WWE Punished Vanessa Borne For Expressing Concern About Retribution Mirroring Real Violence

Retribution entered the WWE Universe during a time when there was a lot of social unrest in America. That stable, bent on destroying WWE from the inside out, sort of mirrored the real social unrest going on within America. Vanessa Borne was believed to have been under one of those hoods early on, but she was then pulled from the situation.

While speaking to PW Insider, Vanessa Borne claimed that she voiced concern about the real violence that Retribution was mirroring. Then she was taken off the main roster and sent back to NXT. She claims that this was something Mark Carrano informed her of after she expressed those concerns.

“After that, I was called in and they had a pitch where I was part of RETRIBUTION. I was excited about being on TV for something, but I had a lot of questions. I wanted to know what the group was about and how I fit in. I had some concerns because, during this time, there was stuff around the country with violence and we’re watching this unfold and it’s not pretty. I wanted to know if the group was mimicking that. I expressed those concerns, but ultimately, I wanted to do what I was told and tried to figure out how I could help. Within the week, I got a call from Mark Carrano saying, ‘We’re not going to have you as part of RETRIBUTION and we’re going to pull your contract. You’re getting sent back to NXT.'”

“It felt like I got kicked in the gut. I would never want them to think that I didn’t think an idea wasn’t good or that I didn’t want to participate. I would do anything and had done everything to that point. After we talked, I sent him a text that said, ‘I’m so sorry if I came across not wanting to be part of anything. I’m here to work. I’m willing to do whatever’. He just said, ‘This is where we’re at’. I still think back and kick myself and think I should have sat there, nodded, and been happy. I was happy, I might have just given the wrong impression. Lesson learned. Sometimes I tend to be blunt and I don’t know if that’s what came across when it came to asking questions or having concerns. Maybe that isn’t the reason and it’s something totally different, it just happened to fall in line with how everything went down. I put those two things together.”

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Retribution is no more after breaking up during the Fastlane kickoff show. Reckoning and Slapjack have yet to re-appear, but Mace and T-Bar are still a tag team on the red brand. Vanessa Borne might have been a part of that situation as well, but she apparently had to say something about what WWE was producing on television.

Was it socially responsible for WWE to air the Retribution angle when they did? Sound off in the comments!