Who Came Up With Those Awful WWE RETRIBUTION Names?

This is who to blame for Slapjack, T-Bar, Reckoning, Mace and Retaliation...

by Andrew Pollard
RETRIBUTION Bruce Prichard
WWE

RETRIBUTION will forever go down in the annuls of wrestling history as one of the outright worst factions to grace WWE. Of course, that's through no fault of those roped into being a part of this doomed stable, but more an indictment of the presentation and booking of the group - including the utterly daft Slapjack, T-Bar, Reckoning, Mace and Retaliation monikers handed out to its initial members.

Speaking during an interview with Fightful Select, Shane Haste - formerly Slapjack - has finally revealed who came up with the god-awful names for the RETRIBUTION crew.

As Haste explained, these names were handed down to him, Dominik Dijakovic, Mia Yim, Dio Maddin and Mercedes Martinez by none other than Bruce Prichard.

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The TMDK man explained how Dijakovic had pitched several of the members to be in RETRIBUTION, although they wanted to go by different names because... well, clearly because what they were given by Prichard absolutely sucked. As Haste put it, the talents themselves thought the names were goofy, but the positive of this was that these NXT names were getting to appear on the main roster.

Nowadays, Shane Haste is a part of the JONAH-led reformed The Mighty Don't Kneel in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, primarily competing in NJPW Strong. Having first signed with WWE in early-2016, the one-time Shane Thorne departed the company in November 2021. Despite being moved to SmackDown in April '21 after RETRIBUTION folded, the Australian never got the chance to resurface on WWE programming before his release.

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Where Haste's RETRIBUTION cohorts are concerned, Mia Yim is nowadays back in IMPACT Wrestling, Mercedes Martinez is the ROH Women's Champion, Dio Maddin is part of Maximum Male Models on SmackDown as ma.çé, and Dominik Dijakovic is bafflingly still T-Bar - where he can usually be found losing in comprehensive fashion on WWE Main Event.

Thankfully, recent reports suggest that Dijakovic may be about to drop the T-Bar schtick as Triple H looks to revert the powerhouse to something more akin to Dominik's time in NXT.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.