Retribution was a heel stable in WWE on the RAW brand from 2020 to 2021. Introduced as a group of masked attackers who vandalised the WWE Performance Center, they continued causing chaos backstage while battling what they viewed as systemic injustices.
Led by Mustafar Ali, the group was comprised of -Bar (Dominik Dijak), Mace (Dio Maddin), Slapjack (Shane Thorne), Reckoning (Mia Yim), and, briefly, Retaliation (Mercedes Martinez). Fans never really got on board with the group, and following a largely forgettable feud with The Hurt Business, they were disbanded at the Fastlane PLE when T-Bar and Mace turned on Ali.
Most members were ultimately repackaged or released, and Dijak has now shared his take on where things went wrong for the ill-fated faction.
"I think a lot of things flourished during the Thunderdome era. Unfortunately, Retribution was not one of them," he said with a laugh. "I think there was a chance for Retribution, but it would have been easier for us had there been a live audience to sort of get a proof of concept and be able to determine what was and was not working."
"In the Thunderdome, it was the opinion of one. How can you change that opinion with pre-programmed screens making faces?" Dijak mused. "How can you tell what the audience thinks? The crowd is fake! But a lot of things did flourish in the Thunderdome."
Confirming that former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon dreamed the whole thing up, he said, "Part of me wants to give credit to Vince McMahon for that. Vince wanted a group of virtual unknowns to come in and play that role. The reality is, I wanted to play that role. I volunteered for that role. Obviously, the name T-Bar didn’t exist when I was making this pitch. All that we knew was it was an invasion angle."
"I was like, ‘Cool! I want to be part of this!’ I know Vince wanted random people to populate this. I was like, ‘Cool! I’m random people!'"
"But the reality is, I wasn’t random people. I wasn’t, Mia Yim wasn’t. Even my tag team partner Mace had been an announcer on WWE TV before, Mason Madden," Dijak shared. "NXT had reached enough people to where we weren’t as unknown as they might have thought. So, it was different than when Isaac Yankem became Kane and a lot of people didn’t know – his mask covered more."
"But, even when we first made our debut, everyone was like, 'Ok, yeah, I know who all of those people are.' [Laughs] I think Retribution had the potential to be cool, awesome, and unique if it was just 4 people you didn’t know," he concluded.
You can watch the full interview with Dijak in the player below.