AEW Rumors: Tag Team Claims They Got Backstage Heat For Appearing On Jim Cornette’s Podcast

Recent All Elite Wrestling acquisitions Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler — better known as the tag team FTR — revealed in a recent interview that they got some backstage heat a few weeks ago for appearing on the podcast of veteran wrestling personality Jim Cornette.

As seen in a Twitter video shared by Inside the Ropes’ Kenny McIntosh on Thursday, Harwood and Wheeler opened up on their status as Cornette’s “favorite wrestlers,” as well as their appearance last month on The Jim Cornette Experience. According to Harwood, things didn’t seem right the day after they showed up on the podcast, as they returned to the hotel where they were staying and noticed that many of their colleagues seemed upset upon seeing them walk in.

“[It was] so awkward,” he recalled.

“They were all so mad at us because we did Jim Cornette’s podcast and that’s okay with us, we don’t care. If we make friends, we make friends, and we have made a few. But if they want to get mad at us because we’re trying to make AEW a better place and make it more money then we welcome that.”

Harwood went on to answer McIntosh’s original question, saying he doesn’t see FTR as a “bridge” that could help old-school fans appreciate today’s performers. He said that he and Wheeler never deliberately tried to imitate the traditional style of tag team wrestling that was popular in the 1980s. He did, however, admit that the duo had been in some matches where they hoped they’d impress their heroes, including the likes of Cornette and WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart.

Cornette has been very open about his appreciation for FTR — a duo that was known in WWE as The Revival before their release from the company in April. In a tweet he posted shortly after they appeared on his podcast, he described Harwood and Wheeler as “the best tag team in the world,” stressing that it’s rare these days to see people like them who “actually respect” the wrestling business.

Conversely, Cornette has been much less complimentary about the promotion they work for since its launch early last year. As noted in an op-ed from the Augusta Free Press, the former WWE manager and commentator described AEW in August 2019 as an “outlaw mudshow ‘rasslin'” company filled with “cosplay” wrestlers. He has also taken aim at AEW stars such as The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and Orange Cassidy, the latter of whom he recently called out for having a “phony” in-ring style.