It’s become increasingly clear who some of the folks are under those black hoodies and balaclavas on Raw, but a new report from Post Wrestling’s John Pollock specifies five names listed on “internal rosters” as members of RETRIBUTION.
Their promo last night (Sept. 14) established that the group had all done time at the WWE Performance Center, and that fits with Pollock’s scoop. The two speakers were Dominik Dijakovic and Mercedes Martinez. Agile big man Dijakovic was rumored to be moving up from NXT back in June, then returned to NXT for one last angle in July. He’s been tweeting and deleting numerical “clues” for the past couple weeks. Long-time indie star Martinez lost a steel cage main event to Rhea Ripley on last week’s NXT, then was written off the brand in a post-show angle.
Standing beside Martinez & Dijakovic were Dio Maddin, Shane Thorne & Mia Yim. Former football player Maddin never got much TV time in NXT, but was a member of the Raw announce team for a while until he was written off by a Brock Lesnar attack. He’s been seen in the crowd during Raw Underground since. Yim and Thorne were each featured players for the black-and-gold brand; the latter had a brief run on Raw earlier this year, partnered with Brendan Vink on an MVP-managed tag team.
Pollock specifies that WWE may use extras in some RETRIBUTION segments, but these are “the five key members.”
It’s a solid group on paper. But they haven’t been booked as a serious threat on Raw, so their experience and talent may not be enough to save the gimmick.
We’ll see. In the meantime, let us know what you think in the comments below.