The Revival (professional wrestling)

Wheeler and Harwood were longtime friends before being made into a team, and had wrestled together on the independent circuit. In 2012, Harwood was hired by WWE based in part on a match he previously had with Wheeler, and performed there under the name Scott Dawson, mostly in tag team matches on NXT and live shows.[4] Wheeler had hoped to join WWE, with the two also hoping to form a tag team there. In 2014, Wheeler joined the WWE Performance Center, and on his very first day of promo training, performed a promo with Dawson; WWE producer Dusty Rhodes immediately became convinced that the two needed to become a team. According to a May 2020 interview of the duo, Rhodes was not only highly influential in both the creation and development of the team, but had "unwavering faith" in them even as some of the other coaches had doubts, and was their "biggest supporter and pushed for [them] harder than anybody" until his passing in 2015.[4]

Wheeler and Harwood, who were both from North Carolina, acknowledged that their southern accents contributed to the lack of faith some coaches had for them at the Performance Center (with WWE president Vince McMahon's dislike for southern accents being well-known backstage). They were notably told that they would not get to do many promos, although Rhodes, a fellow resident of North Carolina, insisted that they should.[5]

In 2014, after returning from injury, Dawson teamed up with a debuting Wilder, with the two performing extensively at live events under the ring name The Mechanics. The two made their debut on the July 17, 2014, episode of NXT, losing to Bull Dempsey and Mojo Rawley. They made only one further televised appearance in 2014, losing to Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady on the October 23 episode of NXT, but continued to wrestle extensively at live events.

The duo resurfaced and picked up their first televised win on the July 29, 2015 episode of NXT, defeating Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady. At NXT TakeOver: Respect, The Mechanics were defeated in the semi-finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic by eventual winners Finn Bálor and Samoa Joe. In the following weeks, the team name was changed to "Dash and Dawson". On the October 28 episode of NXT, Dash and Dawson would attack Amore and Cassady before their match, completely laying out Amore while decimating Cass' knee, leaving him unable to compete.[6]

Scott Dawson (left) and Dash Wilder (right), as NXT Tag Team Champions in 2016

Due to an earlier non-title victory over NXT Tag Team Champions The Vaudevillains, Dash and Dawson earned a title match on the November 11 episode of NXT, and won the match to become the NXT Tag Team Champions for the first time.[7] They made their first successful title defense two weeks later, defeating The Vaudevillians in a rematch.[8] Afterwards, they successfully defended their titles against Amore and Cassady at NXT TakeOver: London. Beginning in February 2016, Dash and Dawson began performing under the team name The Revival.[9]

The Revival made their first appearance on WWE's main roster at Roadblock, successfully defending their championships against Amore and Cassady. On April 1 at NXT TakeOver: Dallas, The Revival lost the NXT Tag Team Championship to American Alpha (Chad Gable and Jason Jordan), ending their reign at 142 days. [10] On June 8 at NXT TakeOver: The End, The Revival regained the titles from American Alpha, thus becoming the first team to win the NXT Tag Team Championship twice.[11] On the July 6 episode of NXT, The Revival defeated American Alpha in a two-out-of-three falls match to retain the titles. At NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II, they retained their titles over Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. In a rematch against Gargano and Ciampa (now called DIY) at NXT TakeOver: Toronto, The Revival would lose their tag team titles in a two-out-of-three falls match after scoring the first fall via pinfall, ending their second reign at 164 days. The match was later named "WWE Match of the Year" for 2016.[12] At NXT TakeOver: Orlando, The Revival would lose to The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar) in a triple threat elimination match for the NXT Tag Team Championship that also featured DIY, in what would be their last match in NXT.

On the April 3 episode of Raw, The Revival made their main roster debut, defeating The New Day. The following week on Raw, they defeated The New Day once again. On April 14, Wilder subsequently suffered a fractured jaw during a live event, and was estimated to be out for eight weeks, putting the team on a temporary hiatus.[13] On the July 10 episode of Raw, The Revival attacked The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy) after their match against Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, and became embroiled in a three-way feud; however, shortly afterwards, Dawson suffered a ruptured bicep, putting him out of action for an estimated five months.[14]

The Revival returned again on the December 18 episode of Raw, defeating Heath Slater and Rhyno. At Raw 25, The Revival lost to Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, marking their first defeat on the main roster. On January 28, 2018 at the Royal Rumble pre-show, The Revival defeated Gallows and Anderson. On SummerSlam pre-show, The Revival lost to The B-Team (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel) in an attempt to become the Raw Tag Team Champions. At Survivor Series, they were part of Team Raw, but lost to Team SmackDown in the 10-on-10 Survivor Series tag team elimination match. The Revival were the final team eliminated in the match.[15]

Following this they began a feud against Lucha House Party (Kalisto, Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado) and suffered various losses in handicap matches labeled "Lucha House Rules".[16] On the December 17 episode of Raw, The Revival defeated Lucha House Party, The B-Team and Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar) in a fatal-4-way match, earning a shot at the Raw Tag Team Championship. Throughout the next two weeks, The Revival faced Bobby Roode and Chad Gable for the titles, but Dawson and Wilder were unsuccessful in winning the titles in controversial fashion each time. Shortly after, Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer reported that the duo asked for their release from their WWE contracts. This information was reported following their bout against Lucha House Party on the January 14, 2019 episode of Raw.[17]

On the February 11 edition of Raw, The Revival finally defeated Roode and Gable for the titles, marking their first tag team championship win on the main roster.[18] The following two weeks on Raw, The Revival were booked to lose to two different teams from NXT. This string of losses included against DIY and the team of Ricochet and Aleister Black.[19][20] The team successfully defended their titles against Black and Ricochet and Roode and Gable at Fastlane, when Dawson pinned Gable.[21] At WrestleMania 35, The Revival lost their titles to Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder, ending their reign at 55 days. The following night on Raw, The Revival fought Hawkins and Ryder in a rematch, but failed to regain the titles. At The Shield's Final Chapter, The Revival once again unsuccessfully fought Hawkins and Ryder for the tag team championship in a triple threat match also involving Aleister Black and Ricochet.

After being drafted to Raw in the Superstar Shake-up, The Usos began a rivalry with Dawson and Wilder where The Usos would repeatedly embarrass The Revival on numerous occasions. On the May 20 episode of Raw, The Revival defeated The Usos.[22] At Super ShowDown, The Revival lost the rematch.[23] On the following episode of Raw, The Revival defeated Hawkins and Ryder, and The Usos in a triple threat tag team match to win the Raw Tag Team Championships for a second time.[24] The Revival defeated The Usos at Extreme Rules to retain the tag titles. On July 29 episode of Raw, they lost the titles to Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in a triple threat match that also involved the Usos, ending their second reign at 49 days. On the August 12, 2019 post-Summerslam episode of "Raw", during a scheduled tag team match where The Revival were facing Lucha House Party (Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik, with Kalisto), the 24/7 champion R-Truth ran out from backstage, being chased by several wrestlers. The match was called off and The Revival performed a "Hart Attack" on Truth and simultaneously pinned him to become the first co-champions of the 24/7 Championship. However, in the same night, R-Truth pinned Dawson, with the help of Carmella, to regained the title.[25]

Following SummerSlam, The Revival began to appear on SmackDown Live, aligning themselves with Randy Orton in a feud against The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods).[26] On September 15 at Clash of Champions, The Revival defeated The New Day's Big E and Woods to capture the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, making them the first team to hold the Raw, SmackDown, and NXT Tag Team Championships, and thus the first-ever WWE Tag Team Triple Crown Champions.[27][3] As part of the draft, The Revival was drafted to the SmackDown brand. As Randy Orton had become drafted to the Raw brand, this signified the end of The Revival's alliance with Orton. [28] On the November 8 episode of SmackDown, The Revival lost the SmackDown Tag Team titles back to The New Day's Big E and Kingston, ending their reign at 54 days. [29] They received a rematch for the titles at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, but was again defeated by The New Day.[30] Later that same night, The Revival also aligned themselves with King Corbin, assisting him in defeating Roman Reigns, but that alliance ended quietly.[31]

On the January 31, 2020 episode of SmackDown, The Revival lost to John Morrison and The Miz in a fatal four-way tag team match also involving Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker) and Lucha House Party, in a match where the winner would earn a Smackdown Tag Team Championship match at Super ShowDown; this would The Revival's final televised match in WWE.[32] On the February 7, 2020 episode of SmackDown, they attacked Intercontinental Champion Braun Strowman alongside Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura, in their final appearances in WWE.

On April 10, The Revival were granted their releases from WWE, fifteen months after their request in January 2019.[33][34][35] In an interview the following month, the duo explained that they had asked for their releases because "the tag team division doesn't get respect, it doesn't get the time that we think a lot of these teams deserve and we want to take chances on ourselves", and that they felt that otherwise they would have "no legacy aside from our NXT stuff".[36] They also stated: "The tag team titles, they don't really mean anything", pointing out that Braun Strowman had "steam-rolled the entire tag team division" by himself before winning the Raw Tag Team Championship with 10-year old non-wrestler Nicholas at WrestleMania 34.[36] According to the duo, WWE management originally thought that The Revival was bluffing in order to receive a push, and that the push they received shortly after (they won the Raw Tag Team Championship the following month, with three more title wins later the same year) was a result of it, even after they repeatedly insisted that they did not want to win titles because they believed WWE's tag team championships were meaningless.[37]

During the two's last months in the company, Vince McMahon personally designed an entirely new gimmick for The Revival. However, the duo found the proposed characters "less than flattering", with Wilder stating that he laughed out loud when McMahon gave them pictures displaying their offered new looks.[38][39] The designs, which have since leaked online, had the two wearing lipstick, bright colors and tassels and carrying glow sticks, with Wilder also wearing suspenders and a large "Shatter Machine" sign on a chain necklace.[36][40] The duo stated that they had immediately told McMahon that these new characters were "bad", and that while they would portray them if WWE wanted, they would still leave the company once their contracts expired in June 2020. In the same May 2020 interview, Wheeler and Harwood stated their belief that this was the moment McMahon and WWE executives realized that the two actually intended to leave the company; this resulted in The Revival being permanently taken off-television until their release.[39]

Following their departure from WWE, the team released a video on their social media pages using the new catchphrase "Fear The Revolt" (FTR); this resulted in their new ring name being largely reported to be The Revolt. Furthermore, Wilder changed his ring name to Cash Wheeler while Dawson changed his to Dax Harwood (with both now using their real-life last names, while Wheeler was now using the first name he originally wanted in WWE).[41] In an interview the following month, the duo stated on Chris Jericho's podcast Talk is Jericho that they were "happier than we've ever been" following their long-requested release, and that while they had received offers from several promotions, the duo was "not in any kind of hurry" to choose which promotion to join.[42][43]

On May 10, 2020, the duo received a cease and desist letter over the usage of the name "The Revolt" by the attorney of Caleb Konley and Zane Riley, a duo who had been using the name on the independent circuit since 2015; the letter stated that "[Wheeler and Harwood's] conduct is not only unlawful, it is truly shameless that they would willfully steal a name from those that worked so hard to build it up". A letter sent by Wheeler and Harwood's attorney, Michael E. Dockins, the following day, announced that Wheeler and Harwood's team name was not The Revolt but "FTR", which "would mean different things depending on their storyline and creatives", and that they could keep using the "Fear The Revolt" catchphrase regardless. While Konley and Riley claim that Wheeler and Harwood, who knew them personally, knew about their previous use of the Revolt name, Dockins stated that his clients "were not aware of and, at worst, have no recollection of ever knowing of [Konley and Riley]'s claimed rights in a REVOLT-inclusive trademark."[44]

On the May 27, 2020 episode of AEW Dynamite, Harwood and Wheeler made their All Elite Wrestling debut as FTR, saving The Young Bucks from an attack by The Butcher and The Blade.[45] On the June 10 episode of Dynamite, FTR made their in-ring debut defeating The Butcher and The Blade.[46]