Two wrestlers who had been part of RETRIBUTION have changed brands.
PWInsider reported on Monday that Reckoning (Mia Yim) has been moved to the SmackDown roster. Post Wrestling confirmed that news and also reported that Slapjack (Shane Thorne) has been moved to SmackDown. Reckoning and Slapjack had both been members of the Raw roster as part of RETRIBUTION.
Whether or not Yim and Thorne will still be using their RETRIBUTION personas going forward remains to be seen. Both were called up from NXT when RETRIBUTION debuted last year.
RETRIBUTION split up after their leader Mustafa Ali lost a title match against United States Champion Riddle on the Fastlane pre-show last month. When Ali berated the rest of RETRIBUTION following the match, Reckoning walked out on him and then Slapjack did the same thing. T-Bar (Dominik Dijakovic) and Mace (Dio Maddin) then laid out Ali with a double chokeslam.
Last week’s Raw ended with T-Bar and Mace attacking Drew McIntyre and giving him a double chokeslam. After McIntyre defeated Randy Orton and Braun Strowman in a number one contender’s match, WWE Champion Bobby Lashley’s’ associate MVP came out to the stage. With McIntyre’s attention turned to MVP, T-Bar and Mace ambushed McIntyre. T-Bar and Mace were still using their RETRIBUTION personas.
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.
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.
Two more matches have been confirmed for this coming Wednesday’s episode of NXT.
WWE announced today that NXT Champion Keith Lee vs. Cameron Grimes in a non-title match and Bronson Reed vs. Shane Thorne are set for Wednesday’s NXT. Dakota Kai vs. Rhea Ripley in a number one contender’s match, Damian Priest vs. Ridge Holland vs. Oney Lorcan in a TakeOver qualifying match, and Imperium (Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner) defending their NXT Tag Team titles against the Undisputed Era (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) have also been announced for the episode.
The winner of Kai vs. Ripley will challenge for Io Shirai’s NXT Women’s Championship at TakeOver XXX on Saturday, August 22.
Priest, Holland, or Lorcan will become the next wrestler to qualify for the five-man ladder match for the vacant North American Championship that’s taking place at TakeOver. Reed and Dexter Lumis are the first two participants who have qualified.
In his TakeOver qualifier, Reed defeated Johnny Gargano and Roderick Strong in a triple threat match.
WWE uploaded a post-show interview with Grimes after this week’s NXT where he vowed to teach Lee a lesson about respect. There was a segment on this week’s show where Lee called out Karrion Kross but Grimes appeared instead and got laid out by Lee.
Though Lee told Kross to name the time and place for them to face each other, NXT general manager William Regal said later in the show that he won’t be bullied into making title matches. Regal said title shots have to be earned.
Andrade made his Main Event debut, beating Ricochet in a very technical match and despite defeat, Shane Thorne continued to impress in a match against Humberto Carrillo.
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Humberto Carrillo defeated Shane Thorne (5:20)
You would have to go back to April to find Carrillo performing on Main Event as in the months since then, he has found himself booked regularly on Raw against the likes of AJ Styles and Bobby Lashley. Conversely, Thorne has been a show regular and just as impressive on this edition.
Carrillo was the perfect foil for Thorne as he is a hugely talented babyface while Thorne is such a natural heel. It’s strange to think there is ten year age gap between these two, probably because Thorne looks younger than his years and Carrillo older and more experienced than he actually is.
This was action packed from start to finish as they both worked really hard. Carrillo oversells things a little for my taste, but the finish was impressive as he launched himself off the top rope with a missile dropkick and followed it up with a top rope moonsault for the win.
Andrade (w/ Zelina Vega) defeated Ricochet (7:28)
Ricochet has become a mainstay on Main Event over the last few months, but this was Andrade’s show debut. Any bit of logic would tell you this is a pay-per-view quality pairing in any other world.
It certainly delivered, but was not the kind of match I expected. The story was that Ricochet came off the top rope early and landed awkwardly on his left leg. He went outside and was clutching his left knee, so Andrade went after it relentlessly.
Andrade, who carries himself like such a star, put on a clinic in how to be a heartless heel while Zelina, who was also fantastic here, looked on and laughed at every new way he found to work over the injured knee.
There was a sense that this slow, methodical approach was all going to backfire for Andrade when Ricochet finally got some hope just before the finish. He hit a hurricanrana off the second turnbuckle and a standing moonsault for a near fall, but Andrade quickly retained control.
Andrade went back to the leg. finally planting him with the hammerlock DDT for the win.
Final Thoughts:
These were two perfectly good matches again this week. Andrade debuting might be a bit of a worry as the creative lead changed for Raw, but he and Vega are such a class act, it would be a huge waste to leave them in a spot like this.
Both matches were very strong again this week as Main Event carried on being an extremely watchable wrestling show. Liv Morgan and Shane Thorne held their own against very experienced hands in Natalya and Shelton Benjamin. Morgan got her first win since April and Benjamin made his experience count in the main event.
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Liv Morgan defeated Natalya (5:34)
Liv Morgan was last on Main Event back in April when she defeated Santana Garrett and has been very impressive. With respect to Garrett, here against Natalya, she was taking on a vastly more experienced opponent and the match was even better.
What Morgan does so well, in addition to her in-ring smoothness, is her facial expressions and ability to react in a natural looking way to the situations she faces in the ring. She also has some comic timing and a fantastic look. Like Bianca Belair, Morgan has to be one to watch for the imminent future.
Natalya, composed as ever, started by getting the crowd going before they went at a really fast pace for the entirety of this match. They did a spot where Morgan mimicked Natalya in everything she did, like a child annoying an older sibling, and Natalya did an remarkable surfboard spot.
In the end, the traded inside cradles back and forth, after Natalya had failed to lock in the Sharpshooter. Morgan rolled Natalya through and just managed to hold on for the three count in a finish that could have gone either way. Natalya played up the loss after the bell looking angry and bereft.
This was a good opener to continue the streak of excellent in-ring work that we’ve seen on this show over the last few months. Natalya is always outstanding, but Morgan vs. Belair would be a very intriguing Main Event matchup for the coming weeks.
Shelton Benjamin defeated Shane Thorne (8:02)
Shelton Benjamin has been a joy to watch over the last six months on Main Event, rarely missing a week. Although clearly wasted on a show that is difficult to watch for the casual WWE viewer, he’s given new talent the chance to work with him on a taped TV show, no doubt providing invaluable experience for them.
Shane Thorne is by no means new to this, but he is fairly new to the WWE audience and is one of those who will be benefiting from the experience that Benjamin brings with him. Thorne worked with Ricochet last week, putting on a solid, traditional babyface vs. heel contest.
Here, Thorne, with kinesiology tape on his left shoulder, played an old-school, smug, cowardly heel. He looked for the ropes to break holds at every turn and took cheap shots to gain an advantage wherever he could. He plays this role beautifully.
They paced the match well, speeding up into quick bursts of quick chain wrestling and some explosive moves, like when Thorne did a rolling cannonball to the corner to send Benjamin outside.
But enough was enough for Benjamin, who got the shine with three scoop slams and a running knee to Thorne who was on the top rope. Benjamin then hit him with Paydirt for the win.
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Final Thoughts —
Main Event has become a very watchable product over the last few months. Seeing the likes of Liv Morgan and Shane Thorne prove that they’ve got what it takes is fun to witness, but it’s about time Shelton Benjamin got the respect he deserves as an in-ring performer. Maybe the shakeup in creative will mean that happens, but I’m not holding my breath.
For those keeping count, this was the 401st episode of Main Event and just as almost no one is able to watch it, it’s finally getting into its stride.
Two very strong matches were on display, with Ricochet getting a fine win over Shane Thorne in the opener and Cedric Alexander gaining a surprise victory over Shelton Benjamin in an excellent main event.
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Ricochet defeated Shane Thorne (6:03)
This felt longer than it was, but in a good way. They got so much in the time that they had and Ricochet made every effort to help Thorne look a real threat. By the end, they’d tried just about everything each of them had to gain the win.
Thorne garners some pretty decent heat as a heel and against as good a babyface as Ricochet, it makes sense. And it’s times like these that really cement just how underused and seemingly undervalued Ricochet has become of late.
This was a rematch from two weeks ago. And although that match was actually really very good and this was shorter, this time out was probably the better of the two, probably for the finishing sequence alone.
Ricochet went for his standing Shooting Star Press, but Thorne got his knees up and rolled Ricochet up for a near fall. Ricochet then showed some fight and nailed Thorne with an impressive reverse rana before hitting the Kick Back for the win.
This was a good, smooth wrestling match between a great babyface and an increasingly convincing heel.
Cedric Alexander defeated Shelton Benjamin (7:29)
It doesn’t seem to matter who they give Shelton Benjamin to work with on Main Event, he will adapt to their style and produce an excellent match. Hardly surprising when you consider he’s been doing this for 20 years and that this week his opponent was Cedric Alexander.
This was as good a Main Event match as you’ll see. Not because they tried to do anything special, but because the pace was perfect and technically it was superb. Benjamin is in that space in his career now where there is no wasted movement in his work and Alexander is seriously talented.
Shelton played the bully; Alexander was the plucky babyface. If they stuck Benjamin with Paul Heyman and let him use his powerful move set, you could easily strap a rocket to this guy and make him a main eventer within weeks. He’s that good and that underused.
They gave Alexander the win here. Benjamin went for Paydirt and Alexander reversed it for a near fall, so Benjamin went for a powerbomb but Alexander flipped over onto his feet and hit the Neuralyzer Kick for another near fall.
In the end, it took a Lumbar Check and a Michinoku Driver from Alexander to defeated Benjamin and I just hope we get this again next week.
Final Thoughts —
Two really good matches again from Main Event. The shorter match format is suiting almost everyone at the minute. MVP is great as color commentator and with Performance Center talent in the crowd, the whole presentation is better than it has been in such a long time.
Main Event continues to feel a little more fresh, with more up-and-coming talent getting a chance to perform each week.
Jinder Mahal got another easy win, this time against the ever-impressive Akira Tozawa, and Ricochet eventually got the victory against Shane Thorne in a slightly bloated match at the end of the show.
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Jinder Mahal defeated Akira Tozawa (5:53)
Much like last week on Main Event, Mahal got a chance to clock up some more minutes in the ring as he continues to make his comeback from a knee injury that saw him out of action for over six months.
Tozawa was his opponent on Raw when Mahal returned in April and once again played an excellent foil for Mahal’s stiff and rigid moveset here. Tozawa is so highly skilled, but like a lot of talent, the company doesn’t know what to do with him.
At the finish, Tozawa hit a hurricanrana, followed by a shining wizard and went up top for a missile dropkick. He got a near fall, but Mahal then posted Tozawa to soften him for the Khallas.
This went quick at the end after a slow start and Mahal is now 3-0 since returning to in-ring action. Mahal finds himself without a creative direction at present but will no doubt be looking to get some screen time on Raw soon to see if he can find himself back in contention for a title.
As he makes only his second appearance on Main Event, it’s worth noting how long and hard Thorne has worked to get to this point in his career. Turning 35 this year, Thorne has been doing this now for over 10 years, from Australia to Japan before finally joining NXT in 2016.
Thorne is tall, lean, and technically very accomplished. He tied Ricochet up in knots at times here and knew when to feed his fast-paced offense and when to slow it down for some heat.
Thorne and Vink debuted in March on Raw. But they were separated here in what really ought to have been a tag match — neither Alexander nor Vink were involved at all and it would probably have been more fun if they had.
At the finish, Thorne went up to the second turnbuckle and Ricochet grabbed the leg and launched him off the ropes with a hurricanrana. Ricochet nailed Thorne in the back of the head before using the Kick Back to get the win.
Final Thoughts —
Nothing much wrong with either match this week, but Ricochet and Thorne probably went a little too long. It feels like Main Event is being used to give time to returning talent who need to brush off the ring rust or that they have nothing for right now or to give up-and-comers a chance to notch up some TV minutes. Either way, it’s a much more interesting show than it has been in a long, long time.
For the first time since the show went live, Johnny Gargano will be in action on NXT next week (October 2).
The announcement of “WWE Premiere Week” noted that Gargano vs. Shane Thorne has been added to next Wednesday’s NXT episode. On an episode that aired earlier this month, Thorne interrupted Gargano’s first promo since losing to Adam Cole at TakeOver: Toronto. Gargano laid Thorne out and declared that he was staying in NXT.
The WWE Premiere Week announcement also hyped that fans can witness “The Velveteen Dream Experience” on next Wednesday’s NXT.
Next week’s NXT will feature three title matches. Cole will defend his NXT Championship against Matt Riddle, Candice LeRae will challenge for Shayna Baszler’s NXT Women’s Championship, and Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish will put their NXT Tag Team titles on the line against The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford).
Starting next week, NXT will air live on USA Network for its full two hours. Next Wednesday will also be the first time NXT goes head-to-head with AEW Dynamite.
It was announced last night that next week’s NXT will have “limited commercial interruption.”
Nick Miller of The Mighty has been released from WWE developmental.
WWE hasn’t officially announced the release, but Casey Michael of Squared Circle Sirens has reported that he has been cut. Dave Meltzer has also confirmed his release.
This comes after people pointed out on social media that the profiles of both he and NXT UK’s Tucker were removed from WWE.com. There is no word on the status of Tucker. Taishan Dong is also reported as being gone from the promotion, though that took place some time back.
Pro Wrestling Sheet noted that it wasn’t clear if Miller requested to be released, but a source told them he was looking to go back home for personal reasons. Dave Meltzer is reporting that Miller returned to Australia when his child was born and decided to stay. The door isn’t shut on him returning at some point if he chooses to.
Shane Thorne, Miller’s tag team partner, is still under WWE contract.
Before signing with the WWE, Miller and Thorne were known as Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste of The Mighty Don’t Kneel (TMDK for short). They are best known for their run in Pro Wrestling NOAH from 2011 to 2016 where they won the GHC tag team titles on two occasions.
They signed with WWE in 2016 and were first given a run in NXT under the name TM-61, as babyfaces. After Thorne returned from an injury that kept him out for most of 2017, they feuded with the Street Profits, Heavy Machinery and The War Raiders. They eventually turned heel and were renamed The Mighty.
Their last appearance as a team were at the NXT television tapings that were held on November 28, losing to the team of Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan. That match aired just this past week on NXT.
