Top AEW star discloses Randy Orton's reaction to his contributions in the ring

14-time world champion Randy Orton has seen a lot during his time in the business, but he was particularly impressed with a current AEW star's unique talent while they worked for WWE.

The star in question is former AEW Tag Team Champion Dax Harwood, who, along with his FTR partner Cash Wheeler, has garnered a lot of praise from people in and out of the business for using old-school tips and tricks to make his matches better.

These tips and tricks have come good for Harwood and Wheeler, as they are not only former AEW Tag Team Champions, but they also spent 2022 as champions for companies like Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and AAA in Mexico.

Speaking on his FTR with Dax podcast, Harwood revealed that Randy Orton was very impressed with the fact that he called a lot of his spots in the ring rather than backstage, something that had gradually stopped happening in WWE over the years.

“We didn’t call a lot of things. We called a lot of it in the ring and we got to the back and he just, you know, [Randy] was astounded at how much we talked in the ring. He said, ‘Do you guys do that all the time?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s kind of – we don’t like to call a lot of things in the back.’” (H/T WrestleTalk)

Dax elaborated by saying that Randy gave off the sense that he missed doing that sort of thing, as the Legend Killer would talk about how he used to do the same with the likes of Triple H, Ric Flair, and Shawn Michaels.

"And he said, ‘That’s how it used to be. When I was coming up with Hunter, and with Shawn, and with Flair,’ and he started naming all these people — ‘Adam/Edge. We felt it and we called it in the ring.’Then he said, ‘Somewhere, in the mix, it changed and a lot of guys started calling it in the back.'” (H/T WrestleTalk)

Dax Harwood had a short-lived partnership with Randy Orton in WWE

While Dax Harwood has always had Cash Wheeler by his side in both WWE and AEW, Randy Orton has had many different alliances in his career. The former four-time tag team champion has held gold with the likes of Edge, Luke Harper, and Matt Riddle, while also being a member of the legendary Evolution faction.

But did you know there was a brief period where Randy Orton and FTR (then known as The Revival) almost became the next big group in WWE? That's right, FTRKO was nearly a thing.

Dax Harwood told the story on his podcast that Randy Orton loved teaming up with him and Cash Wheeler while they were in WWE, with their short-lived alliance being seen as one of the most exciting things Randy had done in years.

The Revival were granted their release from WWE just a few months after FTRKO began gaining traction, meaning that they never got the chance to reach the heights the likes of The Bloodline, Imperium or The Brawling Brutes have in recent years.

Would you like to see FTRKO have one more run? Let us know in the comments section down below!