50 Absolute Worst Things WWE Has Done In The 21st Century
29. Retribution Want WWE Contracts But Already Have Them (2020)
The wrestling landscape was uncertain in 2020. COVID fear gripped the globe, and people fretted about health, work, families, friends and...well, every single aspect of their lives. On the wrestling side, WWE first retreated behind closed doors at the quaint Performance Center before hiring out empty arenas to act as the ThunderDome setting. If nothing else, at least they were entertaining folks stuck at home.
In early-August, the Retribution faction debuted on Raw. A group of masked/hooded thugs tore the show apart, then did the same on the following episode of SmackDown. It was soon revealed that this was a faction of disillusioned NXT workers who felt they deserved better treatment on the main roster. Cool, but that's when things started to sag.
Retribution said they wanted contracts and positions on the WWE roster. One problem. They already had them. They were tied down to deals with the juggernaut promotion already, so this didn't make a lick of sense. Later, T-BAR said that management gave in to their demands because it was cheaper to sign the stable than pay for new members of security or for all the damage they were causing.
Again, they already had contracts. Why was that such a troubling concept for the creative team to get their heads around when penning material for Retribution? Also, if it was that easy to placate them, then fans had no reason to care about anything the group got up to after they put pen to paper. They'd been bought out.
This saga was defo one WWE started without having a middle or end to the story in mind, and it didn't help that Retribution changed from their initial hooded aesthetic to cartoonish masks that made them look like punching bags in some 1980s/90s arcade beat 'em up.