4 Ups & 10 Downs From WWE Raw (Oct 5)

2. Ali Leads Rejects

Mustafa Ali
WWE

It’s tough to know just yet what to make of Monday’s shock announcement that Mustafa Ali is the leader of RETRIBUTION, putting the cruiserweight right in the middle of one of Raw’s biggest storylines. Here, we’ll offer both positive and negative reasoning. First, the negative…

Simply put, RETRIBUTION already has tanked. It’s a joke. No amount of strong booking can make up for the poor start the group got off to, right down to the unveiling of its main members and their horrible names. The group largely has been regarded as a joke by fans, so why would putting in charge a guy whose credibility is average at best make a difference?

When the group gets its comeuppance, does that mean the end of Ali? It’s gonna take a Herculean effort to dig this group out of its hole, and while Ali is charismatic, he’s not The Rock. And that’s who you’d need at this point.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.