8 Dropped Ideas That Could've Helped WWE Ratings

7. FTRKO

Randy Orton The Revival
WWE.com

Only a matter of weeks ago, wrestling fans were lapping up the heel antics of the recently formed FTRKO trio of Randy Orton, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder. Sadly, that burgeoning stable was brought to a halt after Randal Keith was moved to Monday Night Raw during the recent WWE Draft, with The Revival remaining on SmackDown.

Combining Orton’s third generation veteran status with The Revival’s old school schtick seemed like a perfect meshing together of talents who just looked right together. Orton was clearly the main event top tier singles act – helped out by the 13 World Championships to his name – and then you had The Revival tag team who are the very best tandem in the game right now.

What could go wrong, right?

Well, sadly WWE decided that FTRKO had no future and quickly took the legs from under the trio by separating The Viper and The Revival during the aforementioned WWE Draft.

Since dropping the idea of FTRKO, last week it was revealed that Randy Orton even met with Vince McMahon to plead with him to keep the stable together. Unfortunately for Randy and wrestling fans, Vinny Mac was adamant that FTRKO was no more.

With WWE ratings in the toilet right now, you'd have thought McMahon might have been open to having a genuinely top level heel stable causing chaos and helping shine up some babyfaces. But, well, Vince...

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.