The Grand Stage 10.30.10: The Nexus Infection

The infection that is the Nexus occupies the Grand Stage this week. Upon arrival, this gang of former NXT rookies shook the WWE Universe at the roots. No one saw it coming. But immediately, the Nexus had people talking and since then the group has figured into WWE Monday Night Raw’s main event for nearly every pay-per-view since. From the promise of one exciting new WWE superstar came the bubonic black and gold. The terror of WWEPG.

I’ll try not to fantasy book. I just want to give my thoughts on the Nexus storyline. Spoilers lie ahead.

The Breakout

June 7th, 2010. The Viewers’ Choice edition of Monday Night Raw. WWE Champion John Cena battled CM Punk. And then, in the middle of the match, people climbed over the barricades and into ringsides. They looked somewhat familiar. From that reality show NXT, right? Now they looked like serious business. And when NXT season one winner Wade Barrett gave the command, they attacked everyone in sight: Cena, Punk, Luke Gallows, Justin Roberts, Matt Striker, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole!? And they didn’t just beat the holy hell out of everyone, they tore apart the ring, they knocked over soundguys, about the only thing they left around were the cameras to witness the carnage. This was a statement, and it got people’s attention.

Eight people strong, they walked alone. Once merely rookies barely on the WWE radar, they were now the center of the WWE’s attention. The virus eating away at its core. The WWE had created something insidious and now it was biting the hand that had fed it.

Numbers made the Nexus so threatening. A group of eight was more than the WWE had seen in years. After the initial attack on Raw, Daniel Bryan quit the Nexus in remorse over his actions. Yet even reduced, the group maintained a strong advantage in manpower. Other than their leader Wade Barrett, who was a standout in NXT so it’s no coincidence he won it, the group had three notables in its initial line-up:

• Daniel Bryan, an indy star turned WWE aspirant. Bryan lost often during NXT season one, but was a hard fighter in all cases. I covered this in my first article, but suffice it to say, he started to look like he couldn’t get the job done. He eventually got a roll-up win, went on to battle the Miz, and is now the WWE United States Champion. Still, Bryan could have been a huge asset to the Nexus between the ropes and a Nexus Bryan had interesting possibilities.

• Justin Gabriel, an import from South Africa with a devastating aerial finish, the 450 Splash. One of the front-runners in NXT season one, but I personally never saw him winning it. Nexus has been good for him. I think he has one of the most over finishers in WWE and using it to cap off Nexus beatings has just added to the twisted grandeur of the group. Of the initial four, Gabriel and Barrett are the only two left remaining, and Gabriel has benefited tremendously from the opportunities he’s gotten as Barrett’s right hand.

• Skip Sheffield, a big Texan who used to have a goofy catchphrase and a naive personality before he got pissed off. A lot of people weren’t entertained by his NXT gimmick, but I was, especially the pairing of him and Regal. During NXT I thought Sheffield was good, and as part of Nexus he proved himself in a big way. He was believable and threatening as the Nexus enforcer. The loss of Sheffield to injury hurt the group more than Bryan’s loss because Sheffield was really a vital part of the group when he left. Not sure what Sheffield does when he gets back.

David Otunga, Heath Slater, Darren Young, and Michael Tarver were only there because they provided numbers and it made sense in the story to have them around. Sure, once in a while you could give Otunga or Tarver a microphone and they would be alright. But, as their later development of proved, none of those four were worthy of a particularly large role in Nexus. After Bryan and Sheffield left, no one member of Nexus stepped in to take a spot for themselves. For instance, NXT season one had done everything possible to make David Otunga a big name only for him to remain a bit player. But nevertheless, the advantage in unified numbers that the Nexus had was and is their primary advantage, and they exploit it ceaselessly.

A Spreading Disease

The Nexus seemed to be easily defeated by General Manager Bret Hart when he fired Wade Barrett on the next week’s edition of Monday Night Raw. The Nexus responded in the only reasonable way they could. They shoved Bret Hart into a limousine and crashed it into other cars. I assume the limousine was David Otunga’s contribution to the group. They continued their reign of terror at Fatal-4-Way when they interfered in John Cena’s WWE Championship defense allowing the hated Celtic Warrior Sheamus to seize the championship. The WWE Universe’s very own Superman had been defeated and it was all because of this Nexus. Something had to be done.

Someone had to take action.

Enter a strangely concilliatory anonymous General Manager appointed by Vince McMahon. After weeks of Nexus attacks on the Raw roster and WWE Legends, the mystery GM played Neville Chamberlain and gave these scoundrels genuine WWE contracts. Why? Nobody knows. We can’t talk to whoever it is. The anonymous GM can only e-mail Michael Cole. Why the GM chose that form of communication? Nobody knows. Whatever the case, the Nexus took this as license to wreak further havoc, even going so far as to try to get involved in the WWE Championship steel cage match between John Cena and champion Sheamus. They were routed that day by Cena, but as they continued to prove, the Nexus always comes back.

Soon enough, John Cena began an effort to unify the Raw locker room so they could take on the Nexus at SummerSlam in a seven-on-seven elimination match. His motley crew eventually included the former Raw GM and WWE Legend Bret “The Hitman” Hart, “The Ultimate Opportunist” Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth, and an unknown seventh partner. for a long while, they teased the Miz joining the team, but on the night of SummerSlam it was revealed to be a returning Daniel Bryan. Nevertheless, this was a team of wrestlers who did not all get along, and when wrestlers don’t get along, they tend tend to cost you matches. This was not a match Cena could afford to lose.

The Nexus were running roughshod over Monday Night Raw. They had a single, undisputed, nebulous and never explicitly stated purpose. The important thing was that they were very united and driven to victory. They were on the cusp of their goal. If they defeated Cena’s team at SummerSlam, they would be in an extremely powerful position on Raw. They would have beaten the seven best that Raw could assemble (outside of Randy Orton and Sheamus, who were competing over the WWE Championship). They could lay claim to legitimately being unstoppable, perhaps demand a championship match immediately, maybe even unveil the anonymous GM. The only direction left was up.

But the Universe triumphed. When the stakes were high, John Cena carried his team through personal conflict and the plague of the Nexus to victory. John Cena stood tall. John Cena never gave up, John Cena overcame the odds. Yes, this time it had gotten so bad that even John “Hercules” Cena needed help. But somehow, some way, John Cena had done it and he did it for the WWE Universe.

This was the Nexus’s hottest moment and they blew it. But as I said before… the Nexus always comes back.

A Chronic Fever

The next night, Wade Barrett tried to save face by pitting every member of Nexus in a match. If they lost, they were out of the group. This was how Darren Young got weeded out of the group. This was an ineffective move overall. Nexus mostly barely got by with fluke wins, so they didn’t look particularly strong in the first place. Losing Darren Young also just decreases a number from their group, weakening them further. Having a powerful goon squad is all about having lots of goons. Three goons is worse than four. Always. Couple that with Skip Sheffield shortly afterward breaking his ankle and the Nexus came out of the SummerSlam season in ragged shape.

After perhaps its biggest opportunity, the Nexus was at its weakest point. They needed to find some way to rebound. At five, the group was formidable but nowhere near the powerhouse stage of its early days. Barrett used his guaranteed WWE Championship match which the anonymous GM twisted into a Six-Pack Challenge, pitting him against John Cena, Sheamus, Chris Jericho, Edge, and the Viper Randy Orton. Though the Nexus interfered as expected, Barrett could not claim the WWE Championship. Orton seized the day, and the title, from Sheamus. Wade Barrett was left in the dust.

But were the Nexus finished? No. The Nexus always came back.

Unless, of course, one man simply wiped the infection away. The man who proposed this bold solution? John Cena.

Barrett proposed that he and Cena square off at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. Their match wouldn’t be in a cell, but it would have quite the interesting wager. If Wade Barrett won, John Cena would be forced to join Nexus. However, Cena made sure that he had a stipulation of his own: if Wade Barrett lost, the Nexus would be disbanded completely and forever. On top of that, the Nexus would be banned from ringside. Yet to the surprise of Nexus and the Universe, Wade Barrett accepted the match.

Let’s stop here for a second. This seems like the ending to a Cena story, doesn’t it? In a one-on-one match with everything on the line, Cena will hustle, loyalty, and respect his way to victory. He has to. That’s what he does. Yet somehow, the Nexus bucked the odds. Perhaps its because they knew that if they lost this, they could never come back, and the Nexus ALWAYS comes back. So with a little mercenary help, Wade Barrett managed to pin John Cena at Hell in a Cell and the Universe lost their hero to the dark side.

But… who cares? Randy Orton and Sheamus have launched into a full-on feud over the WWE Championship. Daniel Bryan has defeated the Miz and become WWE United States champion without a peep from the his former black-and-gold buddies. The Miz occupied himself afterward by assembling his fractious Raw team for Bragging Rights. Goldust stalked Ted DiBiase, CM Punk returned to Raw, and the Nexus has been relegated to John Cena’s Problem. Nobody likes the Nexus, but at the same time, they don’t really care. They just want the mess to be cleaned up tidily and hopefully in a way that none of them have to get involved. And now that John Cena has become part of the Nexus, which valiant member of the Monday Night Raw locker room will step up to spearhead the charge against the Nexus?

John Cena, of course. Still John Cena. Never give up.

SummerSlam was the turning point for the Nexus. They were on track to be Monday Night Raw’s driving storyline for at least a few months. Now they are an act on Raw. Losing at SummerSlam established that the WWE is greater than the Nexus and the WWE can crush the Nexus whenever it wants. The Nexus have been defanged. They might be a threat to a superstar or some superstars, but no longer are they a threat to everything and everyone like they were on their debut. While the Nexus can and probably will go to great places, that loss at SummerSlam derailed an incredible amount of momentum.

The Nexus may not have all of the WWE’s attention anymore, but they have John Cena, and even John Cena under duress is a powerful asset. Of course, Cena tried to exploit a loophole by simply fighting the Nexus even though nominally a member, but the anonymous GM closed this loophole after he’d injured Michael Tarver (another goon sacrificed!). Wade Barrett has proved himself an adroit and malicious mind in his use of the control over Cena that’s been granted to him. He’s had Cena help him win the number one contendership to the WWE Championship, but Cena proved he still hasn’t given up when he forced a DQ in Barrett’s championship match against Randy Orton at Bragging Rights. And now at Survivor Series, John Cena will be the special referee in a rematch between Barrett and Orton. If Barrett does not win the title, Cena will be fired. If Barrett does win, Cena will be free of the Nexus. Cena’s course seems to be set, and at least to me, the Nexus seems to be on its way to a few more pay-per-views with Wade Barrett leading the way.

Our Great Leader

One of the greatest reasons for Nexus’s continued success, despite losing a lot of steam and members along the way, is Wade Barrett. Barrett has risen from being Chris Jericho’s protege to the winner of NXT season one and leader of the group that stopped the WWE Universe’s heart. Barrett, the team’s sinister final boss, the only one who really understands the vague purpose that the Nexus is on about. He easily overshadows his associates and with good reason. He’s convinced them that he knows the way to go and they all look to him for guidance. He’s grown comfortable in the position.

Barrett is an incredibly entertaining villain. Serious, manipulative, and British. His humor is always at someone’s expense, and the people laughing with him always seem to do it out of fear of what will happen if they don’t. It’s difficult to imagine him without a group like the Nexus as he excels at ordering cronies around and getting them to do his dirty work. He’s convincing as the bad guy and just makes you hate him. Usually in the WWE you’ll get devious like Edge or Triple H. Like threading a needle with a hammer. Wade Barrett always seems to have a trick up his sleeve and he usually does.

Even if Daniel Bryan and Skip Sheffield were both still with the group and on top of that the Nexus gained the excellent prospects Michael McGillicutty and Husky Harris, the Nexus would still be “Wade Barrett and his cronies.” As it should be. The Nexus is not a stable like the Four Horsemen or D-Generation X where every member really has their own distinct thing. The Nexus is a gang. They exist because Wade Barrett doesn’t have that many fists to punch you with. And out of everyone in NXT Season One, this was the guy to build this gang around.

Closing Thoughts

I enjoy the Nexus. Though its elements are mostly sub-par, Wade Barrett is a hell of a character and together the Nexus is excellent as his back-up. I believe after they’re ultimately defeated the group will sink outside of Barrett and Gabriel, though now that they’ve added two new members the percentage of swimmers will rise as well. Despite setbacks, the Nexus is headed to big things. I don’t see how Randy Orton is walking out of Survivor Series with the WWE Championship, and though the WWE likes to screw with our thinking, this should be a lock and Barrett losing under such odds would be embarrassing for him and the group.

Most of all, though, I can only think about one thing. The Nexus loss at SummerSlam seriously hurt them and put them out of reach of truly being the Great Peril of the WWE. The Nexus are interesting and I think Barrett will be a good champ for however long until Cena takes it, but at SummerSlam they were HOT. They were on a roll. They were looking unbeatable. They were going to take over the WWE. By stopping the Nexus at the gates of paradise, the WWE turned the Nexus into a mere nuisance. Recently R-Truth advised Cena to quit the WWE rather than continue working for the Nexus. R-Truth didn’t step up to the plate of leading the fight against the Nexus. No one said they were ready to take on the burden of driving them off, from the outside or from within. But it doesn’t matter, you see. The Nexus are yesterday’s news. Not our problem.

Yes, the Nexus is part of a main event angle, but the Nexus is also a shadow of what it was when it debuted on the Viewers’ Choice Raw. It has lost goons, talent, and that initial crazy momentum. It has gained two new members, John Cena, the WWE Tag Team Championship, and almost undoubtedly the WWE Championship in a few weeks. It is no longer the word every superstar whispers under his breath when lacing up his boots, but it is still a present danger.