5 ways WWE can salvage RETRIBUTION

RETRIBUTION, the WWE faction made up of former NXT stars, has to be one of the most confusing elements of WWE television programming in ages. It's involved in an invasion angle, like the New World Order or the Nexus, except they were announced ahead of time and with fanfare.

The group spent weeks as anti-WWE outsiders, destroying property and attacking talent left and right. Then it was announced that the group had signed contracts with the company they intended to destroy.

Mustafa Ali, one of the most talented, charismatic, and underrated performers on the roster, was revealed to be the secret leader of RETRIBUTION. That reignited a spark of interest in the entire story, and then WWE didn't do anything with that momentum.

It's like a lightbulb in a room in a house... one person wants it on, another off. Both of them keep flipping the lightswitch each time they pass the room. Eventually, that bulb is going to burn out, which is a real waste of a lightbulb. Especially if it's one of those fancy but expensive eco-friendly LED bulbs that are supposed to last for years and are shaped like a spiral and... oh, sorry. Where were we?

The real shame here is that there's a lot of good stuff under the surface of this faction and angle, but that also means it's not beyond saving. In fact, there are a number of ways this entire situation can be altered and turn it into something epic.

How many ways? Well, here are five in no particular order.

#5 RETRIBUTION needs a way more specific goal

Something you've probably noticed is that each time RETRIBUTION loses a match, Ali is quick with an explanation as to why. Granted, these excuses are more in the line of a Pee-Wee Herman-esque "we meant to do that." It isn't the dumbest excuse ever used in wrestling, but it's certainly not very compelling.

And that's what's the problem - well, one of them, anyway - is with this group. Their entire goal of "we want to destroy WWE because it's greedy and stuff" is, technically, a goal. One that would be perfectly fine for a faction that's actually moving forward to accomplishing said goal. RETRIBUTION's not really doing that.

On RAW this past Monday, following yet another loss to the Hurt Business, Mustafa Ali tried to talk it off. He was saying "we win when you suffer," implying that as long as their opponents got beaten up, that's a win for RETRIBUTION.

If the faction is going to go that route, they need a way more specific goal than just "hurt people." It needs to be something clear cut, so even losses can seem like they're "all part of the plan."

Maybe get someone to help them get that focus...

#4 Do RETRIBUTION serve a higher power?

This reveal was universally beloved and nobody complained about it.

For those unfamiliar with WWE in the late 1990s (aka the Attitude Era) and are wondering how this could fit in with RETRIBUTION, hear us out. The Undertaker formed a faction of scary dude wrestlers (and also Mideon) in order to take control of the company from Vince McMahon.

It eventually got complicated - it's wrestling, after all. However, one of the major plot threads was that Undertaker and his Ministry of Darkness were following the orders of some unseen leader... a "Higher Power."

Of course, that "Higher Power" turned out to be McMahon himself, but that's not really the point here.

As mentioned in the previous entry, in order to recover, RETRIBUTION needs to have a more specifically-defined motivation. While Mustafa Ali is doing the best promo work of his career during this angle, his motivation of "destroying WWE because they're greedy and bad" has already been established.

It's getting to be about high time WWE introduces someone behind the group. Someone who is the "Higher Power/Mr. McMahon" to RETRIBUTION's Undertaker.

We can't decide who that person should be (although there is a suggestion coming up... and it's a stupid one) or what that motivation should be (other than having it be specific). However, giving RETRIBUTION a shadowy figure manipulating things in the background can give this whole story a shot of intrigue enough to get it back on track.

#3. Get CM Punk to be the "Higher Power" of RETRIBUTION

"Hey, Punk, come back to WWE?" "Let me sleep on it."

There are a million reasons why this would never happen. But, as the headline is "five ways WWE can salvage RETRIBUTION" and, you've gotta admit, this would be a pretty damn good way to do that, let's just go with it.

So, whatever the reasons might be, let's just say that Phillip Brooks decides that "sure, I'll come back on a part-time basis and act as leader of these dorks in Halloween masks." What does this do for the group and the angle in general?

Well, for starters, it's CM friggin' Punk. Just him making an appearance on WWE TV proper in general is a big deal. He could run into the ring, wave, shout "hi everybody!" and leave, and every site like ours would be writing stories about it for weeks. So attaching that to a group like RETRIBUTION is automatically going to get interest back into them.

It makes sense too, in a way. At its core, it seems the whole motivation of RETRIBUTION is that they feel betrayed by WWE, and who else in the wrestling world would feel more betrayed by them than CM Punk?

Punk has shown on more than one occasion that he can successfully play the role of RETRIBUTION's twisted faction leader. While he seems way more chill these days, in regards to what happened between him and the company, letting him toss some Pipe Bombs at the fourth wall could be a ratings boost.

And he doesn't even have to wrestle. Although, that would be awesome. Where does that leave Ali, though?

#2 Have Ali doing some of that hacker stuff to help RETRIBUTION out

For months before WrestleMania, well before we knew what a RETRIBUTION was, a mysterious hooded hacker was popping up on episodes of SmackDown. The most prominent act he perpetrated was exposing the plot that Dolph Ziggler and Sonya Deville were hatching against Otis of Heavy Machinery and Deville's partner Mandy Rose.

Then, as if someone hit a keystroke and launched a logic bomb and erased him from the mainframe, The Hacker went the way of Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace. At least until RETRIBUTION leader Mustafa Ali came out and told everybody it was him.

Granted, fans kind of already knew this, but it was a rare occurrence of WWE actually following up with continuity (which, if they would just do consistently would solve, like, 90% of their problems).

However, now fans are left with this master computer hacker leading RETRIBUTION, an army of supposedly disgruntled maniacs... maniacs who aren't exactly being what one would consider "successful."

And, yet, here you have a leader who apparently knows how to spoof ransomware on WWE servers by initiating a zero day threat using a Brute Force Attack on their Firewall, thus compromising their rootkit.

If you think one made all of that up by just stringing together a bunch of random hacking terms, well, you're right. But, apparently, Mustafa Ali can do that too.

And why shouldn't he? While everybody knows that hacking in movies and TV shows is horsehockey, it's still entertaining. Why not have Ali "hack" into the "systems" of the ThunderDome and cause distractions for RETRIBUTION?

Or, they can have him sniff out some compromising information about a rival and use it against them. All I'm saying is, the can of soda might be open but it's not flat yet, you might as well drink that thing.

#1 Bring back a number of Superstars who were released to join RETRIBUTION

It's hard to forget the wave of releases that swept through WWE during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It almost felt like a culling, with long-time mainstays such as Heath Slater, Zack Ryder, Rusev, and even Kurt freakin' Angle all let go of their contracts and forced to look for work elsewhere.

Then, WWE used it as part of a storyline with one of the announced releases, Drake Maverick. It revolved around his attempt to earn his spot back on the roster and the NXT Cruiserweight Championship.

For those of you in suspense (for some reason), it turned out OK...

Now, many people were upset at the angle (not at Drake, clearly, as he's awesome) as it turned a tough situation for a lot of people into storyline fodder. However, 1.) this is WWE we're talking about, don't act so surprised and 2.) with the genie out of the bag, WWE might as well have kept rolling with it.

So, when one heard about RETRIBUTION and how they were a bunch of wrestlers with a serious grudge against WWE, it was thought "are they bringing back some of these releases and putting them in a faction?"

Well, no, it turns out that RETRIBUTION isn't anything like that... but there's no reason why they can't incorporate that now.

Ali has already established that RETRIBUTION is out to destroy WWE because of greed. What's "greedier" than releasing perfectly good employees during a worldwide pandemic just to save some money?

Look, the point of this isn't to trash WWE. However, the Drake Maverick story kind of opened the door to go in that direction. So, they might as well walk through it.

You can add an extra layer to the whole RETRIBUTION story, give some unemployed workers and chance to make a paycheck again, and WWE can once again prove that they're at least sort of self-aware.

And fewer things are entertaining as a self-aware WWE.

What do you guys think? Is RETRIBUTION beyond saving (and, therefore, beyond ThunderDome)? Or do you think any of these ideas might work?

We have a comments section below where you can answer those questions. Or you can tweet us at @SKProWrestling or one directly at @HeyImKevinSully.