Over the summer Randy Orton, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder looked to be forming an alliance as they feuded with The New Day over the WWE and SmackDown Tag Team Championships. And according to a new report from Fightful‘s Sean Ross Sapp, “The Viper” wanted to make the alliance into an official faction. However the request was denied even after Orton specifically pitched the idea to Vince McMahon, and the 13-time world champ was moved over to Raw as part of the 2019 WWE Draft.
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“We’re told by multiple sources that Orton pushed to do more work with them, even going as far as pitching a faction to Vince McMahon personally,” Sapp wrote on Monday. “The idea fell on deaf ears and Orton and the Revival were put on different brands in the WWE draft.”
The denial doesn’t come at a great time for all three men. Dawson and Wilder’s frustration with the company and dispute over a contract extension has been in the headlines throughout 2019, and Orton’s decade-long contract with the company is reportedly set to expire in mid-2020. It also doesn’t help that Orton has been teasing the idea of heading to AEW on social media.
“That AEW looked f—ing cool, huh? Did you watch that show last night? Oh my god,” Orton said after the AEW Dynamite premiere on TNT back on Oct. 2. “I’ll tell you what. It’s that big match feel, the big show feel. Cody [Rhodes] and Sammy Guevara, that kid can do some s— I’d love to work with that kid. They had a great match. I thought opening the show with that match was a good idea and well-received.”
Since news of The Revival’s hesitance to re-sign first popped up, the pair have held tag team championship gold twice. The two were supposed to defend the tag titles on last week’s SmackDown against Kofi Kingston and Big E, but the match had to be scrapped as all four men were stuck overseas in Saudi Arabia. Orton took part in the 10-man Team Hogan vs. Team Flair tag match at Crown Jewel, while Wilder and Dawson came up short in the nine-team World Cup tag team turmoil match.
