wrestling / News

Dax Harwood Explains Why The Pinnacle Failed In AEW

March 5, 2023 | Posted by Jonathan Hunter
MJF The Pinnacle AEW Dynamite, Wardlow Image Credit: AEW

On a recent episode of FTR, Dax Harwood talked about the faction of the Pinnacle, and why it didn’t succeed. Read on for some highlights:

On MJF thinking he didn’t need to be with the other Pinnacle members: “I thought that Wardlow should be out there with us [for a six-man tag vs Pillman Jr and partners] , which I think he was. And I thought and felt that Max should have been in the match with us as well, to show us a group. To show us as a unit. There were a ton of times Flair was in six-mans or eight-mans with the Horsemen. I thought that Max should be out there with us, but he thought otherwise and didn’t think he should. I thought, up until that point as well between us, Spears, Max, out of those names at the time, only one person was seeing a ton of TV time, and that was Max. So I thought if you put me and Cash with Spears in a match, it really was just three guys who hadn’t been on TV very much. But if we added Max, it would give us a little more star power, make us look a little more credible, and make us look more like a unit. He didn’t see things that way, so we had the six-man.”

Dax on Shawn Spears tweeting ‘DOA’ in response to this episode: “(laughs) I didn’t know that he did that! Holy God, dude. That was a shoot pop. Well, Spears is gonna get more heat than I am, hell yeah, thank you Spears. Take some away from me. Spears is finally branching out and understanding how good he is, and that he has doesn’t always have to keep his mouth shut if he doesn’t want to.”

On one person thinking he was bigger than the group: “Because, I think, that one person in the group probably thought that he was bigger than the group, and probably felt that this was just designed for him. Maybe he wasn’t the only person that thought that, too.”

Dax on he, Cash, Wardlow, and Spears believing they all could get over: “I don’t think at first we thought that. I think at first, someone, maybe a couple of other people outside of group, too, felt that this was a vehicle for *just* him and them. We felt — and I say [we] being Cash, Spears, and Wardlow — we felt that if we all worked together, we could all get over. We could all get each other over. Obviously Max was gonna be the main event guy winning the world belt. We knew that. But we felt that everybody could benefit from this group, and in turn, benefit who we individually work with; and in turn, benefit AEW’s business. Just didn’t pan out that way.”

On if he could go back and change one thing about the Pinnacle: “I wouldn’t have joined it (laughs).”

Dax Harwood, real name David Michael Harwood, is an American professional wrestler who wrestled under the ring name Scott Dawson during his time in WWE where he teamed with partner Dash Wilder as the Revival. As part of the duo, he held the NXT Tag Team Championship, as well as the Smackdown and RAW Tag Team Championship after making their main roster debut. After jumping to All Elite Wrestling, he won the AEW World Tag Team Championship with Cash Wheeler. He has also worked as a singles competitor in various promotions and also had success in New Japan Pro Wrestling as well as ROH. He has worked NXT Takeover and WrestleMania events, matches such as the Stadium Stampede Match won the IWGP Tag Team Championships as well as the ROH World Tag Team Championship, and he and Wheeler are often considered by fans as one of the best tag teams. He has had notable programs involving the likes of Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, New Day, Butcher & Blade, Bobby Roode, Kenny Omega, Randy Orton, Young Bucks, Briscoes, Tully Blanchard, Chad Gable, and more. He has recently gotten a lot of attention for his comments on CM Punk.

If using any of the above quotations, please credit FTR h/t 411mania for the transcription.