When it debuted, Retribution was seemingly set to be the next big thing. Unfortunately, it was quickly dropped, and almost every wrestler who was part of the faction has been released. One such member of the faction is Mace, now known as Mason D. Madden. He recently reflected on the groupâs downfall.
The former WWE Superstar was recently interviewed by Denise Salcedo. In one highlight, he discussed how the faction came together, and he looked back the stableâs breakup.
âWhen it stopped being⊠Um⊠So if you remember, Retribution segments were really like, we were finishing the show. We had the really cool angle with the Hurt Business. Which did really well⊠Everywhere. We had a really cool segment with Windham [Bray Wyatt] and Alexa [Bliss] and there were⊠We had a lot of cool moments, but as soon as those cool moments started drifting down, and we were like, âUh⊠They are not really feeling it, I think they just want to kill it,â I could tell it was probably time to start thinking of something else.
âI think⊠Yeah, we broke up. They had me and T-Bar Chokeslam Ali and then there was no direction for a while. But it was a gradual descent of like, âOh yeah we were in these highly featured segments.â So weâre in these kind of featured segments but⊠Yeah, Thunderdome was wild.â
Mace is convinced that Vince McMahon lost interest in Retribution
Mace also discussed how he felt like Vince McMahon did not love Retribution. He shared his belief that McMahon lost interest in the stable once it became clear that it was not going anywhere.
âI assume he didnât love it,â Mace said. âOkay. Hereâs me reading tea leaves like some sort of wizard or mystic. If I had to guess, Vince [McMahon] has these ideas for things. And he doesnât always necessarily know where itâs going to go and he doesnât necessarily always know how theyâre going to get there. And thatâs part of the genius of what he has been able to create over the course of forever.
âBut especially in these later years, it was kind of just like, âI want to do that Antifa thing.â And they were like, âOkay, well, what does that lead to? I donât know.â So when it kind of ended up looking like we couldnât go anywhere with it, he just lost interest. So I donât think he hated it. I just think he just⊠If he loved it then weâd still be doing it.â
Click here to see what Mace had to say about his WWE release.