5 WWE Superstars who were instantly removed from new factions
There has been a lot of confusion over the last week about WWE Superstar Mercedes Martinez and her status as a member of the RETRIBUTION faction.
WWE confirmed during the September 21, 2020 episode of WWE RAW that the three male RETRIBUTION members are known as T-Bar (fka Dominik Dijakovic), Mace (fka Dio Maddin), and Slapjack (fka Shane Thorne).
The two female Superstars in the faction, Mercedes Martinez and Mia Yim, were later renamed Retaliation and Reckoning. However, after Mustafa Ali was revealed as RETRIBUTION’s leader on the October 5 episode of WWE RAW, it was reported that Martinez is no longer part of the group.
PW Insider’s Mike Johnson wrote that Martinez has left RETRIBUTION and she will return to the WWE NXT roster.
This report was seemingly confirmed by Ali, who tweeted a graphic of himself alongside his fellow RETRIBUTION members, excluding Martinez.
Interestingly, during the first night of the 2020 WWE Draft on the October 9 episode of WWE SmackDown, Martinez appeared next to her fellow RETRIBUTION members in a promotional graphic to advertise the second night of the roster changes.
As of the time of writing, it is unknown whether the two-time WWE Mae Young Classic participant is part of RETRIBUTION or not.
If she really has left the group, this will certainly not be the first time that a WWE Superstar has suddenly departed a faction shortly after joining.
In this article, let’s take a look at five WWE Superstars who were instantly removed from new factions.
#5 Daniel Bryan left The Nexus (WWE, 2010)
Mystery surrounds Mercedes Martinez and RETRIBUTION right now, but there was nothing mysterious about Daniel Bryan’s exit from The Nexus in June 2010.
The eight-man faction wreaked havoc all around the ring and ringside area on their WWE RAW debut. Not only did they attack John Cena in the middle of the ring, but the villainous group also targeted WWE’s commentators and the ring announcer, Justin Roberts.
At one stage during the invasion, Bryan began to choke Roberts with his tie – something that is not allowed in WWE’s PG era.
As Bryan recalled on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast in 2014, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon called him at the end of the week and said he could no longer work for WWE.
“He [Vince McMahon] says, 'I'm sorry we have to do this,' and I say not to feel bad for me, because I'm going to make more money than I've ever had before just based on the independents. I knew that took him aback a little bit.”
Bryan ended up returning to WWE two months later in the main event of WWE SummerSlam 2010, which saw a team of seven WWE Superstars, including Bryan, defeat The Nexus.