Former RETRIBUTION Member Returns To Action After WWE SmackDown
The former Slapjack of RETRIBUTION returned to the ring after last night's WWE SmackDown on FOX went off the air at the Toyota Center in Houston, TX.
As noted, last night's SmackDown dark main event saw Big E win a Battle Royal. The match also featured names like King Shinsuke Nakamura, WWE Intercontinental Champion Apollo Crews, Commander Azeez, Finn Balor, Robert Roode, Dolph Ziggler, Cesaro, and a few others. Big E won the match by eliminating Crews. You can click here for clips from last night's post-show segments.
Shane Thorne also worked the Battle Royal, apparently competing as a babyface. Thorne sported new gear and a bit of a new look, apparently wearing a hat at one point.
It's been reported that WWE had plans to bring Thorne and Mia Yim, the former Reckoning, to the blue brand. It was revealed just this past week that WWE had dropped the Slapjack and Reckoning names internally, and that Yim and Thorne would be using their previous ring names moving forward.
It should be noted that the WWE roster still lists Reckoning and Slapjack as RAW Superstars as of this writing. There are no official roster pages for Thorne and Yim as of now.
There had been talk of bringing both Yim and Thorne, apparently as Reckoning and Slapjack, to SmackDown back in early May, but that obviously never happened. At one point Yim was reportedly scheduled to debut on the Throwback SmackDown, but the match was nixed. She was also scheduled to make her debut on the WrestleMania Backlash go-home edition of SmackDown. It was first revealed back in April that Reckoning and Slapjack were headed to SmackDown while T-BAR and MACE stayed on RAW following the RETRIBUTION split. MACE and T-BAR have continued teaming together on the red brand, while Mustafa Ali is working his own storylines, currently with Mansoor.
Thorne worked a pre-SmackDown dark match against WWE NXT Champion Karrion Kross, in front of company officials, back on June 25.
There is still no word on when Thorne and Yim will return to WWE TV, but we will keep you updated. Below are a few shots of Thorne in last night's dark main event:
We have a wild Shane Thorne spotting at Smackdown! pic.twitter.com/o5V0cnGkIS
— Hunter | INACTIVE (@HunterProbably) July 17, 2021