On Friday, WWE issued a brief statement announcing that The Revival, Scott Dawson (David Harwood) and Dash Wilder (Daniel Wheeler) had agreed to their release effective immediately.
Effective today, Friday April 10, 2020, WWE and The Revival have agreed on their immediate release from WWE. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.
It had been considered a given the two were on their way out as soon as they were contractually free of the company. Their deals expired at different times with Dawson’s imminent and Wilder’s set to end in June.
The two began teaming in NXT in 2014 as ‘The Mechanics’ and later known as ‘Dash and Dawson’ before settling on their more recognizable team name in 2016.
The team became a cornerstone of NXT’s tag division using a throwback style of tag team wrestling that worked effectively. They won the NXT tag titles for the first time in October 2015 from The Vaudevillains and began feuding with American Alpha, Jason Jordan, and Chad Gable. The feud helped both teams and became a hot program with stellar matches.
They swapped the titles twice in 2016 with The Revival regaining them in June 2016 and dropped them the final time to Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano in November 2016 at TakeOver: Toronto. The match with DIY was one of the best in NXT history and by this point, The Revival was among the best tag teams in the industry.
Their names began being brought up on Being the Elite during this time and led to the creation of ‘FTR’ and planting the seeds for a program down the road. Over the years, it died off after The Revival’s stock fell after leaving NXT.
They were brought up to Raw the night after WrestleMania 33 in April 2017. Their first year on Raw was hampered by injuries to both Dawson and Wilder. They never were able to recreate the dynamic they had in NXT with the tag division an afterthought.
In January 2019, it was reported by Bodyslam.net that the duo had requested their release from the company.
They won the Raw tag titles in February 2019 and dropped them to Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins on the WrestleMania 35 pre-show. They won the titles a second time last June and dropped them the following month to Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson.
Last fall, they began an alliance with Randy Orton that was quickly dropped when The Revival was drafted to SmackDown and Orton to Raw. Right before the draft, The Revival won the SmackDown tag titles losing them to New Day at the Survivor Series in November.
They had not been used since a live event on March 1st where they lost a three-way match involving John Morrison & The Miz and Kofi Kingston & Big E. Their last appearance on television was the January 31st episode of Friday Night SmackDown.
