It was 10 years ago today ...

[TheBurningRed]

Wade Barrett had one of the worst finishers going at that time. I could never believe him beating anyone doing that awful Wasteland move.
 

However, I really thought he was going to win the title from Orton that year at Survivor Series with Cena as special ref. Probably should have. But it was another case of WWE not doing the right thing at the right time. Like the Summerslam main event with the Nexus. 

[DavidB6937]

15 minutes ago, Pinc said:

None of the Nexus lads had any business being in a main event programme at the time, and most of them never would have. WWE have messed up loads of should-have-been stars in the last twenty years, but I don’t think the Nexus lads belong in that category. The one exception being Skip Sheffield on a technicality - as he should’ve been much more than he was as Ryback.

I don't think anyone looks back at Nexus and thinks it's full of potential main eventers that all got screwed over. That's never really been the case. All of them were in that storyline way ahead of their time, but it worked. WWE rarely recognise such things. It could've been so much more, especially for Wade, and maybe eventually Skip/Ryback but when you're cutting them off at the first hurdle it's very difficult to get back from.

[Pinc]

Fair points. Although my memory of the storyline is that it ran pretty cold after the first night when they invaded. I've never heard an American fan bemoan Wade Barrett as a particular missed opportunity. It's only British fans who ever seem to say that.

The real missed opportunity around that time was actually Michael Cole, whose heel persona was one of the best things on the shows in 2010. He could've emerged as a new Mr McMahon type figure if they'd revealed that he was both the anonymous Raw GM and the Nexus's 'higher power' figure, which Barrett referred to cryptically once or twice.

[tiger_rick]

Barrett was perfect as Bad News Barrett. A great midcard heel character brilliantly executed by him. A good guy for people to beat on the way up, capable of stepping up when needed. Humorous but still able to draw heat.

Not everyone is a main eventer. Or even a potential one.

[BomberPat]

what made the Nexus angle great was how unprecedented it seemed - not just that it was a bunch of nobodies thrust into the main event spotlight, but the nature of that first appearance. You never saw the ring announcer or timekeeper get beaten up like that, and the visual of them dismantling the ring itself was something completely unique in WWE; I can't think of another time where you saw the exposed wooden boards on WWE TV. It felt raw and exciting in a way their TV never does any more, and rarely did then.

It was pretty much doomed to failure beyond that point, as there's no way to keep up that level of intrigue without fundamentally changing how they write TV. Though there was a superb Piper's Pit in the build to the Orton/Barrett match, where Piper does a better job of selling the story on the go-home show than everyone else has managed for the entire build. 

Then, of course, it was all fucked and fell apart into The Corrrrrrrrre and New Nexus and whatnot.

[Supremo]

The New Nexus didn’t even have a proper end point, did it? If I remember rightly, CM Punk just stopped wearing the T-shirt after his Pipebomb promo and that was that.

[King Pitcos]

On the one hand, I like to fantasise about how great if they'd run with it all the way to Barrett winning the belt and losing it to Cena at the next WrestleMania. Realistically, though, it was never going to happen. When the Shield came in a couple of years later and clattered people, at least you could see the three of them being players for years to come. Most of Nexus were cannon fodder or, at best, good hands. At the time, Bryan was the only one that was any good, and he was gone after the first night. Barrett was a year or two away from becoming really good - but maybe the momentum of the push would've made up for that anyway. But at the time, and now with hindsight, I couldn't say that Big Wade was a better choice than The Miz for the title.

I still listen to the song from when Cena was the ref in the title match.

[unfitfinlay]

It was an amazing level of self-awareness as well from WWE really. It's one thing to go "This isn't working" and another to go "Hey we've totally buried these guys, humiliated them and made them look like total jokes. Logically they should be really angry at us". It's even more incredible that they had them go from those total jokes to beating the fuck out of everybody. How often does that happen in wrestling? You read loads of stories about guys going "I'm not selling for him. He's not on my level" and there's two of the top guys in the industry giving a bunch of "rookies" everything.

I always thought Punk's involvement was really under-rated actually. I get that there was a fan vote for Cena's opponent, and they probably planned things thinking Mysterio would win, but the sight of Punk rolling into the ring to try and help Cena really added to it. It was so out of character for him that it made it feel real.

Shows how much they fucked it that "The New Nexus" eventually became Punk's lackeys and then just fizzled out when he outgrew them.

[CavemanLynn]

It's interesting to think how the Nexus could have been if they really had gone all in on them. That group had all the makings of a tremendous heel stable - Wade as the charismatic leader, Bryan as the nasty little bastard, Tarver as the knockout artist, Gabriel as the creepy goblin begging to give people 450s, etc. In fact the only ifs at that time were Otunga who was bland as fuck and always would be, Slater who hadn't hit his obnoxious stride, and Ryback who just wasn't Ryback yet. Regardless of how green they were, putting them all out there together would have given them all a chance to get comfortable without being overwhelmed by an individual spotlight, and in amongst some experienced faces who, willing to carry them and do the job, could have solidified them as half a dozen decent heels. But then, that last point is where it all falls down. We've all heard the stories about various old hands (Jericho and Edge, I think) telling Cena his planned finish was a baaaaaaaad idea, and John only realising after the fact. I don't know how much I believe that - Big Match John was well on the way to being Big Match John so it seems strange he'd make such an error in match-building, but vets reminiscing are always prone to a bit of well-I-did-tell-them, and the Cena we know now is a giver.

[Factotum]

Wasn't it Edge and Jericho who were pushing for Wade to go over in that Summerslam match? I remember them talking about how frustrating they found Cena's stance on it.

 

[The Gaffer]

They've put a Best of Nexus playlist up on the Network if anyone fancies reliving some of it. 

It was perhaps a bit of a missed opportunity, but much like the Invasion angle I still think back on it with a certain degree of fondness in terms of how it at least wrapped a theme around most of the year, so that the shows had something going on. I don't know...it's one of those things I just enjoyed watching provided I didn't get too critical about it. So the big yellow box gets a thumbs up from me. Bad News was the best Barrett, and whilst they probably could have done more with him it seemed like him and the WWE burned out on each other. Bryan and Wyatt went on to be huge in the way they needed to be, eventually. The rest of them got about as good as they deserved being a part of 2010's biggest angle, I reckon. It's one of those things I don't overthink. 

The split almost immediately revealed itself to be utter tripe, of course, but I did get an initial tingle of excitement thinking yes this is exactly where they should be going with this. Doing a Wolfpac on it, so to speak. And I did like the more hardcore, Jim Jones feel of Punk's Nexus at the outset:

I loved the logo. This visual motif is still plastered across the promos for MITB 2011, I think. 

The Corre, on the other hand, objectively had one of the most woeful visual identities of any faction in history. It was a half baked concept. They had nothing going for them from the off. You'd nearly think it was a rib. 

Also, if memory serves correct I believe @PowerButchi was operating a Mason Ryan fan club at this point in history. 

 

[Pogue]

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

The New Nexus didn’t even have a proper end point, did it? If I remember rightly, CM Punk just stopped wearing the T-shirt after his Pipebomb promo and that was that.

To be fair how many stables do ever have a proper ending? Nwo didn't, Horsemen didn't, DX didn't, only one I can think of off the top of my head is the Corporate Ministry 

[LaGoosh]

18 minutes ago, Factotum said:

Wasn't it Edge and Jericho who were pushing for Wade to go over in that Summerslam match? I remember them talking about how frustrating they found Cena's stance on it.

 

I think it was more they wanted to protect Nexus in defeat so they still had some heat left, while the finish Cena came up with and they went with basically had him squash them in a really anticlimactic way.

[DCW]

Worked out well for Bryan to be sacked off that first night in hindsight. He might never have gotten out of being associated with duds like Gabriel and Otunga otherwise.

Agree that Barrett and possibly Ryback probably should have had a decent crack at being a top guy, but the rest had no business being in main events.

[Supremo]

14 minutes ago, Pogue said:

To be fair how many stables do ever have a proper ending? Nwo didn't, Horsemen didn't, DX didn't, only one I can think of off the top of my head is the Corporate Ministry 

Good point. The Shield was the first that came to my mind as having a definitive ending.