Tonight’s WWE Fastlane pay-per-view might finally bring about some changes to one of WWE’s factions. According to Fightful Select‘s Sean Ross Sapp, there was a “high-level pitch” put in earlier in the week for Retribution to be either split up or fracture in some form. The masked group first started popping up last summer and it wasn’t until October that the group’s lineup was finalized — Mustafa Ali (as leader), Mace (Dio Maddin), Reckoning (Mia Yim), T-Bar (Dominik Dijakovic) and Slapjack (Shane Thorne).
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Ali will challenge Riddle for the United States Championship on Sunday night and has been increasing his frustration towards the rest of the group for their repeated failures. It’s entirely possible the rest of the group will turn on him if he winds up losing to “The Original Bro” again.
Ali revealed in an interview with ComicBook.com last week that he had to pitch the idea of turning heel and that he didn’t know he was joining Retribution until the day of the reveal (the Oct. 5 episode of Raw).
“I found out I was joining Retribution that day, but I had been auditioning, so to speak,” Ali said. “Again, man, storytelling, I kind of looked at my career at a snapshot. I made my return. Nothing really happened. I was off for seven months, for no apparent reason to me other than just creative had nothing for me.
“When I was initially looking at the mirror, I go, ‘What is wrong with me? Nothing’s wrong with me. Look at me.’ Again, after seven months, you have to eventually have that look in the mirror and go, ‘What am I missing?’ I think the thing I was missing was a little bit of edge. I knew I could cut a great promo,” he continued. “But again, within the confines of being a good guy, you’re very limited as to what you can say.”
Check out the full lineup for Fastlane below:
- WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan (Edge as Special Guest Enforcer)
- Intercontinental Championship: Big E vs. Apollo Crews
- United States Championship: Riddle vs. Mustafa Ali
- WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs. Sasha Banks & Bianca Belair
- Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus (No Holds Barred)
- Alexa Bliss vs. Randy Orton
- Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
