Dawson signed with WWE in 2012 and was assigned to the WWE Performance Center. He made his television debut on the 7, 2013 episode of NXT, teaming with Judas Devlin in a two-on-one handicap loss to Adrian Neville. Dawson made a further appearance in an enhancement role on April 10 episode of NXT, in a six-man tag-team defeat against The Shield.
In May 2013, Dawson formed a tag-team with Garrett Dylan, with the two managed by Sylvester Lefort. On the June 26 episode of NXT, Dawson and Dylan lost a number one contender's match for the NXT Tag Team Championship to Corey Graves and Kassius Ohno. The team disbanded shortly afterwards when Dylan was released from the company. Following Dylan's release, Dawson initially worked as a singles competitor with little success and then formed a tag-team with Alexander Rusev, who was also being managed by Lefort. Rusev and Dawson participated unsuccessfully in a contendership battle royal for the NXT Tag Team Championship on September 12 episode of NXT. Their alliance ended when Rusev turned on Lefort in favor of being managed by Lana, and shortly afterwards Dawson suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament which ruled him out of action for several months.
On his return from injury, Dawson formed a team with Dash Wilder, with the two performing extensively at live events under the name The Mechanics. The duo made their debut on July 31, 2014 episode of NXT, losing to the team of Bull Dempsey and Mojo Rawley. The duo made only one further televised appearance in 2014, losing to Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady on October 23 episode of NXT, but continued to wrestle extensively at house shows. On the June 10, 2015 episode of NXT, Dawson faced Samoa Joe in a losing effort during the show's main event.
Dawson and Wilder's team resurfaced and picked up their first televised win on the July 29, 2015 episode of NXT, defeating Amore and Cassady. The duo were involved in an 8-man tag-team match that was taped prior to NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn. At NXT TakeOver: Respect, Dawson and Wilder were defeated in the semi-finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic by eventual winners Finn Bálor and Samoa Joe. On the October 21 episode of NXT, The Mechanics' ring name was changed to Dash and Dawson. On the November 11 episode of NXT, Dawson and Wilder defeated The Vaudevillains to win the NXT Tag Team Championship. They subsequently defended the titles against Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady at NXT TakeOver: London. Beginning in February 2016, the duo began performing under the team name The Revival. Dawson made his WWE main roster debut alongside Wilder at Roadblock, once again defending their NXT Tag Team Championships against Amore and Cassady. On April 1 at NXT TakeOver: Dallas, The Revival lost the NXT Tag Team Championship to American Alpha (Chad Gable and Jason Jordan) but the two won back the titles from American Alpha two months later at NXT TakeOver: The End. At NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II, The Revival retained the titles against Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. On November 19, 2016, at NXT TakeOver: Toronto, The Revival lost the tag team titles in a two out of three falls match to #DIY (Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano). They failed in their attempt at winning back the titles at NXT TakeOver: Orlando on April 1, 2017; in a triple threat tag team elimination match.
On the Raw after WrestleMania 33, The Revival answered an open challenge issued by The New Day. The Revival defeated The New Day, and afterwards attacked Kofi Kingston, who was not participating in the match. The team was on hiatus due to Wilder's injury. Wilder returned seven weeks later on the May 22, 2017 episode of Raw, walking backstage during the sneak attack on Enzo Amore, Big Cass would later accuse both Wilder and Dawson as the attackers, but they denied this. Two weeks later, on the Raw after Extreme Rules, The Revival also denied their involvement during the sneak attack on Cass, bringing out another suspect in Big Show.
The June 19, 2017 episode of Raw revealed that The Revival had nothing to do with the attack and that Cass was never attacked. Corey Graves finally came to the conclusion that Cass was indeed the culprit behind Enzo's sneak attack after The Revival stated their alibi of being innocent. Wilder returned to in ring competition on the June 26 taping of Main Event aired on June 30, teaming with Dawson to defeat Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows by pinfall, Dawson would have his first pinfall loss to Kalisto the following week.
On August 7, 2017, WWE announced that over the weekend of August 5–6 at a live event in Canada, Dawson suffered an injury to his right bicep in a match against Cesaro and Sheamus. He was out of action for 5 to 6 months. Dawson returned on the December 18 episode of Raw with Wilder to defeat Heath Slater and Rhyno. The Revival participated in the Raw Tag Team Eliminator tournament to crown new champions, but lost in the semi-finals to Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt. On the SummerSlam 2018 Pre-show, The Revival lost to Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel in an attempt to become the new Raw Tag Team Champions. At Survivor Series, they were part of Team Raw, but lost to Team SmackDown in the 10-on-10 Survivor Series tag team elimination match.
Following this they began a feud against Lucha House Party and suffered various losses in handicap matches. On the December 17, 2018 episode of Raw, they defeated Lucha House Party, The B-Team and AOP in a Fatal 4-Way Match receiving a title shot for the Raw Tag Team Titles. During the next two Raws, they challenged Bobby Roode and Chad Gable for the titles but Dawson and Wilder were unsuccessful to win the matches in controversial fashion.
On the February 11, 2019 episode of Raw, Dawson and Wilder defeated the team of Roode and Gable to win the Raw Tag Team Championships. They lost their titles at WrestleMania 35 to the team of Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins. They were able to regain the titles from Hawkins and Ryder on the June 10, 2019 episode of Raw in a triple threat tag match also featuring The Usos.
On August 12, 2019, during a scheduled tag team match at Raw (the episode post-SummerSlam) in which The Revival were facing Lucha House Party (Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik, with Kalisto), R-Truth ran out from backstage, being chased by several wrestlers. The match was called off and The Revival performed a "Hart Attack" on Truth and simultaneously pinned him to become the first co-champions of the 24/7 Championship. However, in the same night, R-Truth pinned Dawson, with the help of Carmella, and regained the title. The Revival began to align themselves with Randy Orton in a feud against The New Day. On September 15 at Clash of Champions, The Revival defeated Xavier Woods and Big E for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, making them the first team to hold the Raw Tag Team Championship, SmackDown Tag Team Championship, and NXT Tag Team Championship. The Revival were soon after drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2019 WWE Draft. On the November 8 episode of SmackDown, the Revival lost the titles back to the New Day. On April 10, 2020, both Dawson and Wilder were released from their WWE contracts.