10 WWE Booking Steps To Save The Members Of RETRIBUTION
How do WWE even begin to salvage the careers of Mustafa Ali and co. going forward?
RETRIBUTION was WWE's latest (failed) attempt at an edgy gimmick that, in all fairness, had its potential, but ultimately led to Mustafa Ali somehow falling further down the card.
And yet, there's still hope for the five involved now that they've gone their separate ways.
Following the events of this year's Fastlane pay-per-view, on which Ali failed to win the United States Championship from Riddle on the night's pre-show, he found himself laid out thanks to a double chokeslam courtesy of Mace and T-Bar. By this point, Slapjack and Reckoning had already signalled the end of their allegiance towards the former 205 Live main man.
This now leaves an interesting path going forward. Will WWE actually make something of the five, or will they continue to frustratingly misuse some of the most talented guys they have under contract? Seriously, you'd think Vince McMahon would want to push the fhewll out of Dio Maddin and Dominik Dijakovic. They're big, they're beefy, and they can do some serious work.
It's true, though. There is still hope for Mustafa Ali, Mace, T-Bar, Slapjack, and Reckoning.
Granted, it's also entirely plausible that this will lead to absolutely nothing for anyone involved. Unless this happens...
10. Ditch The Names
An easy one to start off with; get rid of those names. Seriously.
Just imagine this; a young fan who has just gotten into professional wrestling a few weeks ago switches on the television with his dad.
"Dad, when I grow up, I wanna be just like Slapjack!"
"Sure, son, Sure..."
RETRIBUTION were effectively ruined the minute they were revealed. Had the members kept their NXT ring names, all would have been a tad finer, even if they did go down the exact same path of nothingness they were on since last August.
Time's up. No more Mace, T-Bar, Slapjack, or Reckoning; we need Dio Maddin, Dominik Dijakovic, Shane Thorne, and Mia Yim to come back.
There is physically no way that they can stay in WWE if they continue to wrestle under those utterly abysmal monikers. Your writer, who has sat through some genuinely disgusting moments in his thirteen years as a fan, is still to this day astonished that WWE would ruin the reputation Dijakovic, Thorne, and Yim had made for themselves prior to WWE. Granted, Maddin wasn't really an indie darling, so it didn't matter too much in his case, but the point remains.
The same goes for those masks. What was Vince thinking?