Edge and Beth Phoenix defeated Finn Balor and Rhea Ripley using the Shatter Machine, a finisher made famous by FTR’s Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler, at Saturday’s WWE Elimination Chamber event. The move was acknowledged on commentary, and later during the post-show press conference, noting that it was the first time they have performed it.
Harwood, a close friend of Edge and his family, recently discussed the match and the Shatter Machine on his FTR Podcast, revealing how he assisted The Grit Couple in preparing for the match. Here are some highlights:
His reaction to seeing The Shatter Machine:
“Adam has been off for a little while and he asked me if I would, you know, help him get back into ring shape, so I did. Those two are hall of fame talent and I’m just lucky that they respect me and Cash enough that they wanted to pay homage to us doing that move. I don’t want to give the wrong impression to fans when I say this, especially with our contracts coming up in April. But hearing Shatter Machine, my wife, like, when I watched it for the first time, the Shatter Machine and those guys hit it and heard Michael Cole call it, like, I was watching on my phone and my wife just started recording me and I said it on the film, I didn’t know she was filming me, I said to her, oh, man, I’m so emotional right now. She said, why are you so emotional, was it because they did your finishing move?
I said, well, yeah, it was very respectful, but I was more emotional that they called it the Shatter Machine, because that’s the name I came up with, you know. And it was just emotional to me that we have made a little small impact on the business that I have loved and cherished and admired for my whole existence, right. And we made this little bit of impact where we came up with a move, we named a move and they are stilling calling it that move, that is so humbling. Anyway, watching it and hearing it still be called The Shatter Machine, it really made me feel, it made me feel. And I’m really lucky that those guys respect us enough to do it, lucky also that that company respect us enough to still call it because they could have called it whatever they wanted. They could have called it an assisted Codebreaker or an assisted Lung Blower or they could have come up with something and call it, Edge & Phoenix something, I don’t know, they could have done whatever they wanted to, but instead they called it the name I came up with, and that’s beautiful to me.”
Helping Edge prepare for the match:
“Yeah because he’s been off, you know, filming some things and he just wanted to get back in the ring and he knew that if he got in the ring with me, I wouldn’t just take it easy on him. He and I met together, got in the ring, talked and hanged out, like, we’re very close friends. I consider them family. I think they would consider me family as well. Our kids love each other. The first time we got to together to help Adam get ready, I brought Finley, he brought his two kids and they just played for two hours. But, yeah, I got to hang out with him and his schedule is so hectic with the filming and now with WWE, it’s really hard to catch him.
I’ve been off, you know, for a whole month, so my lazy ass been doing nothing but staying home. Yeah, I am just fortunate and blessed that we have the respect of them, for them to use that and we have the respect of obviously, Hunter, and the guys in charge there to allow them to use that move and to call it that name. It was a surprise; it was legit a surprise. We had some conversations and I jokingly said, like, you guys should pull out The Shatter Machine. And Adam said, you know, we kind of had an idea to maybe use it and I said, don’t tell me anything more, if you guys want help practicing it, let me know, I’ll come help you. They didn’t ask for help using the move. I just didn’t think they were going to do it, but they did and pulled it off flawlessly, dude.”
Dominik Mysterio:
“This was the first time I’ve seen him, like, ah, no, I think saw him at Royal Rumble when Adam came back too. But, yeah, the people don’t like him, huh. But he plays the role perfectly. Again, someone who is not scared to play that chicken shit role, a lot of heels are, they want to be tough or look tough or be cool, but he doesn’t, he doesn’t care. I also thought it was very funny that he and Rhea were kind of like, almost, not to the disgusting point of dominatrix, but she was definitely the head of the household, I thought that was great.”
(H/T to Joshie Lopez and WrestlingHeadlines.com for the transcription)
