Cash Wheeler says the moment that made it clear FTR needed to ask for their WWE release came from Randy Orton, not from a Vince McMahon idea to give the tag team a comedy makeover. In a new interview this week with LNG Productions, Wheeler looked back on why the duo wanted out of WWE circa 2019, more than six years after FTR, formerly known as The Revival was released.

Wheeler identified the draft that sent FTR to SmackDown while Orton went to Raw as the breaking point. Orton had just lost to Kofi Kingston around that time, Wheeler said, but the duo still expected to keep working together until the brand split ended that on screen partnership.

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 Randy, and Randy was a big proponent of pushing for it. 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 had 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.

Wheeler said he has never regretted requesting their release, even for a second, though he still wishes FTR had gotten more time with Orton in WWE.