AEW’s Unrestricted podcast recently hit the one-year mark of being a wrestling podcast and brought in all of AEW’s World Champions, which includes the AEW World Tag Team Champions, FTR. On the podcast, FTR’s Dax Harwood talked about what it is like to have wrestling Hall Of Famer Tully Blanchard as their manager.
This is what Dax Harwood said:
“It has been a very big treat, not only because he is a hero of ours, someone we’ve looked up to and obviously patterned ourselves after, but there are little things. For example, we had an interview with Tully and the interviewer asked about the about the gauntlet match and our thoughts going into the gauntlet match.” “The interviewer asked about our advantage going last. ‘We’re going to go in there and picking the bones.’ That’s the usual answer, but for Tully, he told the story of what a gauntlet match was and how after a few minutes, 10 minutes, maybe the rest [of the competitors] are starting to get going and they’re getting warmed up.”
“We’re coming in cold. That’s the disadvantage, and so, just that little piece of the interview, the little piece of the promo, he told a little story and gave us some adversity to overcome in that interview. And just picking up little nuances like that is a treat for us.”
FTR’s Cash Wheeler then talked about how differently Tully Blanchard’s mind works compared to everyone else’s and the knowledge Blanchard possesses, which is just something that you can’t find anywhere else.
This is what Cash Wheeler said:
“Yeah, normally everybody plays up how advantageous it is to be last, and we didn’t know Tully was going to do this because this was all on the fly.” “Tully starts talking about how it’s a disadvantage to us a little bit because the momentum is on whoever we’re coming in against because they’re warmed up. Their momentum is just rolling. When you’re starting out, you’re cold; you got to get rolling. And we had never thought of it that way.”
“So, just seeing how his mind works compared to everyone else’s and being able to pick his brain. After that, as soon as we stopped rolling, we just went off to the side with Tully and he was like, ‘Yeah. I mean, it’s something that you guys should think about – how to spin it to where it’s not just a positive for you. That it’s a bit of something for you guys to overcome,’ and that kind of knowledge is just something that you can’t find anywhere else.”
Dax Harwood then agreed with Tony Schiavone‘s comments on Blanchard being serious when the time calls for it. Harwood then talked about seriousness being something that’s missing in wrestling today. Harwood also talked about how passionate Blanchard is and how proud he is to not only be the AEW World Tag Team Champions, but to also to do it beside Blanchard and have his knowledge.
This is what Dax Harwood said:
“That’s one thing I feel like is missing in wrestling today is the seriousness, and he takes his business very seriously because back in the day, they drew their money and they made their money on how many fans they could draw.” “They didn’t have time to tell jokes. They didn’t want to tell jokes because they knew or they thought that telling jokes and being funny wasn’t the way to draw people in, and so when the red light’s on, he’s ready to go and he’s ready to make that money.”
“I haven’t seen too many more people in the business — and I’ve been working for 15 years now and I’ve been working on national television with a national company for over eight years combined, and I haven’t seen very many people as passionate as he is. And it’s easy; it could be easy for Tully Blanchard to be jaded because of how the business treated him after 1989, but he’s not.”
“He’s ready to go, and he’s ready to make money, and he’s ready to make this work, and that’s what we’re proud of. And we’re proud of, most importantly, being the tag team champions. And we’re very proud to represent the division, but we’re even more proud that we get to do it beside Tully Blanchard and have his knowledge.”
Wheeler then talked about what it means for himself and his partner, Dax Harwood to be AEW World Tag Team Champions. Wheeler said he wants to be the guys that can go in a match with any team and raise their profile at the same time as they are raising theirs and AEW’s. He also said that he wants to cement their legacy and go down as guys such as Arn, Tully, The Rock ‘N Roll Express and The Midnight Express.
This is what Cash Wheeler said:
“Everything we’ve ever said, whether it’s on screen [or] on social media, when it comes to being the champions, we mean it.” “It is the be-all end-all for us because at the end of the day, if you’re the champion, you make more money, you’re in higher profile matches, you’re the focus, you’re the focal point of most storylines, and the show is going to revolve around the champions almost always. That’s something we want.”
“We want to be the axis that everything can revolve around. We want to be the guys that can go in there with any team and raise their profile at the same time as we’re raising ours and raising AEW’s. As much as we like to be sarcastic, and joke around, and be a–holes, when it comes to being champions, that’s really what we want because we want to cement our legacy.”
“We want to go down as guys like Arn and Tully, guys like The Rock’N Roll Express, guys like Midnight Express. We want to be remembered not two years from now – 20 years from now. And if we don’t take it serious, and it doesn’t mean a lot to us, and we just kind of take it as a prop, then this is all for nothing.”
