AAA World Tag Team Champions Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood of FTR recently spoke with Mike Johnson of PWInsider to promote their match against ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoes at Friday’s ROH Supercard of XV event. They talked about working for Triple H in WWE and Tony Khan in AEW, and were asked the following:
How they compare Triple H and Tony Khan in terms of how they strategize and prepare their locker room, and kind of lay things out for what their vision is of what they want to be manifested in the ring physically? And how they compare Triple H and Khan in terms of being the bosses and in terms of bookers and producers?
Dax Harwood: I think there’s a huge comparison and the reason I say that is even if you take professional wrestling out of the equation, if you just talk about their work ethic and their drive and what they want to accomplish, I think that’s the comparison. We both saw Triple H work countless hours to make sure that NXT was ‘the’ brand. We all, and I’ve texted him before and had conversations about this recently, we all jumped on his train, his bandwagon, because we saw how hard he was working, how much he believed in NXT, in each one of us, and we all wanted to match his work ethic. Now I’m not saying that Cash and I were his favorites, I don’t think we were his favorites or his least favorites, I think he did have his favorites but he couldn’t deny what Cash and I brought to the table. We carried that work ethic over to the main roster, even though we didn’t have the best stuff to work with at all times, even on house shows we never wanted to phone it in, and I think that work ethic is what garnered our reputation that we have now, more so than the 2 out of 3 falls match we had with DIY, more so than the matches with American Alpha, I think that the work ethic that we always put in every single town, every single night is where we actually built our reputation. Now comparing Tony to Hunter, the same kind of thing. This man is nonstop, you see him always on the go but he always has time for everyone, he makes time for everyone, and if he can’t make time for you right then, he’ll find time for you a little bit later, and he loves, loves, loves professional wrestling. I’ve never seen someone want to work so hard for their audience, their consumer, more than Tony Khan and I’m telling you, I’ve had every single job you can think of, and I’ve never seen someone want his consumers, in this case his audience, to get exactly what they want and that’s pretty inspiring.
Cash Wheeler: Yeah, thinking about it now, the comparisons really aren’t too different, the presentation is different obviously. Hunter, especially in his time as a guy in the office, he was suit all the time, you almost always seen him dressed up, ready to go, looked like he was going to work on Wall Street, and Tony dresses like a guy who wants to be comfortable and happy. He can dress up and look great in a suit or wear whatever he feels comfortable in and his energy is just out there,he’s so open and like Dax will say, he makes time. I think the main difference would just be how much Tony wants to involve everybody in their own stuff, cause a lot of times I think it’s just a WWE-type thing where it’s just more of, you get some input but it’s more of, “All right here’s the storyline, where we’re going, here’s what we need, and here’s where we have some wiggle room,” whereas Tony’s like, “All right, let’s hammer out some ideas, what are you guys thinking?” And then you say something, it triggers an idea in his brain, and he gets all excited, you can see him light up, and you can see him start firing off ideas like oh wow, that’s quick. So I think it’s more just the presentation; the work ethic, that’s the same, they’re passionate about their employees and their people and their talent, but it’s just the approach is a little bit different. Other than that, it’s not that different. Both guys want the best out of what they’re doing and the people they’re working with and that’s all you can really ask for.
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