Cash Wheeler Says Draft Split Separating FTR From Randy Orton Was Breaking Point That Led to WWE Exit

A potential alliance with Randy Orton is the one that got away, according to FTR’s Cash Wheeler — and it played a direct role in the tag team deciding to ask for their WWE release.

Appearing on the Late Night Grin podcast, Wheeler opened up about his time in WWE and singled out Orton as the biggest missed opportunity of his career. Wheeler recalled that Orton was actively pushing for a partnership with FTR, and the two sides genuinely believed something significant could come from it. That belief evaporated, however, when a draft sent FTR and Orton to separate brands.

“Randy,” Wheeler said. “That’s the one I missed the most as far as like what could have been. I thought that we really could do something cool with him, and Randy was a big proponent of pushing for it… But I think that was the final straw for us when we knew we wanted to ask for our release was when they put, I want to say they drafted us to SmackDown and Randy to Raw at that point. That was in the midst of, I think he had just lost to Kofi Kingston or something along those lines, but we still thought we were going to 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.”

Wheeler was careful to say he has no regrets about leaving WWE, but the frustration over what he and Orton could have built together clearly lingers. In his telling, the draft decision wasn’t just a logistical inconvenience — it was a signal that WWE had no real investment in FTR’s future, and that was enough to push the team toward the exit.

Since leaving, FTR have gone on to become one of the most decorated tag teams in the world, collecting titles across multiple promotions and earning matches alongside talents like CM Punk and Adam Copeland. But with Dax Harwood recently announcing that the team plans to take a hiatus from wrestling, and their AEW contracts set to expire in 2027, the question of what comes next is unavoidable. If FTR eventually re-enter the free agent market, the story of a never-realized Orton partnership may become more than just a what-if.