WWE Star Says They Hit A Home Run With Retribution
In August 2020, a group of WWE stars calling themselves Retribution attempted to assert their dominance in the company, but things did not go as planned.
Dijak (T-BAR), Mace, Shane Thorne (Slapjack), Mia Yim (Reckoning), and Mercedes Martinez (Retaliation) debuted as a masked unit who sought to take over Raw. Eventually, it was revealed that Mustafa Ali was the secret leader of the group but things quickly unraveled.
Martinez quickly made her excuses and left the group with the rest of Retribution left floundering in terms of in-ring victories. By March 2021, what was left of the group split up, ending its forgettable run.
Speaking to Sportskeeda’s WrestleBinge, Mustafa Ali says despite the criticism of the group, his outlook was to try and hit a home run with the opportunity:
“The fatal thing about it was it never had a why. As much as I tried with online promos, I gave everything a reason because here’s the thing. I didn’t come up with the concept of Retribution. I didn’t come up with the names. I was just kind of given this thing, but at the end of the day, it was an opportunity, so I was like, rolling up my sleeves, stepping up, you know, ready to swing. I’m like, I’m gonna hit a home run with this.
“In all honesty, I thought I did. I had reasons for the names. I had reasons why we were all together and what brought us together. I had answered the whys, but the problem is the whys never made it to TV for you, the viewer, to understand the whys.
“Although social media has a lot of reach, there’s nothing that beats live TV because that’s what gets the most views. So we were just kind of, I don’t wanna say a victim, but it was just the placement on the card. Things took priority and ultimately, I think because the people that put it together, they didn’t have the real ‘why’ initially and that’s why it kind of just fell through the cracks. I went down swinging with it.
“I am forever thankful for the opportunity because I think it proved that I could cut one hell of a promo and that I could be a leader. If you really go back, because the big knock on Retribution is the silly names and take that away, what do you have? The performances were great. The promos were great. The presentation was great to a certain extent. It was just the story never really developed and why.
“People knock about The Retribution because they always lost. Yeah, that didn’t help, but at the same time, it didn’t hurt because as long as the losses meant something and we were going somewhere, we would have been fine. So my big take on it is I don’t think Retribution really sucked. I think we just never got an opportunity to answer the question of why.”
Mustafa Ali is looking to hit another home run at Night of Champions after he overcame 24 other Raw stars to become the number one contender for Gunther’s Intercontinental Championship.
h/t WrestlingNews.Co