| “ | My name is Mustafa Ali, and this is Retribution. | „ |
| ~ Mustafa Ali |
Retribution, stylized in all caps RETRIBUTION, is a villainous professional wrestling stable performing in WWE on the Raw brand, led by Mustafa Ali, and featuring T-Bar, Mace, Slapjack, and Reckoning along with unnamed, masked henchmen. Retaliation was formerly part of the stable until October 9, 2020. They are one of the main antagonists of the Raw brand in 2020, alongside Randy Orton, Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt. They made their debut on August 3, 2020, then fully masked; the identities of most members would be revealed on the following September 21, with Ali revealed as the group's previously unseen leader on October 5.
History[]
On the August 3, 2020 episode of Raw, lights in the WWE Performance Center began flickering on and off and a masked group set fire to a generator. Four days later, on the August 7 episode of SmackDown, members attacked the announcers and the audience. The group would end their attack by using a chainsaw to cut the ring ropes down. As the weeks progressed, the group began to explain their actions, referring to perceived unfair treatment as they came up through the WWE system, and the desire to upend said system.
On the September 21 episode of Raw, it was revealed that NXT wrestlers Dominik Dijakovic, Dio Maddin, Shane Thorne, Mercedes Martinez, and Mia Yim were the primary members of the stable, being subsequently revealed as going under the new ring names of T-Bar, Mace, Slapjack, Retaliation, and Reckoning respectively. That same night, T-Bar, Mace, and Slapjack made their in-ring debut against The Hurt Business (Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, and Cedric Alexander) in the main event, losing by disqualification. On the October 5 episode of Raw, Mustafa Ali was revealed as the leader of the stable as he ordered them to attack The Hurt Business during his match with MVP. Shortly thereafter, Martinez requested her removal from the group, and was quietly returned to NXT. On the October 19 episode of Raw, Retribution lost a 4 vs 4 tag team match to the Hurt Business after T-Bar submitted to Lashley's Full Nelson. Afterwards, they all would be attacked by "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt.
At the Hell in a Cell Kickoff Show, Mustafa Ali challenged any member of The Hurt Business to face one member of Retribution. On the main show, MVP confirmed that Bobby Lashley will face off against Slapjack. All members of each faction were not allowed to be present at ringside and it was a WWE United States Championship match. Bobby Lashley then defeated Slapjack to retain the United States Championship. Retribution then attacked Lashley, but retreated when the rest of The Hurt Business came. On the October 27 episode of Raw, Ali, T-Bar, Mace and Slapjack competed in a 4 on 4 elimination tag team match against The Hurt Business, losing by disqualification after Ali hit Alexander with a chair.
Retribution picked up their first win in WWE, defeating Keith Lee, Braun Strowman, Sheamus and Riddle of Raw's Survivor Series team on the November 16, 2020 edition of Raw, with Ali pinning Riddle. On November 17, Retribution (kayfabe) hacked the WWE Twitter account and released a set of Twitter fleets of members T-Bar, Mace, Slapjack and Reckoning explaining their motives for being in the group. On the 26th November edition of Main Event, Retribution appeared as a guest on Miz TV explaining their motives and attacked Drew Gulak (dressed as The Gobbledy Gooker).
On the February 22, 2021 episode of Raw, after T-Bar and Mace lost a tag team match to New Day, the first signs of a potential split occurred when Ali began to show frustration, criticizing the whole group for having lost the majority of their matches. The team disbanded at the Fastlane Kickoff Show, where Reckoning and Slapjack walked out on Ali, then T-Bar and Mace double chokeslammed him after he lost a match for the United States Championship to Riddle.
After the group dissolved, Ali returned to singles competition, while Mace & T-Bar continued on as a tag team, still using the Retribution aesthetic. Reckoning and Slapjack have not yet returned to WWE television.
Members[]
Mustafa Ali[]
Leader of the stable. He is the fan favorite of the become the breakout character for the cruiserweight division, being part of SmackDown in late 2018. Throughout his main roster run, he has a lot of opportunities, suddenly, he has replaced a lot of wrestlers due to injury (such as Kofi Kingston at the Elimination Chamber) and being more of a low-card wrestler. Throughout early 2020, he is responsible for hacking SmackDown.
T-Bar (Dominik Dijakovic)[]
The former Dominik Dijakovic had quite a career ahead of him. T-Bar talked about how he was betrayed by Keith Lee and Triple H in NXT. Lee and Dijakovic were best friends in NXT, and Dominik was taken out by Karrion Kross during his rivalry with Lee.
Mace (Dio Maddin)[]
Mace, who was formerly known as Dio Maddin, was part of the commentators of Raw from September 30 to November 4, 2019. He talked about how he had an opportunity to stand up for what's right. He was obviously talking about his confrontation with then-WWE Champion Brock Lesnar in 2019. Lesnar planted Maddin with a devastating F5 through the announcer's table. Since then, Samoa Joe has been Raw's commentator. Mace promised to right the wrong that he was trying to stand up against.
Slapjack (Shane Thorne)[]
Shane Thorne was not a very exciting prospect for NXT, but was an exceptional performer. Yet, he was underutilized, which led to him finding an opportunity with Retribution.
Reckoning (Mia Yim)[]
Mia Yim was part of the Mae Young Classic and was a fan favorite and fans chanted "Please sign Mia". This led to Triple H walking out and offering her a contract. She accused the WWE Universe of forgetting her and promised a day of "Reckoning" for the women's division.
Retaliation (Mercedes Martinez)[]
Martinez made her Raw debut on September 21, where she was revealed as a member of the villainous faction, Retribution under the ring name of Retaliation. Shortly thereafter, Martinez requested her removal from the group during the 2020 WWE draft, and was quietly returned to NXT.