This week's season premiere of Raw got underway with "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt and Alexa Bliss, but it wasn't long before Retribution's music hit, and all five members surrounded the stoic pair in the middle of the ring.
The Fiend and Bliss vanished before Mustafa Ali could give the order to attack, and The Hurt Business entered the picture for an 8-man tag match.
Retribution members got a few shots in, but it was pretty much all Hurt Business, and Bobby Lashley ultimately got the win when he forced T-Bar to tap-out to his Full Nelson. Afterwards, The Fiend reappeared in Retribution's corner and proceeded to take down all four male members of the team.
Seriously, what the hell is going on here? Does WWE want these guys to be taken seriously as a legitimate threat, or are they now being treated like the joke the majority of fans always saw them as? The Hurt Business are clearly still heels (see their beat-down of Titus O'Neill later in the night), so does that make Retribution the faces in this scenario? None of it makes much sense, but that's WWE booking for you.
Ali did cut a great promo later on, claiming that wins and losses aren't important, and their only aim is to cause chaos. He also confirmed that he was the mysterious SmackDown hacker from a few months back.
Is there a long-term plan in place here? We certainly hope so.