Dax Harwood Recalls Anxiety Attack In 2021, Discovering New Mindset Toward His Career

Dax Harwood says an anxiety attack a few years ago helped lead to himself and Cash Wheeler changing their mindsets about their wrestling careers. Harwood appeared on Power Alphas and talked about how the amount of time and weight he was putting into his career left him in an unhealthy spot and how he and his FTR partner decided to change their outlook on their work. You can see highlights below, per Fightful:

On having an anxiety attack in June 2021 over his career: “I was going to work angry and … I was creating instead of trying to form bonds and friendships with people, and relationships with people, I think — I feel like — I was pushing people away and I got to the point where I feel like I was enjoying pushing people away, and that was scary to me.”

On Cash Wheeler suffering an injury at that time: “He called me about a week after, and he was crying, he said ‘I don’t think I want to do this anymore. I think I want to quit wrestling. I’m going to tell Tony that I want to retire and never wrestle again.’ He said ‘I feel like I’m putting so much out there and no one, no one cares enough to give anything back to me.’ And I was like oh man, we’re taking this way too much to heart… We had this long conversation where we said we can’t do this anymore, let’s just have fun.”

On his current mental health and AEW’s trajectory: “The trajectory is going up, we had a little rocky patch there for a while with some things that happened, but I think the company now is closer than it’s ever been. We have leadership, we have — everybody has a bond, we’re all working together to make AEW the best promotion possible.”

On his family life improving: “Her and I are equals, this whole — that’s what it is — this partnership, and although I’m the one bringing in the money, I wouldn’t be bringing in the money if I didn’t have her support and the things she does at home.”