Tag: dio maddin

RETRIBUTION join WWE Raw roster, three names revealed

Posted on by Bryan Rose

RETRIBUTION revealed on Raw that their core five members have signed contracts with the company.

The five members of the group opened up Raw tonight, revealing new masks with more visible faces. Dio Maddin (Mace), Donovan Dijakovic (T-Bar) and Shane Thorne (Slapjack) were later identified on the show with new names. Mia Yim and Mercedes Martinez also had new masks, but were not identified.

 It was during the opening of the show that returning announcer Tom Phillips said that RETRIBUTION had been given contracts. Yim said that despite signing contracts, they were not going to be stopped. T-Bar said that they were here to destroy the WWE and rebuild it in their image.

The segment eventually ended with The Hurt Business coming out. However, they were quickly taken out by the secondary RETRIBUTION members. T-Bar and Mace laid out Lashey with a double chokeslam.

RETRIBUTION appeared several times on the show, attacking Titus O’Neil and Humberto Carrillo backstage. The Hurt Business later took out more secondary members of RETRIBUTION in another segment.

In the main event, Mace, T-Bar & Slapjack faced Cedric Alexander, Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley in a six-man tag team match. The match ended in a DQ when T-Bar, who wasn’t the legal man, attacked Lashley.

The show ended with all of RETRIBUTION, including the secondary members, attacking The Hurt Business. The rest of the Raw roster, headed by Drew McIntyre, came out for the save. McIntyre, however, was laid out by Randy Orton, his opponent at WWE Clash of Champions on Sunday.

Members of WWE’s RETRIBUTION stable identified

Posted on by Bryan Rose

WWE’s internal roster has confirmed the five members of Raw’s RETRIBUTION stable.

John Pollock of Post Wrestling reported tonight that Dio Maddin, Mia Yim, Shane Thorne, Mercedes Martinez, and Dominik Dijakovic are in WWE’s internal roster and have been appearing in promos in the last couple of weeks, with Martinez and Dijakovic being used in speaking roles. Dave Meltzer has confirmed this report.

RETRIBUTION did a promo tonight talking about the machine and how everyone is bad for liking the machine. The promo ended with a number of extras appearing wearing the same RETRIBUTION apparel.

Yim and Martinez have both been used on NXT television in recent weeks. Martinez lost a steel cage match to Rhea Ripley on last week’s NXT. A storyline after the match had Robert Stone, her manager, filing a restraining order and ended up cutting ties with Martinez.

Neither Dijakovic or Shane Thorne have been used on NXT television recently. Thorne was briefly used as part of a tag team with Brendan Vink on Raw earlier this year that lasted a few weeks. Dio Maddin was brought up as part of a new Raw commentary team last year, but was dropped and eventually resumed training at the WWE Performance Center.

NXT Orlando, FL, live results: Dio Maddin returns to the ring

Posted on by JJ Williams

Saturday night’s estimated attendance: 350 people.

– Austin Theory defeated Dexter Lumis with a TKO

– Santana Garrett defeated Indi Hartwell with a handspring splash

– Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch defeated Rinku Singh & Saurav Gurjar

The returning Lorcan got the win with a surprise roll-up. Singh and Gurjar put a beating on Lorcan and Burch after the match.

– Dio Maddin defeated Cal Bloom 

This was Maddin’s in-ring return after his stint as a commentator on Raw. It was announced in December that Maddin was returning to the Performance Center to continue pursuing an in-ring career.

Maddin made quick work of the match and then took the microphone to say that — after what happened between him and Brock Lesnar on Raw — he wouldn’t stop leaving bodies in his path to get where he is going. 

– Bronson Reed & Shotzi Blackheart defeated Cameron Grimes & Reina Gonzalez

The crowd loved this mixed tag action. Reed had Grimes on his shoulders as Blackheart hopped off the top rope to Grimes’ back and then hit a crossbody on Gonzalez for the pin.

– Jaxson Ryker defeated Babatunde

Ryker won this battle of the big men with a chokeslam.

 – Jessi Kamea & MJ Jenkins vs. Rita Reis & Briana Brandy ended in a no contest

Bianca Belair destroyed all four and took the mic to talk up her Royal Rumble appearance and her upcoming match against NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley. This brought out Ripley to a huge reaction.

Ripley wanted to have their match right now, but Belair backed off and left Ripley to play up to the hot crowd. Great segment here. 

– Angel Garza defeated Arturo Ruas 

Great match. Ruas worked over Garza until there wasn’t much left. In a last gasp effort, Garza escaped a hold and his tear-away pants to hit the ropes and come back with a superkick for the win.

– Kushida & Isaiah “Swerve” Scott defeated Mike Kanellis & Tony Nese and Shane Thorne & Kona Reeves in a triple threat tag match

This was a fun and action-packed main event. Reeves and Thorne ran their mouths throughout, and Kushida took Thorne off the top rope in a huge slam before transitioning to the Sakuraba Lock for the submission. These wrestlers worked hard and made the match enjoyable because of the great time they were having.

Dio Maddin leaving WWE Raw commentary, Samoa Joe filling in

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Dio Maddin will no longer be doing Raw commentary, as Samoa Joe will be added to the Raw commentary team on a temporary basis going forward.

This was confirmed this evening on WWE Backstage. Ryan Satin reported that Dio Maddin still had a desire to become a WWE Superstar, so Maddin will be returning to the WWE Performance Center for further training. He was most recently seen being taken out by an F5 by Brock Lesnar through the announcer table back on Raw last month.

Samoa Joe, who has been doing commentary on Raw for the last two weeks will be continuing in that role until he is cleared to return to the ring. Joe has been out since September with a broken thumb.

Maddin was added to the Raw commentary team back on September 30 alongside Vic Joseph and Jerry “The King” Lawler as a part of an announcer shake-up. He had previously been added to the 205 Live commentary team earlier that month. 

Maddin, real name Brennan Williams, signed with the WWE in 2016 and has been training at the Performance Center since then.

Change to WWE 205 Live commentary team

Posted on by Joseph Currier

With NXT going live, WWE has made a change to the 205 Live commentary team.

On Tuesday, it was revealed that Nigel McGuinness will no longer be doing commentary for 205 Live. NXT wrestler Dio Maddin took McGuinness’ place starting with this week’s 205 Live episode and was announced as the newest member of the broadcast team. He’ll be working alongside Vic Joseph and Aiden English.

Joseph and English congratulated and thanked McGuinness. Mauro Ranallo, McGuinness, and Beth Phoenix are the commentary team for NXT.

Maddin (real name Brennan Williams) is a former NFL offensive lineman. After being trained by Booker T, he signed with WWE in 2016. He’s been wrestling on NXT house shows since then and got his WWE name earlier this year.

NXT will begin airing live on Wednesdays next week (September 18). For the first two episodes, the first hour of the show will be live on USA Network and the second hour will be live on WWE Network. NXT will then move to airing live on USA Network for the full two hours starting on October 2.