AEW tag team champions appeared on The Push Podcast the week and spoke about their experience being mentored by Dusty Rhodes.
Prior to joining All Elite Wrestling, Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood competed in WWE and NXT as The Revival. It was Dusty Rhodes who paired them up and they learned a lot from the late American Dream.
“For us, he wanted us to be a team.” said Harwood. I think he enjoyed that we were two Carolina boys. I think he enjoyed the fact that we both had Southern accents, and we had our style of work. And I also think he liked the fact that we weren’t the biggest guys in the room.”
Rhodes urged them to always have each others backs, which created a bond between them that has lasted to this day. Harwood continued, “He told us never to leave each other’s side, whether we were in promo class, at the shows together, or in the Performance Center, ‘Never leave each other’s side. Be seen together all the time, so that people can see what I sees, just on the surface.’”
Harwood added that Dusty Rhodes taught them to use a ‘conversational’ style when doing their promos. He taught them the value of connecting with the audience and their peers by speaking to them in a believable way.
Cash Wheeler also spoke fondly of Dusty Rhodes’ teaching style.
“Yeah, the craziest thing about learning from Dusty is, half the time you didn’t even realize you were learning until after he already taught you,” said Wheeler. “He would like, Mr. Miyagi you. You don’t understand why he’s asking you certain things, and why you’re doing certain things until after, finally you just have this realization of like, ‘Oh wow, that’s why he wanted me to do it.’”
You can listen to Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler’s comments about learning from Dusty Rhodes in the player embedded below: