All Elite Wrestling’s roster has only experienced one retirement thus far. The five-year-old company said goodbye to Sting this past March, as the multi-decade veteran finished up his in-ring career at AEW Revolution, simultaneously ending a four-year career renaissance stint within AEW. Outside of Sting, the majority of the AEW roster has been competing for Tony Khan’s promotion in the prime of their careers with no immediate ambitions to conduct their swan songs. Veterans Chris Jericho and Bryan Danielson have come the closest to retiring from wrestling in an AEW ring, but neither man has pulled the trigger yet.
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Dax Harwood Sets Retirement Plans in Motion
One former AEW titleholder is already planning for his life after wrestling.
Speaking on his Instagram, former AEW World Tag Team Champion Dax Harwood revealed that his retirement plans are “already in motion” as he has begun to structure his future wrestling school.
“My plans after being done in the ring are already in motion. I don’t know how much I can tell you,” Harwood began. “But I can tell you that there’s already a ring, there’s already a building, there’s already equipment and the idea is to obviously open a wrestling school with three of my friends. I’ll just leave it at that. Hopefully that will allow people to live a 20-year dream just like I did.”
Harwood has been with AEW since Summer 2020, competing alongside longtime tag partner Cash Wheeler as FTR in AEW’s tag team division. AEW brought new life to the duo formerly known as The Revival, as Harwood and Wheeler’s frustrations within WWE were well-documented prior to their AEW debuts. FTR captured the AEW World Tag Team Titles in short order and reigned with the prizes once again in 2023.
FTR re-signed with AEW in early 2023 and revealed that they will both retire from wrestling when their contracts expire. Both men signed for four years, leaving sometime in early 2027 as the end of the road for the masters of the Shatter Machine.
Harwood himself eclipsed 20 years in the professional wrestling business this year. He wrestled on the independent circuit for eight years before getting signed by WWE, as he reported to the WWE Performance Center in 2013. After shuffling through tag partners and stable alliances, Harwood found his footing when he began teaming with Wheeler in Summer 2014, and the two have been a unit ever since. Today, Harwood and Wheeler are one of the most decorated active tag teams, having won tag gold in WWE, NXT, AEW, Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and Ring of Honor.
