FTR’s Cash Wheeler has reflected on one of the great “what ifs” of his WWE run, The Revival’s short-lived alliance with Randy Orton, and how its end pushed him and Dax Harwood toward the exit.
Speaking with LNG Productions, Wheeler said the Orton pairing is the one he thinks about most. “That’s the one I miss the most as far as what could have been,” he said. “I thought that we really could do something cool with him, and Randy was a big proponent of pushing for it.”
The Revival and Orton teamed up in August 2019, but the alliance was cut short when the 2019 WWE Draft sent the tag team to SmackDown and Orton to Raw. For Wheeler, that split was the breaking point.
“I think that was the final straw for us when we knew we wanted to ask for our release, was when they drafted us to SmackDown and Randy to Raw at that point,” he said.
Wheeler explained that the brand split signaled to the team that WWE had no real plans for them.
“I think he’d just lost to Kofi or something along those lines, but we still thought we were gonna get a chance to do stuff together,” he said. “And we knew if they killed that, that they didn’t really have any expectations or plans for us. When they drafted us to separate shows, we were like, alright, I think the writing’s on the wall here, as far as what our ceiling is ever gonna be.”
The duo would go on to request their WWE release, and Wheeler has no second thoughts about it.
“I’ve never regretted that decision ever, even for a second,” he said. His only regret is not getting to do more with Orton. “I do hate that we didn’t get to do more with Randy, because even today he’s still such a good friend and we still stay in contact,” Wheeler said. “He’s such a funny guy. I wish that we could have done more.”
After leaving WWE, Wheeler and Harwood debuted in AEW as FTR and went on to become three-time AEW World Tag Team Champions. They most recently dropped the titles to Cope and Christian Cage at Double or Nothing in May.
If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit LNG Productions with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
