Even though it’s been widely panned, that hasn’t stopped wrestling fans from speculating about WWE’s new RETRIBUTION faction. As is always the case with any “mystery” opponent or group, a lot of that speculation has focused on who will be revealed as the fire-throwing, ring-chainsawing anarchists.
Unfortunately, we’ve got some bad news for anyone who spent the weekend screenshotting SmackDown’s final segment and zooming in trying to identify the folks who stormed the Performance Center.
Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported during an appearance on last night’s Sunday Night’s Main Event that he was “outright told [by WWE sources] that the people under the masks [on the Aug. 7 SmackDown] were not the people who will be playing the character.”
It’s a weird decision to let what are essentially extras form the first major impression in fans’ minds about a gimmick, but okay. At least there’s a chance someone in the group will be six feet tall.
And speaking of six footers, there’s been a lot of talk about Dominik Dijakovic being involved with RETRIBUTION. The big man hasn’t done anything on Raw after rumors went around he’d been promoted in June, then he returned to NXT for an angle establishing Karrion Kross as the big bad for new champ Keith Lee. But he recently cleared out his Twitter timeline, and Saturday tweeted and deleted this (h/t JACOBLE63 on reddit):
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21714583/8i2juvw9n3g51.jpg)
Other than tagging WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon, who would presumably be the man a group trying to change the company would send messages to, the use of static also has people tying RETRIBUTION into the SmackDown hacker angle.
You buying any of this?
Give us your take below, and join us tonight in our Raw live blog to see what happens next.