What happened to WWE faction RETRIBUTION?
RETRIBUTION took the WWE Universe by storm in early August 2020. At first, there were numerous masked henchmen representing RETRIBUTION and causing havoc on both RAW and SmackDown.
While RETRIBUTION was seen as promising at first, things would quickly go awry. The number of members in RETRIBUTION reduced to six and after Mustafa Ali was declared as the faction's leader, Mercedes Martinez left the group and went back to NXT.
Ultimately, Mustafa Ali's leadership of RETRIBUTION made no difference as WWE's handling of the faction was met with unanimous negativity. The faction officially began on August 3rd, 2020, and disbanded on March 21st, 2021 at the Fastlane pay-per-view.
RETRIBUTION lasted for 230 days and they had completely lost momentum by the time they were done. Members T-BAR and Mace eventually turned on their leader Mustafa Ali, bringing an official end to RETRIBUTION as a faction.
In the eyes of many, this decision was the best one to make as they were going nowhere creatively. It's not surprising that WWE's handling of RETRIBUTION was met with a negative response.
The anti-establishment-like faction had caused a big splash in the summer of 2020, but they would turn into enhancement talent over the next few months.
Who were the members of RETRIBUTION?
The original lineup of RETRIBUTION comprised of T-BAR (Dominik Dijakovic), Mace (Dio Maddin), Reckoning (Mia Yim), Slapjack (Shane Thorne), and Retaliation (Mercedes Martinez).
Mustafa Ali would be revealed as the leader of RETRIBUTION on the October 5th episode of RAW. Soon after, Mercedes Martinez had requested to be sent back to NXT. Her request was granted and she later revealed that she didn't feel RETRIBUTION was a fit for her.
T-BAR and Mace formed a tag team after RETRIBUTION but haven't been utilized too much since. For Shane Thorne (Slapjack), it was a continuation of his bad luck creatively as his second main roster call-up in 2020 floundered.