Retribution, so far, has been one of the worst acts in pro wrestling this year. Had it not been for Raw Underground, I would have confidently said that it was the worst thing (after COVID) that happened to professional wrestling this year. Retribution made their debut on an episode of Raw where they set fire to a generator and turned the light switch on and off like I used to do when I was five. Later that week they “invaded” Smackdown and all they did was beat up the ring. At the time they were stand-ins and they looked like multiple Hornswoggles running around. The Aces and Four-foot-eights brought their little toys and shouted some stuff at the camera. Also, a noteworthy point is that this was the first time I had ever seen a chainsaw being used in such an uncool manner. The childlike behaviour of Retribution was far from over. Three days later, they turned over a car and celebrated like they had conquered Constantinople and then proceeded to throw a cinder block through an already broken glass door before leaving. Now if breaking one glass door doesn’t shout rebellious, then I don’t know what does. I could go on and on about how bad this was but I’ll try to keep this short. Later the members were revealed to be “T-BAR”, “MACE”, “SLAPJACK” and “RECKONING”. Search up those names on Urban Dictionary if you haven’t already. It’s a treat. Anyways, as you all know, these people were Dominik Dijakovic, Dio Maddin, Shane Thorne and Mia Yim. So what WWE did is, take some of their future stars and dump them in the worst faction in wrestling right now. These were probably the worst NXT call-ups. Good job Vince!!
Anyways, the BTEC Nexus was given contracts out of pity (not actually though) and were drafted over Andrade. Andrade! Digest that. They gave contracts to and drafted a group that promises to destroy the company over one of the best talents that they have. I guess logic has gone out of the window. The only good thing that has happened with this whole Retribution story is that Mustafa Ali was revealed as the leader of the faction and honestly it gives me a lot of hope. But the question that is on everyone’s minds is if Ali can save this angle? Can he turn it around? Can he make chicken salad out of what has to be the biggest pile of chicken shit? Let’s look into it.
So Ali has been very unfortunate. In February of 2019, Ali was pulled out of the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match, which would have reportedly been his star-making moment, because of a leg injury. Later that year, Ali was set to win the Money in the Bank briefcase until a last-minute change which resulted in the big beefy boy Bork Laser winning the contract. Ali was taken off T.V a few months later and in early 2020 there was a Smackdown hacker who was just days ago revealed to be Ali but nothing ever came out of it. Ever since his return he has been booked poorly until he revealed himself to be leading the gang of overage high-schoolers. Now I believe that as much as Retribution needed Ali, Ali needed Retribution even if it is the worst group ever. Ali has been appointed as the leader to a group that has been feuding in the upper mid-card which means that Retribution can be a stepping stone for Ali. Ali is an exemplary wrestler and had it not been for his injuries and bad timing, he would be in the main event right now. However, since Apollo has been drafted to Smackdown, Ali can be easily pushed into the U.S Title picture as they are already feuding with the Hurt Business and Ali actually would be a convincing U.S Champion. Trust me it is long overdue. With a champion leading them, Retribution might be seen as a threat because they would be winning, unlike last Raw where T-Bar, the biggest dude they have, TAPPED OUT, to the full nelson before Retribution was buried by the Fiend.
Now let’s put the fact that the whole Retribution gimmick is crap on the side for a moment and consider the talent they have. They’ve got Dominik Dijakovic, one of the few athletic big guys that WWE has. They have Mia Yim, someone who can easily rise to the top of the women’s division in the upcoming years. Most importantly they now have Ali who, apart from being a good leader, is a mouthpiece for Retribution. Ali cut a promo on Raw and it was a hundred times better than those weird, distorted-voiced promos that we saw from Retribution in the previous weeks. The ingredients for a super faction are there but all we need for these guys is a better shtick and with the looks of it Ali revealed that they know of some secrets. Now I’m not sure what direction they’re heading in but if it means that they are going to be doing anything apart from acting like a bunch of drunk rejects, I’m all for it. We’ve seen in wrestling before that sometimes there is one element missing in a faction that just turns it around. We saw it with The Dark Order when they finally had a leader, but will we see it with Retribution? Well, probably not because this whole thing is way past recovery but fingers crossed.