FTR’s Cash Wheeler Recalls WWE Partnership With Randy Orton, Says Split Was ‘The Final Straw’ For Them To Request Release

WWE

AEW star Cash Wheeler has named FTR’s brief partnership with Randy Orton in WWE as the alliance he misses the most.

In 2019, FTR – known at the time as The Revival – and Randy Orton formed an trio as Orton was looking to challenge New Day’s Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship, who of course had Big E and Xavier Woods to back him up.

After the feud had ended with Kingston retaining the title against Orton, WWE drafted Orton and FTR onto separate brands, ending their partnership just a few weeks in.

Now, Cash Wheeler has named that decision as “the final straw” that ultimately led to FTR requesting their releases from WWE and going on to join AEW.

In a new interview with LNG Productions, Wheeler said:

“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.

“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.

“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.’

“I’ve never regretted that decision ever, even for a second.

“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.”

If you use this transcription or any portion of it, please credit WrestleTalk.com and link to this page.

A Second Chance For FTRKO?

While the original FTR and Randy Orton partnership was short-lived, there’s a possibility it could be revived in the future.

It emerged recently that FTR’s AEW contracts are approaching their option year, and there’s “preliminary interest” from WWE in signing them.

FTR’s AEW stint has been largely successful, but now that WWE is under different management than their first tenure, there’s a chance they’ll at least be weighing up their options, and potential reunion with Randy Orton – and/or another former partner in CM Punk – could be one of the pitches from WWE to persuade them to return.

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• AEW
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