Nexus: 7 June 2010 - 1 August 2011 [Archive]

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Autobahn

08-02-2011, 07:54 AM

So it appears that the Nexus is no more, with David Otunga and Michael McGillihennig not wearing any Nexus merch, or any mention of Nexus on their titantron.

While the stable had seemed to run its course, cant help but feel disappointed that there was no big blowoff to the angle and that it just fizzled out. Of course the angle could have been so much more though.

What are your thoughts? Do you think the Nexus will be remembered as one of the great wrestling stables, or just another Truth Commission?

Ruien

08-02-2011, 08:24 AM

It will lie in the middle of an awesome and terrible stable. It had the huge impact for the first few months, but with no big name to actually back them up. I understand Wade Barrett did an awesome job, but he was still no superstar to properly lead the group.

Rating them is rather hard because they were main eventing with no actual superstar. A notch below King Booker's Court in terms of how they will be viewed in years to come.

Kane Knight

08-02-2011, 08:26 AM

Why now? Why not several months ago?

Tom Guycott

08-02-2011, 08:30 AM

Supreme Olajuwon

08-02-2011, 10:26 AM

Another senseless wrestling death. So young :nono:

Hanso Amore

08-02-2011, 10:29 AM

They are a Modern Sean O Haire.

Will always be a WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN deal. Though they had more success.

XCaliber

08-02-2011, 10:46 AM

There's no doubt in my mind they could have been greater than what they were but the potential was gradually decreased over the months due to a series of several unfortunate events. As much as like CM Punk I feel he actually hurt the stable more than anything Barrett was the true leader of the group imho his exile from the group was the final nail in the coffin for me. Still I wouldn't have minded seeing Punk feud with his former cohorts but he doesn't have much to gain by squashing them and I highly doubt they would want to put any members against him now while he's red hot and put them over. With that said it's hard to compare them with any other stable as it was comprised of all guys who were rookies sure they were no Ministry but they were easily better than the likes of The Cabinet. Regardless I'm sure most of these guys will eventually do well on their own I heck even Tarver was pretty good until his recent outbursts but tis the season of roster cuts and some of the newbies had to go I suppose.

Nicky Fives

08-02-2011, 10:51 AM

Great at the beginning and pretty crappy towards the end..... no different than virtually every major wrestling stable from the past......

LuigiD

08-02-2011, 11:03 AM

It took some time for me to take Nexus seriously. I agree with the notion that Barrett did well but he was not fit to lead the group as a whole. I got excited when CM Punk took over but that really went no where.

Supreme Olajuwon

08-02-2011, 11:07 AM

Feel like Sheffield breaking his leg was the most damaging thing that happened to the group. He was the guy that made them look intimidating. Otunga is big but not intimidating. Gabriel and Slater don't intimidate anybody. Tarver I guess had a good look but not as an enforcer type. And Darren Young is just a goofball. Sheffield was that guy. And without him the group just didn't seem that threatening.

Cuse8

08-02-2011, 11:19 AM

the downfall of the nexus started at summerslam..they should have gone over but supercena survived the odds and i couldnt take them serious after that

TheChamp

08-02-2011, 11:59 AM

It had all the potential in the world to remain a big stable (figuratively and literally), but it seemed to be cursed from the start. Danielson became an unintential PR nightmare, Skippy gets injured, Nega Cena gets inexplicably shipped off to Smackdown, then SuperStars. Tarver comes down with a case of who gives a fuck, Slater & Gabriel couldn't get momentum in any way other than as a tag team due to a lack of "little guy division"... even the added weight of Rotunda (heh), Batista 2.0, and even CM Punk after breaking up what was left seemed to be more from despiration to get momentum back. Otunga and Henning* are only together by circumstance, though they're making a decent go of things as they are.

It seemed they had a massive idea how to start this angle, but didn't expect it to take off, so they didn't really plan anything long-term. The Cena thing where he could take on a whole gang by himself was really the nail in the coffin.

I see them somewhere about "Natural Born Thrillers" area.

Almost forgot about the NBT (Mike Sanders and da boyz). I was one of the ones that marked out that fateful June evening when they were tearin' up RAW. Barrett was the perfect leader of them. Sheffield and Tarver MADE that group, IMO. The injuries and Daniel Bryan's firiing cost them any momentum that they had or would have had. The sad thing is they could've gotten it back. Cena should've stayed gone, for a little while at least, after he lost to Barrett. The NXT'ers that were elimnated should have been allowed to join, which would have garnered interest in that show. I didn't wanna see it end this way.

whiteyford

08-02-2011, 12:22 PM

Once Cena started dominating it was always gonna be hard to get that initial heat back, but injuries didn't help that either. Suprised they never did the Nexus/Corre feud though, could have been a solid program over a few months.

parkmania

08-02-2011, 01:10 PM

There was one more point after the initial "Punk takes over" heat wore off (and THAT was too quick, thank you writers and agents) that I thought that Nexus could be made fearsome again - when Punk was constantly talking about having faith, I was hoping he was talking about Awesome Kong debuting as "Faith", running roughshod over the women's division (like she sort of did - I'd have rather seen her in squash matches than post-match beatdowns), and have her be an inspiration to McG, Harris, and Ryan to "fully turn to the dark side".

Anybody Thrilla

08-02-2011, 01:24 PM

Battlekat

08-02-2011, 01:29 PM

I definitely think Sheffield's injury was pretty damaging to the angle, but I still think WWE blew it with the Nexus. After Cena got "fired" and basically beat the shit out of all of them on a weekly basis that's when the credibility took a huge hit. They had a chance to rejuvenate it with Punk, but it was just another squandered opportunity. I agree with what others said, this should have ended months ago.

Juan

08-02-2011, 03:22 PM

I think that at the end of the day, the Nexus angle did a lot for John Cena. It almost humanized him a bit and brought him down to Earth. These guys all beat his ass for weeks and some of them even got clean wins over him.

Emperor Smeat

08-02-2011, 04:09 PM

It started off great for the first month or two when it was Nexus vs WWE and the Nexus telling everyone that there was a higher power allowing them the ability to cause havoc.

Then it started to go downhill once members of the group got injured and the sudden shift away from Nexus vs WWE to Nexus vs Cena. Everyone else on the WWE was ignored except for the occasional group beating to the Nexus. The "Cena getting fired" deal could have been a huge moment but that turned into a joke after the 2nd week.

The biggest problem was the WWE panicked once the kids and parents left in the middle of the ppv where Cena got fired and then when it appeared Cena was injured during the angle. They had to keep him on tv and also be "SuperCena" to keep that large group of fans happy.

Punk's version was more ruthless but Orton just did the same thing as Cena and destroyed the group in around the same amount of time.

Jordan

08-02-2011, 04:28 PM

Well after Summerslam I was very uninterested in Nexus, I would have like a Daniel Bryan double cross... Bryan joins up with Nexus and leads aside Barrett, to eventually have a blow out at WM.

I didn't really like Punk as the leader, it just seemed to be for Punk's benefit (which he didn't really need I don't think).

Overall it's kinda forgettable except the first attack.

Lock Jaw

08-02-2011, 05:17 PM

Sheffield gonna bring it back when he comes back. :shifty:

Triple Naitch

08-02-2011, 05:47 PM

They had a lot of bad breaks, but another thing that led to their downfall was that they never wrestled. None of the supporting members competed in matches to show their dominance. The backstage attacks only worked so much to build them up. But unless they actually won big matches, they were never gonna get over as a group.

Rammsteinmad

08-02-2011, 05:52 PM

I think 'signing' them was a big mistake. It would have been more interesting if they were renegade ex-NXT rookies who kept invading WWE shows, with Barrett being the only legitimate WWE employer there (kayfabe).

Of course, the fued with Cena was great to begin with, but after a while things just got silly.

Lock Jaw

08-02-2011, 06:06 PM

Rammsteinmad

08-02-2011, 06:13 PM

Yeah, gutted nothing ever came out of that. I thought we were gonna get Barrett vs. Taker at Mania last year.

Ultra Mantis

08-02-2011, 06:29 PM

They really suffered in that they presented as rookies and booked like jobbers. Only a couple of them could talk or put on good matches, only one could do both and some could do neither. Wade was great in the role since he needed strength in numbers to instantly look like a credible main even player, for Punk it was just dead weight for him to carry.

Fantastic in parts, awful in others.

Lock Jaw

08-02-2011, 06:32 PM

At one point I really thought Barrett should have been WWE Champion. Nowadays I picture Barrett in the main events and chuckle.

Evil Vito

08-02-2011, 07:39 PM

<font color=goldenrod>I wonder if they actually had ANY plans in place for the "bigger picture" at all when they first added that bit to the storyline.</font>

Lock Jaw

08-02-2011, 08:01 PM

Long term booking had not come into existence yet. :shifty:

dhellova guy

08-02-2011, 09:15 PM

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Loose Cannon

08-02-2011, 09:51 PM

I think they will go down as a very memorable stable when you are looking back 5-10 years from now. The whole goal of the group was to basically protect and aid Barrett in his quest to become WWE Champion. You needed the other members to basically take the fall so they could protect Barrett, which worked.

Five years from now when I looking back on 2009, I won't remember anything else that happened, except the Nexus angle. I mean I'll remember the rise of a lot of young superstars, but I will particulary remember the Nexus. So just for that I think the stable was a winner

captaincharismark

08-02-2011, 11:26 PM

I was quite honestly never a big fan of the Nexus group, until CM Punk became the leader. Wade Barrett is a boring guy to lead a whole stable. If the focus of the group was to make him champion, I'm glad that never happened.

I will admit the stable had potential to be bigger than it was, but as usual, WWE screwed it up. Even though I wasn't a big supporter of the group, they should have either found a new leader or had a proper ending. Michael McGillicutty turning on David Otunga would've been better than disbanding the group for no reason.

Aaronp43

08-02-2011, 11:46 PM

Ding dong Nexus is gone worst group in wwe history

Lock Jaw

08-02-2011, 11:49 PM

Tom Guycott

08-03-2011, 01:53 AM

Juan

08-03-2011, 02:41 AM

I think these guys were pushed into the limelight too quick. Don't get me wrong, I liked the Nexus angle and they might have had some bad breaks along the way, but i'm a firm beliver that this angle was constructed to help John Cena more than the rookies.

Mr. Nerfect

08-03-2011, 07:54 AM

I think post-Survivor Series was the downfall to the angle. Everything else was pretty perfect. Actually, scrap that. I think Cena should have DESTROYED Barrett at Survivor Series. If I recall, Nexus members were banned from the match -- but Cena was the ace in the hole. You have Cena decide his integrity was more important to him and the WWE Title, so he beats the living shit out of Barrett, as the Nexus is forced to watch on backstage. Cena counts the three for Orton, and then Nexus run down to get their hands on Orton and Cena, perhaps with the two fighting them off with steel chairs or something, and Cena gets a farewell moment in front of the crowd.

On RAW, Barrett is super-pissed, but he takes his hat off to Cena. "I never thought you were actually a man to stick to your morals -- I thought I could break you, Cena." Out comes Cena to his own theme music, who tells Barrett to do his worst, because he'll have no problem finding a job. Barrett says "You don't get off that easy, Cena. If I fire you, I can't hurt you. I want you at TLC." There, the two have a match, and you actually put Barrett over as a guy with the balls to fight for himself. At this time, Otunga was talking about leading the Nexus himself. You have Orton face Otunga for the WWE Title, and have Orton retain and take out Otunga with a punt to the skull, sending him back to developmental to get more polish (it seems oxymoronic to put a guy not ready for the main roster in a WWE Title match, but with the Cena/Nexus stuff you had essentially three main events on every PPV, and the heat and interest in Otunga was there...kinda). Truthfully, I think Barrett would have needed to have come back with a win at TLC to remain powerful, with the Nexus also losing Otunga. I think Darren Young returning to the group could have been a good move, as he was essentially doing nothing worthwhile during this time.

Barrett gives Cena a chance to rejoin the Nexus, but he'd want a token of loyalty. A kiss on the boot, perhaps? Cena refuses, so Barrett fires Cena "because he can." It's Royal Rumble time, and Cena jumps into the ring during the match, and tosses out Barrett (and possibly some other Nexus members). Barrett is pissed and says he should never have lost the Rumble. He has earned his spot at the top of the roster. The General Manager chimes in and says that Barrett might have a point, but he's going to ignore it until Barrett re-instates Cena, because he was an important part of RAW and all that. If Barrett does so, both he and Cena will be in the Elimination Chamber at WrestleMania. It's agreed, and they do the shift from Barrett vs. Cena to Cena vs. Miz (with The Rock involved) when The Undertaker makes his presence known to Barrett -- which suits Wade just fine.

But I think the reason the WWE ultimately got cold feet with the Nexus was partially because of WrestleMania season. I'm sure there were once plans for Taker vs. Barrett, but they thought that Taker vs. Triple H would get more buys. Old, established names were a large focus of the PPV (like The Rock and Triple H), while younger guys (save for The Miz and Alberto Del Rio) were brushed over. And then gears never really got pumping again after Mania.