Former AEW World Tag Team Champion Dax Harwood has revealed that he’s battling a severe back injury which he suffered back at AEW Dynasty in April. At the event, FTR went up against their greatest rivals — the Young Bucks — in a ladder match. Harwood said in a video shared to his X account that he suffered a hematoma on his lower back because of the injury.
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A hematoma is just a fancy word for a really bad bruise, which can be due to trauma or disease. Harwood claims that he lied about the severity of his injury following that match because he didn’t want the tag team to be taken off the road due to it but he has been in excruciating pain. After facing the Blackpool Combat Club’s Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta on AEW Collision this past week, he explains the hematoma “blew up.”
When AEW’s medical team learned of the injury, he was immediately pulled off the road so as not to make things worse or have him forced into retirement. FTR has been in the midst of a storyline with AEW’s EVPs Matthew and Nicholas Jackson as well as Jack Perry and Kazuchika Okada. Harwood and Cash Wheeler were just two members of Team AEW who went up against the new version of The Elite at Double or Nothing in Anarchy in the Arena.
“… So going forward, I got to be truthful with you guys. I got to be truthful with my bosses. I got to be truthful with the medical staff. And I don’t know how long this is going to last,” Harwood said in the video which can be viewed in full below. “I don’t know how long we’re going to have to be off. But unfortunately, and maybe fortunately for some of you people that don’t like FTR, myself and Cash will not be on television for a while. I have to rest this thing up. The sleepless nights have been catching up with me because I cannot get a comfortable position even in my bed.”
“So you got to think, if I can’t get a comfortable position in my bed, imagine the plane rides or the top rope superplexes and all this stupid s–t that I do at almost 40 years old. But I hope you know, and I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of people that give me some grief for it, but I hope you know all this is for the love of the game and it’s for the love of all you fans. Again, I’m not sure how long we’ll be back. I hope it’s sooner than later. But I hope when we come back, we can come back better than ever. My number one priority in this profession is the legacy. Obviously, I know I get flack for the legacy of FTR, and I never wanted it to go away. Thank you guys for everything. Thank you to my work, to my bosses, to everyone who didn’t give me any shit for lying to them and taking the steps needed that I wouldn’t take to take care of my body. Because without them, I’m sure in the next couple of months, couple of years, I’d be a crippled man, and I can’t thank them enough.”
At this time, it’s unclear just how long Harwood will be out of action, however Comicbook will continue to provide updates on the situation as they become available.
Harwood and Wheeler have been a part of AEW since their WWE departure in 2020. Just three months later they made their mark on the emerging AEW tag team division. During their time in AEW thus far, they’ve become record-breaking two-time AEW tag team champions, an accolade they were once tied with the Young Bucks until the brothers shattered their previous record. They were part of the dominating Pinnacle stable with MJF, Wardlow, Shawn Spears and Tully Blanchard, but the group eventually went their separate ways.
Prior to AEW, he had an impressive tenure in WWE which lasted roughly seven years. He first appeared on the NXT brand in 2013 but in 2014 he and Wheeler joined forces to form The Mechanics. They went through many name changes before settling on FTR, including Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson and the Revival.
Comicbook wishes Harwood the best in his recovery.
