Former WWE Superstar Mace recently officially became a free agent. Since then he has been making appearances on different shows and providing interviews.
A few days ago, the former Retribution member was interviewed by Denise Salcedo. During the interview, Mace reflected upon his run in WWE. He opened up about the rise and fall of Retribution.
Mace also shared his experience of wrestling for the first time in WWE. It was inside the Thunderdome and he shared some secrets about the way things were filmed. He also stated that he would never like to wrestle in such an environment.
“It was something else. It was my first time wrestling on TV. I had not wrestled on NXT TV at all. In my entire developmental upbringing. So, for my first time on TV to be such like a alien version of what TV is where commercial breaks would happen and you could go and get some water [chuckles]. Nobody’s there and the bumps all hurt way less because there was not… The only sound was the air-conditioning fans [mimics fan noises]. So it really felt like wrestling in front of nobody. It was something else. I rather never do it again.”
Mace wonders what Retribution would have been like if actual fans were present in the arena
Mace also wonders if fans were inside the arena, would the outcome of the faction been different.
“Honestly, I almost wonder what the alternate future looks like. Where we could hear crowd reaction and pivot accordingly. Because the Thunderdome Era was very much… That’s when they realized that they could press a button and then people would cheer and people would boo. That’s kind of the point where they were like, ‘Oh yeah, we can actually be in charge of what the crowd likes and dislikes.’ So I almost wonder if, not that Retribution was this massive fumble that it could have been…
“Nah, I take it back. It could have been great. But, I wonder if we had a reaction of a crowd and see what organically hit with them, what organically missed with them. If we could have pivoted to like, ‘Oh these are Power Rangers villains,’ or if we could have pivoted to something darker or just… The direction was all very much left up to the people in charge at that time where in, when you have an audience, you are more beholden to them. So… I don’t know. Who knows?”
Did you enjoy the retribution angle?