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Dash Wilder has addressed rumours The Revival asked for their WWE release in an exclusive interview with Mirror Sport.

Wilder, 31, real name Daniel Wheeler, is one half of the reigning Raw Tag Team Champions , alongside long-time partner, Scott Dawson, 34.

It was widely reported the pair requested their release from WWE in January, but it was not granted by the American sports entertainment giant.

The duo retained their gold at the Fastlane pay-per-view on Sunday night and are now enjoying life at the summit of the red brand's tag division.

Wilder, from Asheville, North Carolina, spoke candidly and at length to Mirror Sport's Matty Paddock about their time in the company so far.

And the grappling purist revealed plans are afoot behind the scenes for tag team wrestling to take a bigger role in WWE in the next few months.

(Image: © WWE)

You're fresh off a successful title defence last night – how are the Revival finding life at the top?

[Laughs] Ah, man. Where do I begin?! I feel like our work is just beginning now. We feel that winning the championship means nothing, it's about what we do with them while we have them, and what we do to elevate their standing in the company. It's about what we do with the rest of the division to elevate it, and make everybody reach their potential.

We've felt for a very long time that the Raw tag team division has some amazing talent and some great characters, and they need the right platform and the right platform to show that. I think, with us as champions, we're going to do everything possible to do that.

For instance – and this might not sound like that much of a deal – last night was our first time on the main card of a pay-per-view since our call up to the main roster in 2017; we'd only done Kickoff shows. It was the first time that the Raw tag team titles have been defended on the main card of a pay-per-view for almost a year. We wanted that – to say we were on the main card. That was a step for us. So we're finding life at the top as more work than ever, if that answers your question in the longest way possible!

(Image: © WWE)

Not at all, it's great to have that insight… you mentioned your call-up. Since coming from NXT, you've had to be patient and bide your time a little bit, haven't you?

Oh, yes, 100% we’ve had to bide our time but, at the same time, we've said since the very beginning that we're not flash. We're not something that's immediately going to jump out at you like an Aleister Black, who has this grand entrance, with the candles and the smoke and the mirrors. That's really cool, and he's gonna do great, but that's not us.

We know that we're going to work hard and know what we're capable of, in and out of the ring. We know we can entertain and go into the ring and put on the best match of the night, every night. We know it might take a little bit longer to get to where we want to be, but we are never going to lose that.

We'll be the guys that are here for as long as we want to be here and the guys that the fans know, when we go out there, they're going to get their monies worth and we're never gonna phone it in and have a night where we don't feel like doing it.

Whether it's talking, whether it's a match, we're going to deliver – but it was hard for a time. I got injured after our second Raw and was out for two months for a broken jaw. I came back and we started a programme with a Hardy Boyz. We were supposed to go to SummerSlam and work with them, which was a dream come true for us, and then there was a freak accident where Dawson tore his bicep right after I came back and he was out for four months.

Back-to-back injuries, they did a lot to hurt momentum and momentum is a very real thing in this business and in this company. So we've spent the last year just trying to show our worth and show what we can do. I'm kind of rambling on, I know, but we were very proud of the fact that we both knew that, once we were both back and both healthy, we'd get back to where we wanted to be.

Looking back, it's almost better that it happened that way because we came in with a lot of expectation and momentum, and that's not The Revival – we're the guys who want to work with the biggest chip possible on our shoulders. We want to be angry and be the guys who have something to be mad at. We work better that way. We need the adversity.

(Image: © WWE)

It was widely reported in January that The Revival had asked for their release from WWE. Firstly, was there any truth to that? And, secondly, did the focus and hysteria around that online frustrate you, as it detracted from what you were doing in the ring?

Hmm, I won't touch on it too much, but what I will say is that it was lost in translation. There were some things that got out there that I don't think people knew the full story about.

I don't think it aggravated us, it kind of gave us… again, we like to be angry. We like to be mad at things and have something to fight for. So that gave us more fuel for the fire and we were like… 'we’ll have fun with the internet over that, as they don't know what's what, so we're not going to tell them otherwise'.

(Image: © WWE)

I have to ask you about the purity of tag team wrestling, because you are purists on tag team wrestling, to the point it annoys some people. Do you enjoy that reaction?

[Laughs] Oh, of course! We want to, basically, have zero redeeming qualities! We don't want to be liked at all. We don't care if people love us, cheer us, boo us, whatever. We just want to do what we do, and our job is to make whoever we're in the ring with look and be their very best. We'll do whatever we have to do to do that.

So if we have to be the guys who do nothing but talk about the rules and talk about what's legal and what's not, that's fine. We're going to make the match mean as much as possible and the rules mean as much as possible; we're going to make our opponents look as good as possible and then still be the tag team champions afterwards!

(Image: © WWE)

So many people grow up wanting to be WWE Superstars – what made you want to devote yourself to tag team wrestling as opposed to having singles dreams?

Me and Dawson both grew up as huge wrestling fans, and tag team wrestling was always something that appealed to us. We spent a lot of time getting into fights we shouldn't have been getting into, so we worked as a tag team even when we weren't wrestling. We were always side by side.

He got here a bit before me, but we would talk every day, week and month about how, when I got here and we were both under contract, that we wanted to be a tag team. On my first day when I got here, we went and sat with the coaches and told them about our idea and our vision, and they ran with it.

We don't have any aspirations to be singles wrestlers or stars. Maybe it will happen some day, but I have zero interest in it – I am very happy with what we're doing and we have so much more that we want to accomplish, that I have no timetable as to when that would even be possible.

I don't think I'd even want that. I want to be the Rock N’ Roll Express, The Midnight Express. I want to be the guy that always had his tag team partner by his side and went down as one of the best.

(Image: © WWE)

Do you feel like your style and role on Raw has seen tag team wrestling afforded more time and more of the spotlight now?

I think things are going in the right direction. Right now, it's a very difficult time for it, it's a certain season and everything is dialled in and focused in on that particular area, if you know what I mean. There’s a show in a few weeks that's kind of a big deal, so there are directions that are set in place that can't really be altered.

Come April, May and all that, I think we'll see a lot more tag teams and a lot more screen time and storylines involving tag teams. I do think there's a lot behind the scenes – we're doing a lot to ensure that, and it will come to fruition in the coming months.

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