Wrestling Retribution Project

History

In early 2011, Jeff Katz, who had been a Vice President of Production at both 20th Century Fox and New Line Cinema, started airing his complaints on Twitter about the wrestling shows put out by companies like WWE and TNA. That May, he launched a Kickstarter campaign aiming to raise $100,000 for a new wrestling project. By June 21, 2011, 187 backers had pledged enough to hit that goal. Casting and pre-production followed soon after.

The first season, planned for thirteen weeks, was recorded over three days from October 10 to 12, 2011, at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Two announced participants, Fergal Devitt and Shawn Spears, had to pull out because of visa problems. The project was originally called Wrestling Revolution Project, but on November 21, 2011, it was renamed Wrestling Retribution Project. Many donors have since voiced frustration, saying they received little information about whether the project would ever come out or how their money was used.

In June 2013, an update on the Kickstarter page included a link to a video of the Champion's Grail battle royal. As of now, backers have not gotten the finished episodes they funded, as Katz never released the promised footage. On the Talk is Jericho podcast with Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho said he helped fund the project but never saw the footage. Omega also told a story about breaking a chandelier while performing an outside springboard moonsault onto Karl Anderson during filming, and then having to work for free for the rest of the tapings to cover the damage. In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Katz decided to put the footage on YouTube.