“I Don’t Think I Want To Do This Anymore” – AEW Star Considered Retirement In 2022

A current AEW star considered walking away from the wrestling business in 2022 after suffering a nearly catastrophic injury in the ring.

In July 2021 Cash Wheeler had his arm ripped open in a freak accident involving the turnbuckle on the ring that caused him to lose a lot of blood at ringside on AEW’s Fight For The Fallen show.

Speaking on his FTR podcast, Wheeler’s long-time tag team partner Dax Harwood explained how that incident had led to an emotional conversation between the two men where Wheeler admitted he was thinking of calling it a day on his career:

“No, you know, I talked to you last week and I told you that going into 2022 Cash and I had the conversation where you know, I was on the tail end ish of my anxiety. And he [Wheeler] had just, you know, got his forearm ripped to shreds where he almost bled to death. And he called me, you know, after the forearm thing, it was about a week later, he decided to go home and hang out at his home here in North Carolina.”

“He called me and I hope he doesn’t mind me telling this but he called me, he was crying. And he said ‘I don’t think I want to do this anymore.’ I was like ‘what do you mean, do this.’ He said ‘I don’t think I want to wrestle anymore.’ And I said ‘What? Please tell me where you’re coming from.’ He said ‘look, you’ll be fine. You know, your contract, and my contract, they are not intertwined.’ We had two separate contracts. You know, and he said some very nice things about me. And I said ‘dude do it I don’t want to do this without you. You know, like, I’m struggling too.’”

Harwood then explained how Cash Wheeler had helped him through his own struggles and that the two men resolved to have more fun during their time in AEW:

“You know, my struggles are being softened by him. He was the one that was you know, he told me dude, my anxiety stemmed from this sleep issue. And I was scared to fall asleep, but I was also scared to stay awake. And I know it sounds stupid. And he told me you know, when we were on the road, he said, dude I’ll stay awake with you all night if you want. He told me that he would stay awake with me all night if I wanted him to. And he would never leave me if I didn’t, if I wanted him to be there with me. And I owe him a lot.”

“Anyway, so, you know, I told him, I said ‘hey, dude, whatever is gonna make you comfortable, this, let’s try to make you comfortable.’ And, you know, we had about an hour conversation, and he said ‘look, if I’m not having fun doing this, if I’m not enjoying this.’”

“He said I don’t want to do this anymore. He said, what we’re doing now is not worth me or you losing your life. And I said, I can’t argue with that. I said, but I’ll make a promise to you. I said, I’ll try to be less abrasive, and I will try to keep my temper in check. And I’ll try to keep my passion and only let him and I know what’s going through my mind.”

“And I said, we’ll have fun, we’ll spend the rest of this contract, which I think was a year and a half. And whatever they give us, we’ll have fun doing. If he doesn’t give us anything, that’s okay, too. We won’t complain about it. We’ll enjoy each other’s company, we’ll, you know, go out to dinner, whatever, watch wrestling.”

If you use any quotes from this article please credit original source and then h/t with a link back to TJRWrestling for the transcription.