The Nexus, later known as The New Nexus, was a villainous professional wrestling stable in WWE that competed on the Raw brand from June 7, 2010, to August 22, 2011, originally consisting of eight rookies who had performed on the first season of WWE NXT. The original group leader was Wade Barrett, while CM Punk was its second and final leader. The rest of the group's roster shifted several times throughout its 14-month existence, with David Otunga the only member to serve in the group from beginning to end.
The NXT graduates set out to antagonize the Raw roster, initially focusing on then WWE Champion John Cena, who forcibly became a member of The Nexus after losing a match at Hell in a Cell thanks to outside interference. Cena was eventually removed from the group at Survivor Series after Barrett lost his WWE Championship match to Randy Orton. Barrett was replaced as leader by Punk, at which point the stable was renamed The New Nexus in an attempt to distance itself from its past, becoming a tight-knit group dedicated to one another through faith. Members of the group won the WWE Tag Team Championship three times, while Punk won the WWE Championship in his final match with the stable at Money in the Bank.
Contents
Concept
On the February 2, 2010, edition of WWE ECW, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon announced that NXT would replace ECW on Syfy when the latter ended its run on February 16, describing NXT as "the next evolution of WWE television history". The concept of the stable was derived from each original member of them being a contestant on the first season of the NXT program, which composed at the time of the talent from Florida Championship Wrestling, the then WWE's developmental territory. The series ran them through a competition to become WWE's next breakout star with the help of mentors from the WWE brands of Raw and SmackDown. On the June 1, 2010, edition of NXT, Barrett was declared the winner over Otunga and as a result was awarded a WWE contract and a championship match at a WWE pay-per-view of his choosing (he ultimately chose Night of Champions), while the others were left without a job.
History
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
The group made its debut during the main event of the June 7, 2010, "Viewer's Choice" edition of WWE Raw, attacking John Cena, CM Punk, Luke Gallows, Jerry Lawler, Matt Striker, Justin Roberts, and other WWE personnel around the ring before ultimately destroying everything at ringside, including the ring itself and barricades, forcing the match to end in a no contest. During the attack, which ended with Cena being taken out on a stretcher, Daniel Bryan strangled Roberts with his necktie and in a sign of disrespect spit in Cena's face, the former of which led him to be released from his contract on June 11 as WWE reportedly felt those acts were too violent for the company's TV-PG programming and would have caused issues with sponsors. His absence was explained by Barrett on the June 14 edition of Raw as having felt remorse for his actions and thus kicked him out of the group.
The Nexus was established as the main heel stable on Raw, attacking several wrestlers and legends over the next several weeks, including Raw General Manager Bret Hart and Vince McMahon and fellow WWE Hall of Fame members Ricky Steamboat and Dusty Rhodes. After Hart's attack, McMahon removed him as Raw General Manager and appointed the Anonymous Raw General Manager. The general manager chose to remain anonymous for fear of being attacked like Hart was, communicating only through e-mails quoted by Michael Cole.
During the summer, The Nexus had a feud with Cena. First, on the July 12 edition of Raw, Cena was defeated in a 6-on-1 handicap match by The Nexus. On July 18 at Money in the Bank, The Nexus attempted to get involved in the WWE Championship match involving Sheamus and Cena in a steel cage; Sheamus and Cena were able to hold them off and escape, with Sheamus winning the match and retaining the WWE Championship. Their following match would take place at SummerSlam on August 15, where The Nexus faced the team of Cena, Hart, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth, and the returning Bryan, losing after Cena submitted Barrett with the STF. According to Edge and Jericho, the original plan was to put Barrett over and establish them as legitimate threats to WWE, with Edge and Jericho being the last members of Team WWE to be eliminated by Barrett; Cena reportedly refused to lose to The Nexus and had the finish changed around the time of the event. Young and Heath Slater later stated that they agreed with Edge and Jericho, adding that The Nexus' loss at SummerSlam permanently crippled whatever momentum the stable had following the invasion.
Independent circuit and cancelled WWE return
In April 2018, The Nexus reunited on Chikara for the King of Trios tournament as The Nexus Alliance, being represented by Tyrone Evans (Tarver), Fred Rosser (Young), and Black (Gabriel).
In July 2020, Young stated that The Nexus were originally booked to return at WrestleMania 36. A year later, a documentary about The Nexus was cancelled with Young theorizing it was due to Bryan leaving WWE.
Reception and legacy
Reflecting on the group, Wade Barrett discussed the group in the interview with Even Stronger podcast in September 2023. Barrett went on to state that in his own words:
"I think there was probably an era from about 2002 until about [20]09–2010 where I think the show got stale because it was the same seven or eight top guys at the time who had been running the show for the duration of that. So I think the company was starting to realise, 'Look, some of these guys that we've had holding this down for years now, they're starting to get aged out. We really, really need fresh stars because the next 10 years are not looking good unless we start building them now.' So I was kind of lucky that I was along that wave. Sheamus is another one who separately came up around that time, Drew McIntyre. We all got hired on the same day. We're pretty close. So I contrast and compare myself with those two regularly but we got caught up in this wave of 'Look we need new talent. We need new guys. We need fresh stars.' So I was fortunate that my rise through the developmental ranks came at that time, which meant the company was actively looking for new stars."
As observed by Barrett, the success of The Nexus helped show the WWE its way to debut a dominant young group and would eventually pave way for a bigger successful faction, The Shield, which consisted of Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose.
Members
Championships and accomplishments
The Baltimore Sun
Feud of the Year (2010) vs. John Cena
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Feud of the Year (2010) vs. WWE
Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (2010)
Rookie of the Year (2010) – David Otunga
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
WWE Championship (1 time) – CM Punk
WWE Tag Team Championship (3 times) – John Cena and David Otunga (1), Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel (1), David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty (1)
Slammy Award (1 time)
Shocker of the Year (2010) The debut of The Nexus
Media
WWE: Wrestling's Greatest Factions (May 27, 2014, DVD)