Top 10 AEW Debuts
8. FTR
As it stands currently, it’s abundantly clear to everyone that AEW are the kingpins of Tag Team Wrestling. They have some of the best tag teams on the planet, there are more tag matches on AEW shows than there are singles matches, and their tag team titles are as prestigious as the World belt.
And I think it’s also fair to say that FTR is their biggest and most buzz-worthy tag team signing to date.
AEW knows how to book tag team debuts. Santana & Ortiz debuted by attacking the two top teams in AEW, i.e, the Young Bucks and Lucha Bros, and were immediately aligned with the AEW World Champion Chris Jericho in the top heel faction of the company.
The Butcher and the Blade, while they may have floundered later, debuted by attacking Cody Rhodes on the orders of MJF. It’s important to note that Cody, at the time, was cheered and loved by fans so Butcher and Blade received great heel heat for beating him up.
However, without a doubt, the best tag tea debut they’ve ever done is that of FTR, and that’s down to two reasons.
The first one, and the more obvious one, is what it meant for the company.
The Young Bucks were considered by many to be the greatest tag team in the world. However, another team always came up to rival the Bucks in that conversation, the Revival from NXT. So much so, that it created a running joke on Being The Elite that eventually led to the name FTR.
Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler are considered a throwback to the times gone by. The times of old school tag team wrestling, the times of the Brainbusters, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard. The in-ring part of FTR’s game was always bound to pay off, and it has, in countless matches against Adam Page and Kenny Omega, Young Bucks, the Butcher and the Blade, Jurassic Express, Sting and Darby Allin, Best Friends, Santana & Ortiz and more.
They debuted on Dynamite, saving the Bucks from the Butcher and the Blade, which led to an insane 8-man tag match teaming with the Bucks against Butcher and Blade and the Lucha Bros, and while the buildup to their dream match against the Bucks may not have been the best, the match itself was one of the greatest tag matches of all time.
The second reason is that Dax and Cash are finally doing what they love, tag team wrestling. They’ve explained in numerous interviews how they don’t mind not being the champs, they just want the best for the art of tag team wrestling, and now they’re in a company with the best of them.
Let’s hope FTR gets another run with the tag straps and we get some more classic FTR matches because they’re the best heel tag team in the business.