WWE Rumor Roundup: Identity of RETRIBUTION member revealed; Bayley's backstage problem with Charlotte Flair; SummerSlam title change; Alexa Bliss/Braun Strowman - 13 August 2020

Welcome to another edition of the daily WWE Rumor Roundup, where we bring to you the biggest stories and rumors from the day. WWE has been abuzz with the anticipation of the upcoming SummerSlam PPV.

WWE has been doing a great job of building to the event with high stakes matches such as Randy Orton vs Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship already announced. Another thing that has been making the news in WWE is the new faction called RETRIBUTION which has been creating havoc on RAW and SmackDown.

---

#5 Identity of WWE faction RETRIBUTION member revealed

There is a lot of speculation on the identity of the members of the faction, but it looks like the cat is out of the bag for at least one of the members who has been identified.

Tom Colohue had stated that one of the members in the group is NXT Superstar Vanessa Bourne. A fan on Twitter also suggested that one of the members resembled Vanessa Bourne and even had curly hair just like her.

Here is what Tom Colohue said:

"One of the names I mentioned was Vanessa Bourne. That's someone that was mentioned to me by someone backstage, and that is certainly been very strongly suggested. A lot of people have picked up on the hair of one of the members of RETRIBUTION and belive that relates to Vanessa Borne."

Vanessa Bourne is a fairly unknown name even in NXT. So it is a bit surprising that WWE is planning to have her bypass the NXT route and make her mark on the main roster straight away.

''Well, it is sort of a mismatch of things. A lot of different journalists at the moment are saying very different things. In reality, it's a bit of both. The people under the mask right now most likely are people who would be in RETRIBUTION. However, there are likely to be more members. It's a bit like when the Nexus first debuted and then they added three or four members over the course of it.''

#4 JTG reveals that DX prevented them from winning Tag Team Championships at WWE SummerSlam

Former WWE Superstar JTG recently spoke on Sportskeeda's UnSKripted live Q&A series with Chris Featherstone. The former WWE Superstar who was part of the popular tag team Cryme Tyme along with late Shad Gaspard talked about the time they were set to win the tag team gold on SummerSlam.

However, it was because of Triple H and Shawn Michaels that they could not win and plans had to be changed. DX wanted to feud with Jeri-Show, who were the champions at the time, which is why Cryme Tyme could not win the titles as initially planned.

"I heard that we were supposed to win that match against Jeri-Show, but things changed last-minute because DX wanted to work Jeri-Show and win the titles, so that got nixed. Yeah, so we were actually supposed to win it at SummerSlam, and then 'DX' wanted the titles. So, whatever. There was another slated time when we were supposed to win the titles. I think we were supposed to win the titles in Africa or when we came back from Africa at the PPV against Cade and Murdoch, and this was right before we got fired."

#3 Bayley talks about why she had a problem with Charlotte Flair in WWE

SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley recently spoke on the Silver City Podcast. The Role Model talked about her early days in WWE and how the four horsewomen of NXT bonded during their time in developmental.

All four horsewomen - Bayley, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair - have gone on to achieve great success in WWE and have become the cornerstones of the women's revolution in WWE.

However, Bayley revealed that she was a bit jealous of Charlotte and Sasha Banks initially as they got the chance to main event shows, and a lot of times. She also talked about the friendly rivalry that exists between all four of them.

"The competition made us stand out and get to the level we did. Charlotte and Sasha were main eventing shows for a long time. Obviously, we love each other and are there for each other, but it's like, 'Damn, I wish I was in the title picture with you, or I wish I had the title.' It was always friendly but it was always, in our mind, 'I'm better than you, I just need the match to prove it and the opportunity to prove it.' We all knew it, it's not like we were talking shit behind (the others back). We knew what we were there for and that's what made it awesome.''

#2 Possible reason WWE Universal Champion Braun Strowman showed indifference towards Alexa Bliss

Last week on SmackDown, Braun Strowman shocked the WWE Universe when he said that he did not care about Alexa Bliss. Previously, The Fiend had attacked Alex Bliss to get inside the head of Braun Strowman. The reason for that is that Strowman and Bliss have been good friends and tag team partners in the past.

Tom Colohue spoke about what WWE could be planning by having Strowman show such indifference towards Alexa Bliss. He says that it is likely that Braun Strowman is merely lying to get leverage on former WWE Champion Bray Wyatt.

"I think it's the option that almost nobody has almost picked up on. I think Braun is lying. I think Braun is lying to try and encourage the Fiend to let Alexa Bliss go. It's the standard negotiating tactic. Take away the leverage. He has something you want. Okay, make him let her go, because if you don't care about her, what benefit is there to the Fiend of keeping control of Alexa Bliss. None whatsoever. I think Braun is just lying in an attempt to have her released, or I'd imagine this week or next week coming back and essentially admitting the fact that he wants her back, but at the same point, he never had her to begin with. And this is confusing thing of all for me. They haven't established an actual relationship between Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss.''

#1 Ric Flair not happy with WWE

Ric Flair had been firmly by the side of Randy Orton over the past few months before he was brutally attacked by The Viper on WWE RAW this week. It has been reported that this was a way to write off Ric Flair from WWE and he will not be appearing anytime soon.

Tom Colohue has stated that Ric Flair is unhappy with WWE as he was initially supposed to part of SummerSlam. He revealed that the original plans were to have Flair in Orton's corner at SummerSlam.

''I did report this on my own YouTube on the RAW review that came out yesterday. Essentially what I'm reporting is that Flair was still supposed to be there come SummerSlam. He should have been in Randy Orton's corner, and then after that, we would have had a segment similar to this but not the same. But with the health situation changing both personally which pertains to Ric Flair and company-wide, the decision was made last week, quite the last second, to write him off.''

He also revealed that the promo was mostly unscripted as it was a last-minute call.