There's nothing hotter going on in professional wrestling right now than the storyline with Roman Reigns and The Usos, collectively known as The Bloodline. The Usos carry all the tag team gold in WWE as both the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Champions. One of their past co-workers and one who could potentially be in WWE again soon, Dax Harwood, has spoken about his desire for FTR to be treated the same way, and his frustrations with not getting that in AEW.
On his FTR with Dax Harwood podcast, Harwood said this about those AEW disappointments. "I felt last year obviously was the biggest year of FTR’s career ever. I mean that creatively, I mean that artistically, and I mean that as far as getting over too, but I also feel that there was an opportunity missed... We were probably the hottest babyfaces in the company at the time. On TV, there were no angles for us. No storylines. We ended up having like between six and seven tag team matches on television all year. I feel like, and I felt like, the boat was kind of missed on our momentum last year.” (h/t WrestlingNews.co)
He added this about The Usos. "They're probably the most over tag team in the world right now, and I say that with a chip on my shoulder. That pisses me off because I feel like that's what I think we should be presented and how we should be presented."
What Will Keep FTR In AEW?
Harwood has spoken out before about his displeasure with AEW's creative direction for FTR. It's why the tag team has mostly been on hiatus these past few months, as their contract expires in April and an impending decision between AEW and WWE looms. He said this about what it would take to stay in AEW. "What we need is we need to connect with them (the fans) on a deeper level... We told Tony those are the things that we need. We need an opportunity to speak so the people can feel for us one way or the other. If they only feel for us as in we're great wrestlers, there's a ceiling to that. We got to make them feel. We got to humanize ourselves and make them feel for us. I think that is Tony maybe trying to make good and show that he's on board and he wants to make this right.
"If we stick around in AEW after the thing with The Gunns is over with, we have to be presented as main event level guys. We have to be presented, no pun intended, as top guys. We need to work with main event level talent because if we don't get an opportunity to sink our teeth into something that people perceive to be main event level stuff, main event quality stuff, then the same thing that happened last year is going to happen this year, I feel."
Whether you agree with Dax Harwood or not, what is certain is that he will always wear his emotions on his sleeve. Fans will never be left wondering what he's truly thinking.