Dax Harwood Reminisces About ROH Final Battle Dog Collar Match on 1st Anniversary
Dax Harwood reminisces on one of the bloodiest battles of his career against the Briscoes.
On the one year anniversary of the infamous Dog Collar match between FTR and The Briscoes at ROH Final Battle, one half of FTR, Dax Harwood, is reminiscing on the match. FTR vs. The Briscoes was a dream match waiting to happen, but at the time of FTR signing with AEW, Mark and Jay were banned from AEW television due to past comments. Though they had since profusely apologized, the match didn't take place until Tony Khan purchased Ring of Honor in 2022.
The teams met for the first time at Supercard of Honor 2022 and it was just what fans had dreamed it would be. They would go on to have two other matches against each other, including their Double Dog Collar Match. The match is the bloodiest of FTR's career and it cemented the trilogy as one of the greatest wrestling stories in professional wrestling today.
Harwood took to Twitter this afternoon to share a few snapshots and videos from that match including a bloodied photo of Jay wrapping the chain around Harwood's neck as Cash reaches out to him. "This night, we all 4 sat in the locker room, no one around, bloody from head to toe, each with a tequila in our hand, talking about the end of this rivalry," Harwood wrote. "How we'll never experience anything like this again. How all four of us, from now until forever, would be connected; and we were ok with that. How years from now, decades from now, we'd be traveling to conventions and meet & greets just to talk about this rivalry and THIS ONE MATCH in particular." Read Harwood's entire post below.
One year ago, today, we the had the greatest match of our career. To me, it encapsulates everything FTR has represented; emotion.
— Uncle Dax FTR (@DaxFTR) December 10, 2023
We couldn’t have achieved that without having our equals there to bring that emotion out of us. The story going into this match proves that,… pic.twitter.com/jL0tZuPy3t
FTR will appear at this year's Final Battle pay-per-view to honor the late Jay Briscoe who tragically passed away earlier this year. Bryan Danielson and Wheeler Yuta called out FTR on the most recent episode of Ring of Honor, calling for a match at Final Battle. The match was made official soon after, a trios match between FTR and Mark Briscoe against the Blackpool Combat Club's Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli and Jon Moxley. Harwood took to his Twitter account after the match was announced to let his feelings be known. " I feel safe to say, Cash & I became very close to Jay & Mark. I feel safe to say Jay LOVED his family more than anything. I feel safe to say Mark & Jay considered us family," Harwood passionately wrote. "I feel safe to say, if you ever threatened Jay's family, he would've fought you. This won't be a match to "honor Jay"; he wouldn't have wanted that. He'd want us to beat the asses these sons of b----es who challenged his family to a fight. Next week, we'll FIGHT for the Briscoe family name. Hope y'all do the same. Dem Top Guys, out!"
Other matches include Athena defending the ROH Women's World Championship against Billie Starkz in the main event, Ethan Page vs. Tony Nese in an "I Quit" match, Keith Lee vs. Shane Taylor, and a five-way Survival of the Fittest match for the vacant ROH World Television Championship. ROH Final Battle takes place December 15 at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas. The event will stream live on HonorClub.
