Report: Backstage News On FTR Dropping The IWGP Tag Team Titles

FTR’s title laden run came to an end at Wrestle Kingdom 17, when the team of Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler dropped the IWGP Tag Team Championships to Bishamon in the Tokyo Dome.

The defeat saw FTR drop their third set of titles in a little over a month, having dropped the ROH and AAA Tag Titles at the tail end of 2022, and a report from Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter suggests that FTR dropping the gold at Wrestle Kingdom 17 was always the plan.

Meltzer does suggest that whilst the date of the title change was never in doubt, it was not always planned for Bishamon to be the team to dethrone the ‘Top Guys’, although Meltzer did not reveal who else was potentially in the frame to win the gold.

The sudden dropping of all three titles - plus a recent loss to AEW World Tag Team Champions The Acclaimed - has done little to quash the rumours that FTR are set to depart AEW in 2023, with the former AEW Tag Champs contracts believed to be expiring in April.