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Dax Harwood

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Dax Harwood
Harwood in 2022
Birth nameDavid Michael Harwood
Born (1984-06-30) June 30, 1984 (age 40)[1]
Whiteville, North Carolina, U.S.[2]
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina Wilmington
Spouse(s)
Maria Nickolopoulos
​
(m. 2012)​
Children1
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Dax The Axe[3]
Dax Harwood[4]
Dennis Laundry[1]
KC Anderson[1]
KC McKnight[1]
Scott Dawson[5]
Billed height5 ft 10 in (178 cm)[5]
Billed weight223 lb (101 kg)[5]
Billed fromAsheville, North Carolina
Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina[5]
Trained byThe Maestro
WWE Performance Center[6]
DebutAugust 13, 2004

David Michael Harwood (born June 30, 1984)[1] is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Dax Harwood or Dax The Axe. Teamed with Cash Wheeler as FTR, Harwood is a two-time AEW World Tag Team Champion. He also makes appearances in their sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), as well as partner promotions Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he and Wheeler have won those promotions' respective tag team championships once each.

Harwood was previously known for his time in WWE, under the ring name Scott Dawson. In WWE he and Wheeler (then known as Dash Wilder) were known as The Revival, and held the Raw (twice), SmackDown and NXT Tag Team Championship (twice), making them the first ever WWE Tag Team Triple Crown winners, and jointly held the WWE 24/7 Championship along with Wheeler.

Professional wrestling career

Independent circuit (2004–2012)

Harwood made his professional wrestling debut in 2004. He wrestled for a variety of independent promotions as KC McKnight, most notably for CWF Mid-Atlantic, AWA Superstars of Wrestling and a number of NWA-affiliated organizations including NWA Anarchy and Pro Wrestling Zero1. In 2010, he made an appearance for Ring of Honor (ROH) in a dark match prior to ROH The Big Bang!. He also wrestled at various North Carolina independents including United Professional Wrestling Association in Wilmington, working with the likes of Zane and Dave Dawson, Daniel Messina, Charlie Dreamer, Marcus Shields, etc.

WWE (2012–2020)

Early NXT appearances (2012–2014)

Harwood signed with WWE in 2012 and was assigned to the WWE Performance Center, taking the ring name Scott Dawson. He made his television debut on March 7, 2013 episode of NXT, teaming with Judas Devlin in a two-on-one handicap loss to Adrian Neville.[7] Dawson made a further appearance in an enhancement role on April 10 episode of NXT, in a six-man tag-team defeat against The Shield.[8]

In May 2013, Dawson formed a tag-team with Garrett Dylan, with the two managed by Sylvester Lefort. On June 26 episode of NXT Dawson and Dylan lost a number one contender's match for the NXT Tag Team Championship to Corey Graves and Kassius Ohno.[9] The team disbanded shortly afterwards when Dylan was released from the company.[10] Following Dylan's release, Dawson initially worked as a singles competitor with little success and then formed a tag-team with Alexander Rusev, who was also being managed by Lefort. Rusev and Dawson participated unsuccessfully in a contendership battle royal for the NXT Tag Team Championship on September 12 episode of NXT. Their alliance ended when Rusev turned on Lefort in favor of being managed by Lana, and shortly afterwards Dawson suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament which ruled him out of action for several months.[11]

The Revival (2014–2020)

Main article: The Revival (professional wrestling)
Dawson (left) with Dash Wilder as the NXT Tag Team Champions in 2016

On his return from injury, Dawson formed a team with Dash Wilder, with the two performing extensively at live events under the name The Mechanics. The duo made their debut on July 31, 2014 episode of NXT, losing to the team of Bull Dempsey and Mojo Rawley. The duo made only one further televised appearance in 2014, losing to Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady on October 23 episode of NXT, but continued to wrestle extensively at house shows. On the June 10, 2015 episode of NXT, Dawson faced Samoa Joe in a losing effort during the show's main event.[12]

Dawson and Wilder's team resurfaced and picked up their first televised win on the July 29, 2015 episode of NXT, defeating Amore and Cassady. The duo were involved in an 8-man tag-team match that was taped prior to NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn. At NXT TakeOver: Respect, Dawson and Wilder were defeated in the semi-finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic by eventual winners Finn Bálor and Samoa Joe. On the October 21 episode of NXT, The Mechanics' ring name was changed to Dash and Dawson. On the November 11 episode of NXT, Dawson and Wilder defeated the Vaudevillains to win the NXT Tag Team Championship. They subsequently defended the titles against Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady at NXT TakeOver: London. Beginning in February 2016, the duo began performing under the team name The Revival.[13] Dawson made his WWE main roster debut alongside Wilder at Roadblock, once again defending their NXT Tag Team Championships against Amore and Cassady. On April 1 at NXT TakeOver: Dallas, The Revival lost the NXT Tag Team Championship to American Alpha (Chad Gable and Jason Jordan)[14] but the two won back the titles from American Alpha two months later at NXT TakeOver: The End.[15] At NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II, The Revival retained the titles against Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. On November 19, 2016 at NXT TakeOver: Toronto The Revival lost the tag team titles in a two out of three falls match to #DIY (Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano). They failed in their attempt at winning back the titles at NXT TakeOver: Orlando on April 1, 2017; in a triple threat tag team elimination match.

On the Raw after WrestleMania 33 April 3 episode of Raw, The Revival answered an open challenge issued by The New Day. The Revival defeated The New Day, and afterwards attacked Kofi Kingston, who was not participating in the match. The team was on hiatus due to Wilder's injury. Wilder returned seven weeks later on the May 22, 2017 episode of Raw, walking backstage during the sneak attack on Enzo Amore, Big Cass would later accuse both Wilder and Dawson as the attackers, but they denied this. Two weeks later, on the Raw after Extreme Rules, The Revival also denied their involvement during the sneak attack on Cass, bringing out another suspect in Big Show.

The June 19, 2017 episode of Raw revealed that The Revival had nothing to do with the attack and that Cass was never attacked. Corey Graves finally came to the conclusion that Cass was indeed the culprit behind Enzo's sneak attack after The Revival stated their alibi of being innocent. Wilder returned to in ring competition on the June 26 taping of Main Event aired on June 30, teaming with Dawson to defeat Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows by pinfall, Dawson would have his first pinfall loss to Kalisto the following week.

On August 7, 2017, WWE announced that over the weekend of August 5–6 at a live event in Canada, Dawson suffered an injury to his right bicep in a match against Cesaro and Sheamus. He was out of action for 5 to 6 months. Dawson returned on the December 18 episode of Raw with Wilder to defeat Heath Slater and Rhyno. The Revival participated in the Raw Tag Team Eliminator tournament to crown new champions, but lost in the semi-finals to Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt. At SummerSlam 2018 Pre-show, The Revival lost to Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel in an attempt to become the new Raw Tag Team champions.[16] At Survivor Series, they were part of Team Raw, but lost to Team SmackDown in the 10-on-10 Survivor Series tag team elimination match.[17]

Following this they began a feud against Lucha House Party and suffered various losses in handicap matches. On the December 17, 2018 episode of Raw, they defeated Lucha House Party, The B-Team and AOP in a Fatal 4-Way Match receiving a title shot for the Raw Tag Team Titles. During the next two Raw episodes they challenged Bobby Roode and Chad Gable for the titles but Dawson and Wilder were unsuccessful to win the matches in controversial fashion.

Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer reported that the duo asked for their release from their WWE contracts following their match against Lucha House Party on the January 14, 2019 episode of Raw.[18] On the February 11, 2019 episode of Raw, Dawson and Wilder defeated the team of Roode and Gable to win the Raw Tag Team Championships.[19] They lost their titles at WrestleMania 35 to the team of Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins. On the August 12, 2019 during a scheduled tag team match at Raw episode post-SummerSlam in which The Revival were facing Lucha House Party (Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik, with Kalisto), R-Truth ran out from backstage, being chased by several wrestlers. The match was called off and The Revival performed a "Hart Attack" on Truth and simultaneously pinned him to become the first co-champions of the 24/7 Championship. Moments later, R-Truth pinned Dawson, with the help of Carmella, and regained the title. [20] The Revival began to align themselves with Randy Orton in a feud against The New Day. On September 15 at Clash of Champions, The Revival defeated Xavier Woods and Big E for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, making them the first team to hold the Raw Tag Team Championship, SmackDown Tag Team Championship, and NXT Tag Team Championship.[21][22] The Revival was drafted to SmackDown as part of the 2019 WWE Draft.[23] On April 10, 2020, both Dawson and his tag team partner Dash Wilder were released from their WWE contracts.[24]

All Elite Wrestling (2020–present)

See also: FTR (professional wrestling)

After leaving WWE, Dawson (now known as Dax Harwood) and Wilder (now known as Cash Wheeler) adopted the new name of FTR and appearing at All Elite Wrestling (AEW) shows. They debuted on the May 27, 2020 episode of AEW Dynamite, attacking The Butcher and the Blade. In July 2020, after appearing on AEW television programming for two months despite not being under contract with the company, Harwood and Wheeler signed multi-year contracts with AEW.[25][26] In November 2020, Harwood and Wheeler revealed in an interview with Talk Sport journalist Alex McCarthy that they wanted to join AEW, despite being offered a huge amount of money to stay in the WWE, because they kept getting pulled from main roster events in the WWE, with Harwood stating "We knew it was time for us to move on because money is great, and I am so fortunate and lucky to take care of my beautiful wife and perfect little six year old daughter because of professional wrestling, but that’s what it’s because of – professional wrestling."[27]

Other media

Harwood made his video game debut as a playable character in WWE 2K17,[28] and has since appeared in WWE 2K18,[29] WWE 2K19,[30] and WWE 2K20.[31]

Personal life

Harwood has been married to Maria Nickopoulos since 2012. Together, they have a daughter, Finley Gray (born 2014).[32] He played college football at East Carolina University before transferring to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and getting a degree in business communication.[33] His family's home in Whiteville, North Carolina, was severely damaged by Hurricane Florence.[34]

Harwood stated in a May 2020 interview that, out of all his matches up to this point in time, his all-time favorite was a two-out-of-three falls match between The Revival and American Alpha which took place during a live event, while his favorite on-screen match was The Revival's two-out-of-three falls match against DIY at NXT TakeOver: Toronto in 2016. He said: "In WWE, that'll be our legacy. I'm very very proud of that match."[35] In a November 7, 2020 interview, Harwood described FTR's upcoming match with The Young Bucks at Full Gear as a "dream match". He added: "When you go around calling yourself the best tag team of the generation, you cannot get too much more pressure than that. So, this match, to a lot of people, it is a dream match and it is a match we are excited about."[36] On November 11, 2020, four days after Full Gear, Harwood released a statement on his Twitter page expressing praise for this match with the Young Bucks and hoped for a rematch.[37][38] On April 4, 2022, Harwood stated on Twitter that their match with The Briscoe Brothers at Supercard of Honor XV was the best match of FTR's career, also describing it as "their masterpiece".[39]

Championships and accomplishments

In 2022, FTR became the holders of three separate tag team championships (ROH, AAA, NJPW) all at the same time. They can be seen here carrying the AAA and ROH titles during their entrance at AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door, the event where they captured the NJPW titles.

Notes

1 Dawson and Dash Wilder simultaneously pinned R-Truth to become co-WWE 24/7 Champions.

References

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  3. ^ Harwood, Dax (November 16, 2023). "Note to graphics dept: From now on, just put "Dax The Axe"". Uncle Dax FTR on X. Retrieved November 17, 2023.
  4. ^ DeFelice, Robert (April 10, 2020). "Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder Will Be Called Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler From Now On, New PWTees Merch". Fightful. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d "Scott Dawson Profile". WWE. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  6. ^ "Scott Dawson". Cagematch. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
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  39. ^ "Dax Harwood Says FTR vs the Briscoes Was the Best Match of His Career". April 5, 2022.
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  54. ^ a b Meltzer, Dave (February 24, 2023). "February 27, 2023, Observer Newsletter: 2022 Observer Awards issue". Figure4Weekly. Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  55. ^ Meltzer, Dave. "February 26, 2024 Observer Newsletter: 2023 Observer Awards issue". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
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