FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) view their work with NJPW as a chance to cement their legacy and prove themselves as the greatest team of all time.
Wheeler and Harwood, who are also the reigning champions in ROH and AAA, captured the NJPW titles at the Forbidden Door pay-per-view, where they defeated Roppongi Vice and United Empire in a Winner Takes All Match. They have yet to defend the gold, though the duo competed at the NJPW Music City Mayhem event in Nashville in July.
Speaking on MackMania, FTR were asked about headlining the NJPW Royal Quest II event, where they will defend the titles against Aussie Open. Wheeler noted that competing for NJPW has been a career-long dream for the duo, and they had to delay making it a reality due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He stated that their goal remains to actually compete in Japan, but they’re looking forward to representing NJPW as its champions just the same.
“This is exactly how I would hope our careers have kind of gone,” Wheeler said. “Especially our careers when we kind of took our bet with ourselves and decided to go do our own thing, New Japan was very high on that list. The possibility of AEW was there always, but we never really knew for sure, and we didn’t really know if Japan was gonna be an option. We were so excited when we got out of those [WWE] contracts and we were about to take over everything, and the pandemic hit and kind of slowed it all down, where we couldn’t do any of the New Japan stuff we had wanted. For us, it’s been a career-long dream to do some New Japan stuff, to be IWGP Champions as well, my god.
“So now slowly we’re getting to do that. We still haven’t got to Japan for New Japan yet. But we’ve done New Japan STRONG in Nashville. Now we’re gonna do New Japan in London for Royal Quest, huge two-night event where night one, we got Aussie Open. Man, I can’t wait for that. Eventually we want to get to Japan for New Japan and finally perform there in front of all those fans because the history, the legacy, the respect of what that sport is there, yeah. That’s one of the things I think hopefully will help our legacy. You asked what we could do for ourselves, I think how we do in Japan and what we do with New Japan will be part of that.”
Likewise, Harwood expressed his excitement. He noted that NJPW has somewhat put this step in their international expansion on their backs, and he appreciates that opportunity. He also stated that adding the NJPW titles to their collection has been “way cool.”
“Going over there, going back to London after three years, that’s gonna be awesome,” Harwood said. “Performing for New Japan’s gonna be awesome for us as well. But to be able to be their champions, their tag team champions, like you said, they’re putting part of that expansion, not all of it, I don’t want to pat myself on the back too much, but they’re putting it on our shoulders. When they announced us for the New Japan [show], tickets started selling crazy, and then when they announced the match with Aussie Open, they almost completely sold out.
“So bring able to be the New Japan tag team champions and take part of that expansion and put it on our backs and say, ‘Let’s go, let’s f— go,’ that’s a cool thing. That New Japan belt, that’s our seventh, well our ninth world title, with seven different championships, so that’s way cool for us.”
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