS and Max. And for the first time ever, AEW is coming to Asheville, North Carolina.”

“Tony Khan could’ve put on this simulcast in a massive venue and made our company look bigger than ever. He could’ve said, ‘Our first simulcast, live from Los Angeles at the Kia Forum!’ But he didn’t. He realized that something was bigger than professional wrestling and that is making sure families can be taken care of.”

“We’re also the first entertainment event to be held in Asheville since Hurricane Helene, and it was very important to Tony to ensure that funds go back into this city. A lot of people don’t know this, but Tony personally stepped up. Myself and Adam called him, and we talked about what we needed. He had already donated a ton of money, but Adam mentioned that we had these huge Starlinks donated by Elon Musk. The issue was, we didn’t have the smaller Starlinks needed to go out into the woods and up to the mountains to find people and give them communication access.”

“Without any hesitation, Tony sent hundreds of Starlinks to Asheville, North Carolina, on his own dime. That allowed us to find people who were still missing and communicate with them. My tag partner, Cash, even opened a GoFundMe we just hoped to raise $5,000 but ended up raising over $70,000 for the community and local charities. So, what I’m getting at is, obviously, this is a big deal for FTR.”

(Source: 3NT Wrestling/Danny T Lancaster)