WWE Star Reveals Fatal Creative Flaw That Caused Stable To Fail

WWE

A WWE star has revealed the fatal creative flaw that contributed to the eventual failure of a heel stable.

Retribution was a short-lived stable in WWE that was led by Mustafa Ali and featured the likes of Mace, Slapjack,T-Bar, Reckoning and Retaliation.

Introduced in August 2020, the group would only survive until March 2021 and Mustafa Ali believes he knows why.

In an interview with Sportskeeda WrestleBinge, Ali revealed:

“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.”

Ali would go on to discuss injecting the “why” into the concept but how it wasn’t allowed to get to television being limited to social media, adding:

“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.”

He would also consider the position of Retribution on WWE television and the presentation of the group, concluding:

“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.”

Footage from the revelation that Ali was the leader of Retribution can be seen below this news story.

Following the break up of Retribution, T-Bar has returned to NXT and wrestles as Dijak, Mace is now better known as Maximum Male Models member ma.çé, Slapjack was released by WWE in November 2021 and headed to NJPW where the former Shane Thorne is now Shane Haste, Retaliation is once again Mercedes Martinez and a member of the AEW roster, and Retribution would become Mia Yim once again while also being Michin and a member of The OC on SmackDown.

Here are results from the May 15 episode of WWE Raw:

Shinsuke Nakamura def. The Miz

It was announced Liv Morgan had suffered an injury and the scheduled Women’s Tag Team Championship match was cancelled

Mustafa Ali won a battle royal to become #1 contender for Gunther’s Intercontinental Championship at Night of Champions

Becky Lynch returned and cut a promo on Trish Stratus, challenging her to a match at Night of Champions

Dominik Mysterio def. Xavier Woods

As JD McDonagh left the arena after an interview, there was a tease of Finn Balor scouting him to recruit him for Judgment Day

Indus Sher (Sanga & Veer) def. two jobbers

Cody Rhodes promo on Brock Lesnar ahead of their Night of Champions match

Raquel Rodriguez def. Chelsea Green

Judgment Day (Finn Balor & Damian Priest) def. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn after interference from Imperium, which had been instigated by Paul Heyman doing deals with Judgment Day and Imperium earlier in the night

Transcript from WrestlingNews.co.

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• mustafa ali
• Retribution
• wwe

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