Serena Deeb hasn't worked a professional wrestling match since all the way back in October, when she secured a win over Haley J on Dark Elevation. While there's been no public acknowledgment of why Deeb has been missing, be it via injury, via other commitments, or simply a lack of creative ideas, her absence has been felt, as her presence as a reliable in-ring performer who can job out younger stars and give champions a solid challenge has been sorely lacking.
Though only time will tell when Deeb is able to return to the ring, her efforts haven't been overlooked by the performers in the back, as, according to Dax Harwood in an interview with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, the balder half of FTR let it be known that he pitched her to join The Pinnacle due to her hard-hitting, submission-based offensive game.
“Oh, Serena. Yeah. The woman I pitched the hardest to be in The Pinnacle with us because I thought her style fit ours so well,” Harwood said. “I think I told her or Bayley or Sasha, one of the three, that those are my three favorite women wrestlers at one point.”
Wow, well, that's certainly news.
Now granted, the idea of bringing Deeb into The Pinnacle would have been… interesting, as the last time she was in a mostly-male faction, she had to shave her head and pretend not to drink alcohol with CM Punk and Luke Gallows, but at the time, The Pinnacle, at least in theory, was viewed as the sort of long-term faction set to take over AEW in the same way The Elite did in 2021. If any AEW woman was going to fit in the faction, Deeb made more sense than most.
Dax Harwood shoots on the two hottest names in the AEW Galaxy.
Elsewhere in Harwood's “soft shooting” session with SRS, “The Ax” was asked to give his quick impressions on two of the top stars on the peripherals of AEW, Sasha Banks and CM Punk, who might just be passing like ships in the wind as one enters the promotion and the other exits for other opportunities.
“(Sasha Banks') another person who is just as passionate about wrestling as I am to the point where it does get her in trouble because I think people would rather you just sit back and shy away from the drama,” Harwood said. “The biggest quote that I live by is, ‘If you’re not controversial, you’re not worth remembering.’ I love her so much. She’s a great human being, incredible professional wrestler. Maybe the best woman wrestler of all time. I don’t know what she’s going to do. I talk to her all the time. I don’t know what she’s going to do, but whatever she does, I hope it makes her happy because she deserves that.”
Asked to then go in on Punk, who was going to be in a faction with FTR had he not suffered injuries at the LA Forum and All Out 2022, Harwood again complimented his friend for being passionate and doing what he does.
“Goddang. Again the same thing as Sasha, a man who obviously has his detractors, and not just in AEW, but around the wrestling world, and sometimes his detractors are louder than him and get their news out more than he does. But again it all comes from a place of passion. When he first came into the company, I remember talking to Cash and I said, ‘If this motherfucker comes in and if he says something about how I dress,’ like a dress code or whatever, ‘We’re gonna have a problem.’ He came in and he was the complete opposite. He had his door always open, invited people in, watched matches of the young wrestlers that asked him to, stuck around to the end of the show and anybody that had questions, he answered the questions. He loves wrestling. Just like me, he is unabashedly a professional wrestling fan. Just like Sasha, I talk to him everyday and whatever he decides to do in his life, I hope it [brings him happiness] and joy, because he deserves it, man. We all deserve joy and happiness.”
Could Punk's removal from AEW play a part in FTR's decision to potentially pursue other opportunities outside of AEW when their contracts come to an end? Only time will tell, but after going from Tag Team Champions to Pinnacle members to Triple Crown Champs via ROH, NJPW, and AAA, it's safe to say the run of Harwood and Wheeler has been consequential.
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