Reports last summer that Cash Wheeler was arrested for aggravated assaultwith a firearm left fans baffled across the board. The incident, which took place right before AEW All In 2023, took nine months to resolve, ultimately getting dropped in Wheeler's favor.The two-time AEW World Tag Team Champion opened up about that difficult phase on "Close Up with Renee Paquette."
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"It was a very rough patch," Wheeler said. "I told my lawyers ... I was not guilty, and Iwould not take any sort of plea. But on the flip of that, that means I face the full repercussions if they do find me guilty." Wheeler said although he was confident in his innocence, it was still a my-word-against-his situation, and he didn't know the extent of what he might've faced if things didn't go his way. He said sentencing was based on prior convictions, of which he had none, but that the maximum for that type of offense was five years in prison.
"I was not gonna sit here and take any [plea] whatsoever to not go to jail, because if I do that, then this goes away. Like AEW has to get rid of me, like I can never leave the country again. So like, everything I've ever worked for, over something that never happened. Just the way it all went about, like I don't see how it ever got that far. I didn't even find out about it until a week after the fact. They never pulled me over and found anything, they never came to my house and searched, they never had a witness, a picture, a video. All they had was one guy's statement, and that was it." Wheeler and his partner Dax Harwood of FTR have indicated they will retire when their current AEW contracts expire, believed to be sometime in 2027.
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If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Close Up with Renee Paquette" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
