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FTR DISCUSS FACING THE BRISCOES AT SUPERCARD OF HONOR, DAX VS. PUNK, WORKING UNDER TONY KHAN & TRIPLE H, BRET HART, SUPERCARD OF HONOR THIS FRIDAY ON PPV AND TONS MORE: COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

This Friday evening, Ring of Honor returns to PPV and FITE.TV for Supercard of Honor, the first live event it has produced since December 2021, this time under the ownership of AEW President Tony Khan.  Of all the bouts slated of that evening, perhaps the one that fans have been waiting for the longest with great anticipation is Mark and Jay Briscoe vs. FTR.  After months of talk and speculation, the bout will finally take place this Friday in Dallas.  PWInsider.com sat down with FTR, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler to discuss the match, ROH, AEW and more.  Transcription by Billy Krotchsen.

Mike Johnson: Hey everybody, it's Mike Johnson back in the audio section of PWinsiderElite.com. It is Tuesday, March 29, 2022. which means not only are we in the middle of the biggest week of the year if you are professional wrestling fan, we're only a few days away until the resurrection of Ring of Honor under the vision of AEW President Tony Khan taking place in Dallas, Texas and among the matched scheduled for this Friday evening Supercard of Honor, which will be airing on PPV, on PPV.com Fite TV, is the dream match everyone has been waiting for if you love tag team wrestling - Mark and Jay Briscoe, the reigning and defending Tag Team Champions many times over will be facing our guests at this time, the very decorated FTR - Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler. Gentlemen, it's a big weekend.   Dax, thank you for sitting down and talking to us, how are you today?

Dax Harwood: I'm not too bad, Mike, how are you?

Mike Johnson: I'm doing good. Cash, how are you sir?

Cash Wheeler: I'm doing well, how are you?

Mike Johnson: I'm great. So let's talk about the obvious - this is a match the fans have wanted, that each team has wanted for some time. It's finally going to take place this Friday at Supercard Of Honor. Your initial thoughts when you found out, signed, sealed and delivered, after all the tweets and all the talk and all the promos and all the anticipation we're finally going to see FTR against the Briscoes in Dallas.

Cash Wheeler: I'll let Dax take this one. 

Dax Harwood: I don't know if you would call them promos. You know, it wasn't any kind of promotional material from any team. I think that underneath it all both teams feel that they are the best in the world. That's a great marketing tool but I don't think it's marketing. I think they think they're the greatest team maybe of all time and of course, myself and Cash think we're the greatest team of all time. But to finally have this match, it does mean a lot to us because we are the only tag team in professional wrestling right now that has wrestled the greatest teams of this era, and I'm talking about the New Day, Usos, DIY American Alpha all the way to SCU, Young Bucks, Hardy Boys and now to cap it off, it's goning to be the Briscoes. I don't think there's another tag team in the world that can say they've faced that caliber of talent and so, Supercard of Honor, I know that we have something to prove to the Briscoe Brothers and I'm sure they have something to prove to us but ultimately, both teams, all 4 men have something to prove to the audience, and that is we are the best - Cash and I are the best.

Cash Wheeler: But playing off what he said, they weren't promos, per se, we weren't communicating with those guys beforehand, we don't know what they're going to say, they don't know what we're going to say, we don't know when we're going to respond even. For a while you know, we were just not going to. We would go go back and forth a little bit on Twitter, but I think part of the draw for this match, besides the obvious reasons of ,you know, the longevity that each team has had, especially the Briscoes and their history in ROH, but it's just the unpredictability of this right here because...maybe I'm wrong here, but I have this feeling the fans hold each team in a certain regard and that's part of the anticipation because they respect what the 4 of us can do, and they think that together we can make magic. I'm hoping they're right but I think that's made a lot of anticipation, like a little more amplified because no one knows if it's going happen even, cause for the longest time, we weren't sure. We were just hoping and we were trying. We were doing anything we could to kind of keep the idea out there alive, trying to keep this little flame, this little ember going. And up until the moment we were told it's actually going to happen, even up until now I don't think I fully believe it because it's been so long...I won't go in behind the scenes too much, but the yes' and the no's and the where's and the when's but all that has changed so many times, I didn't think it was ever going to happen, we had to kind of resign ourselves to the fact that, not in the near future, so for it  to be happening this Friday in Dallas, like on a card like SuperCard of Honor, I'm going to just say, holy sh*t.

Mike Johnson: You guys have been in the trenches at AEW and other promotions obviously. What was your response and reaction when you found out that Tony Khan had announced that he's purchasing Ring of Honor and is going to run it as a separate entity to All Elite Wrestling?

Dax Harwood: We were very excited, both Cash and myself have wanted to work for Ring of Honor for a very long time and to be able to...I don't want to say it's the resurrection of ROH because I don't know if it was ever a dead brand. They took a hiatus and there was always plans to bring it back, but under the leadership and guidance of someone who loves wrestling as much as Tony Khan does, I think it's more than a positive for professional wrestling, for professional wrestling fans and ultimately it's a positive for professional wrestlers because it gives them somewhere else to go to to hone their craft and to make a living as well. So we were super excited and to get the opportunity to compete our title collection, I guess, is just the icing on the cake for that because now as of Saturday morning, we may be able to call ourselves the only tag team of all time to hold the WWE NXT, the WWE Raw, the WWE Smackdown, AEW, AAA and ROH World Tag Team Championships. That puts us in a class of not many other tag teams so I'm super excited. 

Cash Wheeler: I don't think I was super caught off guard by the fact that Tony bought it. I know like when you hear the news it's shocking because has it ever happened before where one person owns two established known wrestling entities like that, that are going to be operational. I don't know but I jokingly call him Tony Two Books because he's got two promotions he's going to be running but it makes perfect sense, why would he not? Especially with the library coming with it. As far as everything else, it's a genius move. At first when you hear it, it kinda blows your mind but looking back at it, it makes sense that he would do something like that so you're not completely caught off guard. 

Mike Johnson: Paul Levesque's been in the news lately with the announcement of his in ring retirement. You each worked pretty closely with him when you were in NXT and now you work pretty close with Tony Khan. How do you compare the two 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 based on their vision? How do you compare the two in terms of our 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. 

Interview continues on Page 2!

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