AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) recently appeared as guests on AEW’s Unrestricted podcast to talk about a number of topics, including how they established and developed their well-known and highly respected old-school tag-team in-ring psychology throughout their respective careers.
This is what FTR said:
“It just subconsciously happened. I don’t know. I would watch things, and sometimes, I had this notebook and I’d write down — because in North Carolina, even in 2010, we would get made fun of by Ricky Morton, or by Bobby Eaton, or Dennis Condrey, or George South. We’d get made fun of if they saw us calling our match in the back. So, I always had a notebook, and I would watch [Ric] Flair and [Ricky] Steamboat.
They would do tackle, drop down, leapfrog, baseball slide, take off, body slam, kick off, arm drag, arm drag, and I would write that spot down and I would think to myself, ‘How can I call that in a match,’ you know, in the best way? Yes, in the ring. And so, I would think, ‘Tackle, dropdown,’ whatever. And then, I would look through them, and then I’d say– I think it was honestly the first time I got like psychology and understood what it was.
I was watching Bret [Hart] vs. [British] Bulldog from SummerSlam 92 for the 100th time, and the first time Bulldog gave Brett a crucifix pin, one, two, kick out, and then gave him an arm drag and a hold, then through the heat, he started to come up a little bit. He took off. Brett went for the clothesline.
Bulldog crooked him for the crucifix again, and Brett dropped him with a Samoan Drop. And the light went off in my head, and I was like, ‘That’s the simple form. That’s wrestling psychology.’ So, now I try to — and that’s kind of where I got it. Just being a nerd I guess.”
You can check out FTR’s comments in the video below:
