Cash Wheeler of FTR in AEW recently looked back on The Revival’s brief alliance with Randy Orton in WWE, revealing that the company’s decision to split them up during the 2019 WWE Draft ultimately served as the breaking point that convinced him and Dax Harwood it was time to leave.
Speaking with LNG Productions (see video below), the AEW star reflected on his partnership with Orton and admitted it remains one of the biggest “what if” scenarios of his career. Wheeler noted that Orton was fully behind the idea and actively pushed for the group, making its abrupt end all the more disappointing.
“That’s the one I miss the most as far as 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.”
The Revival aligned with Orton during the summer of 2019, but the pairing was short-lived. When WWE drafted The Revival to SmackDown and kept Orton on Raw, Wheeler said it became clear to the duo that the company didn’t have major plans for them moving forward.
“I’ve said before – I think 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.”
Wheeler explained that despite Orton’s ongoing storyline at the time, they still expected the faction to continue and believed there was significant potential left to explore.
“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.”
Once the draft separated them, Wheeler said the writing was on the wall.
“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.’”
The former WWE tag team standout made it clear that he has no second thoughts about the path he and Harwood ultimately chose.
“I’ve never regretted that decision ever, even for a second.”
Even so, Wheeler admitted he still wishes The Revival had been given a longer run alongside Orton, who remains one of his closest friends in the business.
“But 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. He’s such a funny guy. I wish that we could have done more.”
