Dave Meltzer has confirmed a major rumor that has been circulating over the past 48 hours, reporting in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that both Dash Walder and Scott Dawson of The Revival have asked for their release from WWE.
According to reports, the RAW Superstars asked officials to be released from their WWE contracts immediately after their tag team match against the Lucha House Party this past Monday night. As of this writing they are still with the company, and are not expected to be granted their release any time soon due to the rapidly rising levels of competition.
It’s almost a guarantee there would be immediate interest from AEW and obvious money in a long program with the Young Bucks. While less of a sure thing, ROH and Impact Wrestling would most likely offer them deals, and with their style, NJPW could be a great fit if there was interest from the company.
Dash Wilder (Daniel Wheeler, 31) got his start in Georgia around 2007 working for the NWA Anarchy promotion and gradually expanding year-over-year into North Carolina, Tennessee and eventually a tour in Japan with the ZERO1 promotion.
Scott Dawson (David Michael Hardwood, 34) had a similar start in North Carolina starting in 2005. He was signed by WWE at the end of 2012 and worked for a year as a singles competitor, appearing as an enhancement talent on NXT television, and occasionally working with Rusev in a tag team before suffering an ACL injury which took him out of action for over half a year.
While Dash arrived to NXT in 2014 he was immediately packaged with a returning Dawson, and the two were called “The Mechanics”. After taking part in the inaugural Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, they won the NXT Tag Team Championships from The Vaudevillians in late 2015. Their biggest program was undoubtedly with American Alpha, Jason Jordan and Chad Gable, dropping the titles at NXT Takeover: Dallas, and regaining them at NXT Takeover: The End.
The Revival debuted on Monday Night RAW immediately following WrestleMania 33, but their run was almost immediately cut short when Wilder suffered an injury that took him out of action for two months. Shortly after his return Dawson also suffered an injury, putting the team on the shelf for another six months.
Upon their return they were used sparingly but never consistently, and almost never in ways that made them look like a legitimate presence in the tag team division, despite being considered one of the best teams in the world during their run in NXT.