Retribution leader Mustafa Ali says no one cares about actual talent these days.
Ali took to Twitter this week and responded to a fan who asked why the other members of Retribution have gimmicked names. The fan suggested doing away with the names and the masks to do away with the “cartoony” feeling.
“Why? Because I wanted to prove that how you look and what your name is matters in this company and to ‘fans’. No one gives a s–t about talent,” Ali responded.
Ali also linked to a November 22 promo that Retribution’s @TheMessageWWE account tweeted, where Ali talked about being judged because of your name, and mocked because of how you look, and how he let the members of Retribution feel what he’s felt, and see the world the way he sees it.
“I want you to imagine something,” Ali said in the November 22 promo. “I want you to imagine being judged because of your name. I want you to imagine being mocked because of how you look. Now I want you to imagine a man named Mustafa Ali, that has given names and masks to members of Retribution so that they too can know how he feels. So that they too can be judged because of their names, they too can be mocked because of how they look, they too can see the world the way he sees it. Imagine that.”
Retribution members have been on somewhat of a winning streak since November of last year, and are currently feuding with The New Day’s Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston, who is currently recovering from a jaw injury.
This week’s RAW saw Mace defeat Woods in singles action, one week after T-BAR defeated Woods. Retribution did not appear during the Legends Night RAW on January 4, but Ali defeated Ricochet on December 28, T-BAR defeated Ricochet on December 21, and Mace defeated Ricochet on December 14. Dana Brooke and Ricochet defeated Reckoning and Slapjack on December 7, but Slapjack picked up a win over Ricochet on November 30. The group did not wrestle on November 23, but their big eight-man win over Riddle, Keith Lee, Braun Strowman and Sheamus came on November 16, which was the Survivor Series go-home show.