4 Ups & 10 Downs From WWE Raw (Sep 7)

3. RETRIBUTION Gets A Logo

Even when WWE looks like it does something relatively cool, it manages to screw it up somehow.

Monday night, RETRIBUTION made its presence felt via video promo, the first such declaration from the group since its debut last month. This should have been a major development that really drove the story forward. And indeed, we’ll talk about that later.

But WWE couldn’t help themselves, as the lights flickered and went out, and the screens were filled with RETRIBUTION's logo. Yes, this masked and hooded bunch of toughs have an official logo. After the group cut its promo, Michael Cole came back and told the audience that it will be “interesting to see what RETRIBUTION has in store for WWE in the weeks to come.”

UGH. Are you serious? This group has been terrorizing WWE for weeks now, randomly attacking everyone, even the announcers, and Cole can only give the corporate equivalent of “stay tuned to see what these terrorists do next” to the audience. And they called their manifesto a “mission statement,” which is just more corporate-speak.

Just… no. Stop treating RETRIBUTION like an official group within WWE. They’re supposedly outsiders (the “discarded and disowned”), but is anyone going to be shocked if WWEshop.com suddenly is selling RETRIBUTION-branded gear in a couple weeks?