AEW’s FTR has accomplished almost everything a tag team could hope for. Nevertheless, Cash Wheeler still wishes their alliance with Randy Orton had lasted longer before their WWE exit.
Before joining AEW, Wheeler and Dax Harwood competed in WWE as The Revival. The team found success in both NXT and on the main roster. They won several championships and cemented their reputation as one of the best traditional tag teams in wrestling.
In 2019, they briefly teamed up with Randy Orton during his feud with the then WWE Champion Kofi Kingston. While Kingston had the support of Big E and Xavier Woods from The New Day, Orton joined forces with The Revival.
However, the partnership didn’t last long. After Kingston retained the WWE Championship against Orton, WWE’s draft split the group apart. Orton was moved to RAW, while The Revival stayed on SmackDown.
Cash Wheeler believes their team-up with Randy Orton had major potential
Speaking with LNG Productions, Wheeler said it’s that WWE partnership he misses the most because he believes the group could have done something special together.
“That’s the one I miss the most as far as like what could have been. I thought that we really could do something cool with him, and Randy was a big proponent of pushing for it,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler said that Orton was fully behind the idea and wanted the group to continue. That made the split even more disappointing for everyone involved.
The decision also became a turning point for FTR’s future in WWE.
Wheeler explained that he and Harwood expected to keep working with Orton after the Kingston feud ended. When WWE instead separated them during the draft, they took it as a sign that the company didn’t have major plans for them moving forward.
“I am sure I’ve said on record before, but if not, here we go…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. 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. And we knew if they killed that, that they didn’t really have any expectations or plans for us. And when they drafted us to separate shows, we were like, ‘Alright yeah, I think that the writing’s on the wall here, as far as what our ceiling is ever gonna be,'” Wheeler said.
At the same time, he has no regrets about leaving WWE. “I’ve never regretted that decision ever, even for a second,” Wheeler said.
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