Dax Harwood doesn’t think Darby Allin was talking about him on the March 15 episode of AEW Dynamite.
Allin sparked some controversy with his promo on Dynamite, as he called out some members of the AEW roster for complaining on Twitter when they’re not happy.
Speaking on his FTR with Dax Harwood podcast, Allin’s promo came up in the conversation. The former tag team champion stated that he didn’t think Allin was talking about him in the promo. He described how he and Allin are friends, as they get along with each other and they walk every week. Harwood also emphasized that he doesn’t complain on Twitter; instead, he speaks his truth.
“I would implore a lot of the people to go look any tweet and see where I actually complained. Did I complain? Or was I just speaking my truth? I never said anyone was against me, or I never said any company was burying me,” Harwood said. “I’ve never said that before. I’ve just spoken the truth. I don’t necessarily think, and I didn’t, I didn’t even want to cover this, but we’re here, why not? The Darby thing, when I heard it, I didn’t necessarily think he was talking about me.
“I have a good idea of some of the people he is taking about. Darby and I are pretty close. I would say we’re good buds, so I don’t think he was, and if he was, I would ask him, and maybe I will ask him when I see him. But I would ask him to come talk to me, and let’s clear the air and figure that out. I don’t necessarily think he was talking about me because I have respect for him, and he has got respect for me, and we’ve worked together quite a few times. We talk every week. But I understand what he was saying and where he was coming from. The Internet Twitter people, they can find anything on Twitter. So I’m asking then to go and find where I have actually complained. I’m just telling my truth. If I didn’t stand up for me, if I didn’t stand up for FTR, I don’t know if we would be in the position we are right now.
Harwood shared his mindset that standing up for yourself is now viewed as doing something wrong, whereas it once was a measure of someone’s character. He described how FTR stood up for themselves during their time in WWE, at a point when they weren’t satisfied with the way things were going, and doing that set them up for a career year in 2022.
“I never, ever complained about this, and I begged people to go look at this. Imagine if we would have with WWE, and we would have worn the outfits that Vince gave us, the big packet of outfits he gave us. Imagine where our legacy would have led. We wouldn’t have had any matches with The Briscoes. We wouldn’t have had the match with Aussie Open. We wouldn’t have had the 2022 that we’ve had. We wouldn’t have the legacy that we have. But we stood up for ourselves. We stood up for what we believed in. Somewhere along the way, standing up for what you believe in [and] speaking your truth became wrong. At one time, that was the measure of a character, was if you stood up for yourself. At one point in the world, that was a measure of your character. Now, it’s a measure of how bad of a human being you are because we’ve gotten so complacent. We’ve gotten so used to sitting back and just taking the sh— and eating the sh—.
“But if you believe in yourself, if you believe in what you have and what you can accomplish but also what you can give back to the world, especially a world that you f—- love, dude. I love wrestling. I love it with a passion to the point where it has caused me a lot of grief and a lot of anxiety and a lot of stress. But I love it so much that I have to stand up for that I believe in. Because if I didn’t stand up for what I believe in, I would have just gone along to get along. I would have gone along to get along, and I would have never done the things I wanted to do, and then I couldn’t have looked at myself in the mirror at the end of the day. At the end of the day, when we retire, imagine if I look back and say, ‘Okay, well, I shaved my back with The Usos. They poured itching powder down my ballsack. I put on these clown outfits.’ Who knows what else?”
Harwood then cited his time in AEW as another example of the power of standing up for what one believes in. He noted that he pushed for what he thought was right, which is why FTR was able to move beyond being a backdrop with The Pinnacle. Harwood also brought up their rematch with The Young Bucks as another example.
“Let’s talk about in AEW, too,” Harwood said. “If I wouldn’t have stood up for what I believed in and what I felt was right, what if I would have stayed with The Pinnacle? What if we would have stayed in The Pinnacle and just been a backdrop to everything that was going on? Or what if we would have never got the rematch with the Young Bucks?
“All this happened because of a few reasons. One, because someone believed in us and gave us that opportunity. Two, it’s because we stood up for what we believed in, and we fought for the opportunity. They probably said in the back of their head, ‘Well, f—- em. Let’s give then this opportunity, and when they fail, we can say, ‘See? Told you.’ That’s why you’re gonna wear the clown outfits.’ But we didn’t. We f—- fought for it, and at some point in this world, in my lifetime, that became wrong, and it became people complaining.”
Harwood and co-host Matt Koon will host the first FTR Live on March 30; the show will air on FITE. More information is available here.
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