13 Ups And 23 Downs For WWE In 2020

2. RETRIBUTION A Complete Disaster

Now on the other hand, RETRIBUTION was not only one of the most “2020” things of the year, it also is patently offensive.

Another desperate creative creation born out of a desire to arrest the ratings freefall, RETRIBUTION started out as a Molotov cocktail-wielding, cinderblock-throwing bunch of black-clad thugs. It’s widely speculated that the group was Vince McMahon’s response to the racial injustice protests of the summer that saw some groups damage property and clash with law enforcement.

Regardless, this faceless band of miscreants were doomed from the get-go, as their acts of violence were laughable, their demands unintelligible, and their promos nonsensical. They were supposed to be trying to bring down the WWE system that had failed so many, yet they signed contracts with the company, had entrance music and graphics created, and competed in structured matches.

Worse, the group finally revealed its members, with several talented NXT superstars donning partial masks and assuming new identities (despite it being obvious who each of them are). They got a leader in Mustafa Ali (which was viewed optimistically as a step up for him), and then they lost. They lost a lot.

RETRIBUTION went from trying to tear down the WWE system to battling Raw’s top stars, to battling their midcarders, to closing out the year trying to convert just one lower-card wrestler, Ricochet (it’s painful to say that, but it’s true).

This group is an utter joke of a faction that should be put out of its misery as quickly as possible.