Dax Harwood confirms FTR has requested time off. AEW Contracts to Expire in 3 months. Says Vince McMahon's return to WWE has impacted their plans for the future:
"We have asked and been granted the next few months off of television so we can sit back, reflect, decide, let our bodies heal, and figure out what we are going to do for the next few years because whatever we decide to do next will be the absolute last thing we do, period, as far as wrestling.
I don't see myself in five years going on the independents and wrestling independents. I don't see myself working in five years a Japan tour or a Mexico tour or traveling around the world and wrestling all over places. That's why these next few months are the most important few months for us.
By April, at least, at most, we will have an answer. But now again, I have to take in my health, I have to take in my family, I have to take in my creativity, and I have to take my personal life all into consideration about what we are going to do next. I know what I want to do but whatever we do, I just want to be respected. We, I feel, have done something so special in 2022 and most of that is in part to the fans. I think we deserve to continue to build on our legacy for ourselves but also we owe it to the fans to build on that legacy because they made us this past year. So, that's my news, is we are going to be away for a little while. I'm not sure exactly how long we'll be away. It may be all the way up until the end of our contract."
Perhaps in reference to Vince McMahon's return to WWE, Harwood was then asked if "recent news" will have an impact on what wrestling promotion FTR signs with later this year.
Harwood responded:
"I would be lying to you if I said no it doesn't at all, but, of course, it does.
But if I feel like we aren't being respected the way I think we should - and that's going to come off arrogant and egotistical - I mean as entities as far as characters and what we've done and what we've accomplished and who we are, but also as human beings. I will not hesitate to explore other options. Whether those options are taking a year off and doing things we love, that could be it, or whether those options are being presented to me in other forms, there's a lot of things I have to weigh."