The current one-half of the Raw Tag Team Champions, Dash Wilder of The Revival moved to the main roster with his partner Scott Dawson in April of 2017.
The Revival answered an open challenge by The New Day on Raw and defeated them. This would start their journey on the main roster which was full of ups and downs, mainly due to injuries.
A lot of fans have trouble understanding their favorites from NXT underperforming in the main roster. Wilder addressed this difference seen in their performances and tried to look at the potential causes for it while speaking to talkSPORT.
“Oh man, I wish I understood! There’s just so much that goes into the Raw side of it, the SmackDown side of it and NXT side. In NXT, you have a little bit more time to get things situated and to build stuff and get everything flowing in the right direction whereas Mondays and Tuesdays, everything is very hectic and can change in an instant. So it’s always kind of flowing and moving. I thought around that time period [NXT TakeOver: Orlando/WrestleMania 33] we were at our most popular and it worked out really well for us with the debut against New Day and everything. The fans were really good for it.”
Wilder fractured his jaw shortly after his Raw match with The New Day which kept him out of action for eight weeks. Bad news followed the duo as Dawson tore his right bicep a month after Wilder’s injury. Dawson was out of action for five months. Wilder says these injuries really killed their momentum and the reason why the casual crowd took a longer time to get behind them.
“I feel like the injuries back-to-back – one to me, one to Dawson – that obviously put a big bump in the road for us and took away a lot of the momentum, but at the same time, the crowds are a little bit different. NXT, for the most part, their crowds are a little more die-hard and a little more ‘in the know’ I guess? Whereas Monday’s and Tuesday’s, they reach out to a broader audience, a more casual audience. They still come out and have fun and enjoy it, but they don’t know as much about NXT or TakeOver: Orlando as they do about the Royal Rumble or WrestleMania. So it’s just getting those guys established and things going the right way.”
“And then Dawson tore his bicep a month after I came back. So within three months, we had two pretty significant injuries and that really hurt. The first one, we were still around, we were still on TV. The second one was a little bit longer, more rehab for Dawson and that one hurt a lot because we were going to work The Hardyz at SummerSlam and get that opportunity the NXT guys are getting now and there’s nothing you can do about it – it’s out of your hands.”
Wilder also talks about the idea they pitched for WrestleMania 35, what he wants to see in WWE’s tag team division and more. You can read the entire interview by clicking here.
