10 Times WWE Wasted HUGE Teases

In a year that's been a lot to try and cope with, the Retribution story has thus far been the wrestling fan's version of the world outside - an unending f*cking nightmare.

Starting life as something at appeared to be a thinly-veiled swipe at ANTIFA by Vince McMahon during the same bizarre Raw that also unleashed an underground fight pit hosted by Shane McMahon dressed as a war correspondent, the act were named before they were eventually shamed.

From firebombing sound equipment, smashing the same Performance Center window twice and cutting ropes in half with chainsaws, "The Group Known As Retribution" eventually started doing more pro wrestling-y damage when they earned Raw Superstar contracts despite supposedly wanting to destroy WWE and everything about it.

Some bad fiction was laughably pitched as longterm storytelling when Mustafa Ali unveiled himself as both the leader of the group and the SmackDown hacker. The latter was obviously his disruption Plan A before using the sort-of violence of Slapjack, Reckoning et al to get his message across.

About those names too. The stupid-sounding monikers were roundly mocked to such an extent that the members almost tried to Dark Order the whole thing. Willing some banter into existence with half-baked Twitter patter saw them buried even harder on television, before Ali cut a fabulous promo that b*llocked us for daring to laugh at their labels in this year where almost nothing summons any emotion.

To be continued, sadly.