Back during the pandemic during fan-free shows, WWE started having a gang of masked thugs in all black coming in and attacking people, destroying property, etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYEhMlPJhvE&list=PL9nslxQEplSSV12UYlUJLD8g7GYulhUXU&index=4&ab_channel=WWE
Madden confirmed the rumor that the Retribution faction was based on Antifa, the left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States.
After the group debuted, there were rumours and reports that Retribution was inspired by Antifa, the anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. Later in the interview, Mace confirmed that the group were meant to be portrayed in a similar manner to Antifa but was told to stop by FOX, who broadcast SmackDown
More on the overall story:
He said, "The thought was and as I understood it, they weren't sure where they were going. But the initial thought when they had the little guys -- that's actually how I ended up in Retribution was they had the little guys with the ski masks on making a mess. And then everybody bragged on it, because they were like, 'Look at how small these guys are, Drew McIntyre would kill these guys.' So the next week, they said, 'Vince said get some bigger guys.'
On why the Antifa idea was nixed, Madden said it was because of FOX. He said, "But as I understand it, we were meant to be Antifa. When FOX, because it was on SmackDown, found out that there was an Antifa angle on Smackdown on their FOX program. They said, 'Hey, stop.' So confusion happened. They were like, how do we pivot this because they had already dedicated a decent amount of time to this angle. And then they gave us supervillain masks. And I'm like, Cool. Let's lean into being -- I really wanted to be like, like Power Rangers. Yeah, I wanted to be Puddies...we looked crazy, but like, I feel like there's a vibe for that."
I remember that being cancelled. The whole purpose of being a heel is to piss people off and be edgy. Also mirroring things that are happening can work. You could easily make a heel faction based on some weasels like antifa. I love watching wrestling from back in the day and I still watch now but it’s not the same. Also the online forums are filled with whining about offensive angles or articles from 20 year olds saying the attitude era wasn’t as good as you remember
Mirroring current events generates some of the best heat imaginable. When Nikolai Volkoff was singing the Soviet national anthem and the Iron Sheik was yelling “Iran number 1, USA hack-ptew!” back in the 80s, fans wanted to fucking kill those dudes for real.
Yes! I love watching old Iron Sheik promos. As a kid I had no idea he was a proud naturalized citizen in real life. Then again as a kid I thought Kamala was really Ugandan. Slaughter got real death threats and they had to put security at his house. He said he loved it because it meant his character was getting major heat. That Davari guy after 9/11 could’ve worked but I guess he couldn’t take it.
Check out this video of Mean Gene Okerlund outtakes: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ct-zOyh7hZY&pp=ygUSbWVhbiBnZW5lIG91dHRha2Vz
It features Kamala, Sgt. Slaughter, and Volkoff all out of character. Seeing Kamala speak coherent English in particular is a mindfuck. Sheik is also in the video, but apparently his “out of character” behavior is the same as his in-character behavior because he’s a lunatic.
Also special props to Mean Gene in this video for being hilarious and ripping cigarettes, all while being the smoothest interviewer in the business.