Dax Harwood and co-host Matt Koon discussed The Revival’s time working with Randy Orton in WWE on this week’s “FTR with Dax Harwood” podcast.
Koon spoke about Jay Briscoe’s death before the show. He stated, “We don’t feel the time is right to do a show or a segment or whatever it is that is done in these situations, so we’re just going to let the show run as is. We hope you understand, of course, just all the best to the Briscoe family and friends. Dax did want to say something and I have a statement from him. This is Dax’s statement on Jay Briscoe.”
The main topic of the podcast was recorded prior to Briscoe’s death.
“Having a show based around or having a segment of the show dedicated to Jay doesn’t feel right today. My ever changing emotions wouldn’t allow me to properly say goodbye or pay the ultimate tribute to him. Jay absolutely deserves me at my best. He always gave me his best. Right now I feel so empty. I just stare off the distance and catch myself shaking my head not being allowed to wrap my mind around this whole situation. Next week, I’ll do my best to be 100% for all of you, but more importantly for Jay, Mark, and their whole family. I understand that without Jay and Mark, my 2022 wouldn’t have been a fraction as successful as it was. With that success. I’ll be able to take care of my family for years to come. Life should always be more real than wrestling. Jay reminded me of that. A lot of guys should keep that in mind today. Thank you Jay for everything. I love you.”
Dax on his first WWE contract after joining the main roster:
“Our first contract for the main roster was 125, 150, 175 (thousand) across the three years and that was it. There’s the potential of making more than that and breaking that 125 barrier, that 125 ceiling, with merch and pay-per-views and stuff like that, and house shows as well, but that was what we had signed. That is a lot of money. That’s a lot of money to me right now. But you got to think about it. If I’m on the road five days a week and I’m spending breakfast, lunch, and dinner all five days a week, let’s not even talk about snacks or whatever, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, five days a week on the road while our wife is at home cooking and paying for groceries for her and my daughter. Then I’m paying for rental cars, and then I’m paying for hotels. I’m not making as much money as you think.”
Dax stated that FTR requested their WWE release in early 2019:
“We were told, ‘Are you sure you want to do this because there’s a big quote/unquote big change coming and we would love for you to be a part of it.’ We said, ‘We would love to have our release. We need to go out. We need to make a name for ourselves and hopefully come back and make more money, but also increase our marketability for you.” He said, ‘Ok, We’ll have Mark Carano contact you tomorrow and we’ll start the process.’ Mark Carano called and some things led to other things. We talked to Hunter, and he said, ‘We can’t let you go right now, but in six months, if you’re not happy with the position you’re in, in our company, then we can revisit the conversation.’ We said, ‘Okay, thank you’, and obviously we respected Hunter and had a lot of faith in him and trusted him anyway, so we had no reason to not doubt him. Come around SummerSlam time, we were pretty sure we weren’t gonna be figured in.”
Dax was asked how working RAW and SmackDown differed:
“There’s really no difference at all. They were all writing for one person and that was Vince. They were all writing to keep their job. That’s all. That may give me a little bit of heat, but that’s the truth. This is my opinion. I don’t even think he (Bruce Prichard) was hired to get Vince to say, ‘Yeah’, he was hired to say, ‘Yes Vince does a good job.’ He was hired to offer his ideas, and not just him, they all offer their ideas, but at the end of the day, whatever Vince says, they say, ‘Yeah, that was good. Yes, that’s right.’ I can’t fault them for that because there aren’t very many jobs in the world, same with wrestlers, but there aren’t very many jobs in the world that call for booking or bookers or writers for professional wrestling shows, so they got to keep their jobs.”
What Vince said to FTR after they won the SmackDown Tag Team Championships at the 2019 Clash of Champions:
“We come to the back and Vince is there waiting for us and he’s off his headset. I’m hoping that since he’s off his headset, he’s going to tell us that was incredible. That was a great job. That was storytelling. So he goes to New Day and he says, ‘Hey, great job, guys. Thank you. I appreciate that.’ They walk off. He leaves me and Cash there and that’s when he says, ‘Everyone tells me that you guys are the next great tag team. Everyone tells me you’re the next Arn and Tully. Well, that’s your problem. You are the next Arn and Tully. You’re just great wrestlers, that’s all’, and he walks off. I’m like this son of a bitch thinks that he just hurt my feelings by saying that, but he didn’t. He made my dreams come true by telling me that we’re the next Arn and Tully, that we’re just a great tag team. We’re just great wrestlers. He didn’t like us. He wasn’t enamored with us. I think it had a lot to do with this accent that I have coming from North Carolina because you know, he’s from North Carolina. His real father grew up in North Carolina. He went to East Carolina and he hated that whole culture and I think that maybe the accent, or maybe just us in general reminded him of that. Maybe he just didn’t like us, period. That’s okay too. Maybe he didn’t like us for our work. That’s okay too. But he didn’t like us for some reason and he made sure to tell us that day.”
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
