Why FTR Didn’t Win the AEW World Tag Team Championships Last Year

FTR had a banner year in 2022, holding the IWGP, ROH and AAA World Tag Team Championships concurrently while putting on Match of the Year candidate matches against the likes of The Briscoes, Young Bucks and Aussie Open. But the one thing Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler failed to accomplish in 2022 was win back the AEW World Tag Team Championships, despite being No. 1 contenders for the titles for over half of the year. The two finally challenged The Acclaimed for the gold on Dec. 7, only to come up short. That was the start of what is now an 0-5 losing streak for the duo, resulting in them dropping all three of their championships. 

Dax Harwood addressed the booking on the latest episode of his FTR podcast, explaining that he and Wheeler didn’t want the AEW tag titles. As of now, the only team to have ever held the titles twice is still The Young Bucks.

“I hate giving away the magic, but I have to get with the times, I guess,” Harwood said.. “That was Cash and I’s idea, the match with The Acclaimed. We wanted to have that match with them because I felt, whenever we were at our most popular in the summer, the opportunity was missed with us. I’ve expressed this to Tony (Khan) and we’ve had talks, and he has his reasons, and when he explained his reasons, they are good reasons. I felt like our opportunity was missed and there was a time where we could have went over the threshold and there was an opportunity to make us, not just the top babyface tag team, but maybe the top babyface act in the company. Right up there with (CM) Punk and Mox [Jon Moxley]. We should have, of course, I feel this way because we’re all egotistical in some way. I felt we should have been the team to topple one of the top heels in the company. That would have set us at the top and I felt we could have helped the company in that aspect, but it never happened. Cash and I wanted to do that for The Acclaimed. We wanted to give them an incredible wrestling match. It was two babyfaces, at the same time being polar opposites. One team is full of energy and full of life and oozing charisma and rapping to the ring. The other team has this guy here [himself], a 38-year-old balding mustache [laughs]. I wanted to give them a great match and we wanted to make sure they were looked as the top tag team in the company.”

“At that point in time, we didn’t want the tag belts,” he added. “We felt, if we did get the tag belts, one, this team that had, just like us, gotten organically over, the people loved and cared about them, they may be upset with us. Two, not just because my bags were heavy, but I didn’t want to have four tag team belts walking around because I felt the people would think we’re getting pushed down their throats. I knew that if we lost in the right way, we could make them feel sorry for us and make them love us even more.”

h/t Fightful