Since their debut as part of the NXT roster five years ago, The Revival have generally been booked as a serious, no-nonsense team, a pair of young men with an appreciation of old-school wrestling that belies their age. A new report, however, suggests that could be changing soon, as evidenced by a blunder on last week’s Friday Night SmackDown that might not have been accidental after all.
Citing a report from Dave Meltzer on this week’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter , Cultaholic wrote that WWE’s creative team is apparently planning to transform the former SmackDown Tag Team Champions into a comedy act. While there are reportedly “mixed feelings” regarding the plan and there’s still a chance WWE will change its mind, Meltzer noted that Revival member Dash Wilder’s fall on the December 13 episode of SmackDown was the start of the duo’s transition to a less serious gimmick.
With this in mind, WrestlingNews.co separately pointed out that based on footage of Wilder’s ostensible gaffe, it looked like “he caused himself to fall on purpose.”
As further noted, the purportedly planned creative changes seem similar to how The Revival were leaning toward comedic roles during their feud earlier this year with The Usos. According to Cultaholic , this came shortly after team members Wilder and Scott Dawson rejected an offer to re-sign with WWE due to their alleged unhappiness with their creative direction.
After a failed bid to recapture the SmackDown Tag Team Championships from The New Day at the TLC pay-per-view last Sunday, recent episodes of the blue brand’s weekly show appear to have dropped The Revival a few notches down the pecking order.
As recapped by Cageside Seats , this week’s Friday Night SmackDown saw Dawson and Wilder lose a Christmas-themed street fight to Heavy Machinery, and later cut a promo about how WWE doesn’t seem to care about tag team wrestling. The latter segment ended with both Revival members getting mocked in the ring by Elias, who taunted the duo by singing a song about making a “big change.”
Although The Revival’s rumored gimmick change is reportedly meant to be a parody of Stan Lane and Steve Keirn’s legendary tag team, The Fabulous Ones, it’s not clear how Wilder and Dawson have been reacting backstage to the recent booking decisions. According to WrestlingNews.co , both men only have a few months remaining on their contracts and have yet to accept WWE’s latest contract extension offer, which will purportedly give them a “significant raise.”
