Why The Revival is WWE’s Best Tag Team
By Jay Sichler
With their recent run of success in NXT, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder of The Revival have shown they are the best tag team in all of WWE.
For the last few years, NXT has been able to create some of the best talents WWE has seen in a while. They have helped create solid main eventers like Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, and Finn Balor. This includes rebuilding the women’s division, creating stars like Bayley, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte. One division that has been overlooked when it comes to producing new talent has been the NXT tag team division. NXT has been able to produce main roster tag teams such as American Alpha, Enzo and Big Cass, The Lucha Dragons, and potentially soon, The Revival.
The team made of Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder is the best tag team WWE has had in years. For the last year, they have wrecked havoc in the tag division.
Before the two were formed they were viewed as just talents used to help put over other established stars down in NXT. Then in 2014, the duo got paired together and named The Mechanics.
For a period, Dash and Dawson got used as an enhancement tag team, putting over the likes of Enzo and Cass, and Bull Dempsey and Mojo Rawley. They would then spend the rest of the year working only NXT house shows.
Dash and Dawson would return to NXT TV in 2015, when they defeated Enzo and Cass. The Southerners would participate in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament, where they made it to the semi-finals, losing to the eventual champions Samoa Joe and Finn Balor.
Later in November 2015, Dash and Dawson won the NXT Tag Championships from The Vaudevillians. They would then have their team name changed from The Mechanics to The Revival in February 2016.
The duo would put on some fantastic tag team matches in 2016 against the likes of American Alpha, who they faced off against twice, losing the NXT tag titles to them in March, and winning the belts back in June. Dash and Dawson then had arguably the match of the night at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn vs. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa, successfully defending their titles.
The two-time NXT Tag Team Champions have become two of the best heels in the company as well. They pride themselves on not being like many of the current tag teams in the wrestling world. Teams like The Young Bucks, ReDragon, and Gargano and Ciampa use a lot of high risks and tumbling to get over with the crowd.
Dash and Dawson, though, are the complete opposite. They don’t tumble they use their brute strength and wrestling technique to win their matches. The duo actually pride themselves in not being tumblers.
Dawson and Wilder are classic heels, in which they pick on a body part and bully it, weakening their opponents in the process. The team could be compared to a new version of The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard).
The duo does not care that the fans hate them rather they get off on the fact that the fans can’t stand them. The fact that they don’t tumble like many tag teams really makes them stand out compared to other teams.
While The Revival is still down in NXT, their arrival to the main roster should be a major topic on whether they go to RAW or Smackdown. With Gallows and Anderson booked as the top heel tag team on RAW, it would make more sense for the two to go to Smackdown.
On Smackdown, The Revival could become the top heel team instantly, and once again start a program with American Alpha or The Hype Bros. With Smackdown and the tag division quickly growing, they would make a great addition to the blue brand.
Whatever happens next for The Revival the future is defiantly bright for this tag team. In two short years, the duo has shown why they are truly not just the best tag team in the WWE, but in all of pro wrestling.