Jimmy Korderas On WWE’s RETRIBUTION: “There Is No Coming Back From This”

Former WWE referee Jimmy Korderas returned to The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast and chatted with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman about current WWE storylines. One of the more perplexing stories throughout the past few months has been RETRIBUTION, and Korderas gave his thoughts on WWE’s current anarchists stable.

“I think the ball was dropped right from the get-go when they tried to make them a rebellious group with all the Molotov cocktails and all that stuff. They lost me right there,” Korderas admitted. “That’s me, and I’m like, you know what, you can cause chaos without having to go that route.

“And then all of a sudden, to stop the chaos, the story is ‘oh, we’ll just sign these guys on and pay them to come in and create chaos,’ but then once you sign them, they become basically ineffective. I guess in theory, I guess it’s salvageable, but I don’t see it. I think the damage is too far gone and I think in people’s minds there’s no coming back from this.”

Hausman brought up an idea from Wrestling Inc. Daily co-host Justin LaBar where The Undertaker and Bray Wyatt team up to take out RETRIBUTION at Survivor Series, thus ending the storyline. Korderas liked the idea because it would offer an explanation as to why they went away as opposed to RAW Underground.

“I’m all for that. I’d rather that than it just disappear kind of like RAW Underground,” Korderas noted. “I don’t mind that it’s gone. I just wish there was an explanation. That’s all because I didn’t like the idea of having something that’s presented as shoot fighting on the same show that you have sports entertainment. You’re kind of telling people, ‘this is real, but guess what, this is not.’ That’s the way it felt to me. It can have a lot on The Network. That’s fine.”

Korderas has been known to offer his critiques of AEW’s referees. Hausman asked what his opinion of AEW’s officiating is at the current moment.

“Again, I hate to rail on the brothers and sisters in stripes, but to me just watching, I don’t think the officiating is a priority at all for them,” Korderas said. “In situations, especially in tag matches, ‘oh, we’re going to do this. Well, what do you need me to do?’ It’s kind of like just fudge the numbers a little bit. Just keep yourself distracted and kills me because you look at some of the producers they have down there. You have Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Dean Malenko [and] you got Billy Gunn. How is this not being utilized

“Maybe being a former referee myself, I pay too much attention to the referees and some of the over selling a lot of stuff and being out of position and stop moving around so much. It’s those little things. Maybe I’m overanalyzing because I used to be one of them. I guess I still am. I’m haven’t given in my card yet, but anyway, it’s just little things. Like I always say, the referee’s job is to help the talent tell their story. You’re not the story, unless you’re included in their story.

“So you’re invisible until you need to be visible, and I’m noticing that a lot of times, the referees, particularly in AEW, tend to be very visible when they shouldn’t be. When I see an exchange of two guys going back and forth and throwing these bombs and haymakers back and forth, and right between them, standing between them in the main shot is a referee selling every punch. No, stand off to the side. Let the guys be the focal point or the girls.”

Hausman also asked Korderas about NXT’s “Zombie Ref” storyline. The storyline involves NXT Superstar Cameron Grimes, and Korderas gave his quick thought about the storyline.

“Not my cup of tea,” Korderas stated. “Let’s leave it at that.”

You can follow Jimmy on Twitter @JimmyKorderas. Jimmy’s full interview aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it’s released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.