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The Nexus
Jul 17, 2022 10:55:08 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2022 10:55:08 GMT -5
In my opinion it was doomed from the moment Bryan got released for the tie thing. You had this super unified group of “rookies” who were annoyed they were treated like jokes. How could the always at odds WWE roster unify to stop them? Then Bryan got cut so your main workhorse is gone, then post Summerslam they got rid of Young (kicked) and Sheffield (injury). Even if they lost they should have stuck together and at least kept the numbers. That’s what always bugged me about the storyline.
In another world where Bryan stuck around, I see him playing Starscream to Barrett’s Megatron. I think WWE may have put more trust in it if that happens.
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Post by Jindrak Mark on Jul 17, 2022 11:04:55 GMT -5
Watching on a week to week basis it was mostly torture after the first month or so but in the end they somehow got half a year out of it. It seems like people only remember the big moments now like the initial beatdowns and Summerslam but most weeks were boring as hell. Raw was being main evented by people who should have been lower carders, arguably even still in developmental. Which you could forgive if they were over but most of the members had about as much heat as Von Wagner. Even Barrett was only over when he faced Cena. The crowd died a death for his matches with Orton/Jericho/Edge. Like, this wasn’t the NWO, full of highly charismatic guys who were so cool people started cheering them and were quite happy seeing them dominate. The Nexus was largely filled with enhancement level talent the crowd didn’t care about. You’ve got to look at it from the POV of the people in attendance. Us smarks would have been quite happy with this rookie heel group beating up Cena and Orton for months on end but to kids they saw these unknown guys debut and beat the hell out of everyone, face and heel, then they cost Cena the title at the June PPV, then they screwed him over again at MITB. By Summerslam it had been 2 months straight of the babyfaces being outsmarted and beaten down. Listen to the pop when Team WWE wins at the end. Them giving the good guys some hope before the heels come back stronger was fine. It’s complete revisionist history to say that they were killed at Summerslam. Barrett/Cena at Hell in a Cell was 2 months later and the crowd was hotter than ever for that. The problem was the same though. Barrett was the only guy you could semi-realistically put in a PPV main event and he only worked well with Cena. So either you run the same match every month or you have Barrett’s heat die down by working boring matches with others and exposing that he’s not ready. However, They were still treated as threats afterwards and as I point out every time it's brought up, Wade still hadn't gotten his World Title Shots yet. Which is where it fell apart, at that point it seemed Wade could have great matches with John Cena... and ONLY John Cena. His matches with Randy Orton for the title were abysmal... the two just didn't click for some reason then (Part of it could easily have just been Randy not wanting to put the effort in which is the story of about 90% of his career). Those Orton/Barrett matches still haunt me. There’s been a lot of bad PPV main events over the years but gun to my head I would say those are the most boring. It didn’t help that on those same shows (Bragging Rights, Survivor Series), Smackdown also had terrible title matches (Kane v Taker/Edge) so the entire main event scene at the time was dreadful. Edge was stale as hell. Taker’s age was really starting to show. Cena wasn’t booked to wrestle on either PPV. Punk was injured. HHH was off TV. Not to mention in a year or so they had lost Batista/Michaels/Hardy. I’ve always wondered if the original plan was to take Cena/Barrett to Wrestlemania in place of Miz but those BR/SS main events convinced them he wasn’t ready for a Wrestlemania main event and to blow it off at TLC. If it did go to Wrestlemania though we probably wouldn't have gotten the proper conclusion. On paper if you drag it out those extra months Barrett has to win the title, Cena wins the Rumble and finally regains his freedom and beats Barrett at Wrestlemania. Once Rock is around though it becomes all about him and Barrett probably gets overshadowed just as much as Miz did and the payoff isn't as satisfying as it should be.
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Post by kingoftheindies on Jul 17, 2022 13:29:15 GMT -5
The Summerslam stuff didn't bug me that much (though again, I've long said Cena matches much like Reigns matches were hurt more by abrupt finishes which I put on WWE). The group actually did regain a lot of heat after that... especially Wade Barrett. Could Wade have won the title from Orton? Sure, just based on his heat (which again, dude was over as a heel). The only thing with Cena that really bugged me is how they handled things after he got "fired", felt like they rushed through too much.
Of course the other issue the Nexus ran into was that that WWE wanted Otunga as the Starscream of the group and... he just wasn't good in that role.
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Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Jul 17, 2022 15:17:06 GMT -5
Yeah, the Summerslam match wasn't the end all be all and has mostly been framed that way since Jericho brought it up a few years back. They were still making major moves but the major factor was Wade wasn't getting over as much as he should have (tho he had a ton of heat). WWE basically gave them everything they could have but Wade was still green for that spot and Orton was mega over so it shouldn't have been hard. Even a one month reign where Cena cost Wade the title would been better
Their f** up was rushing the ending. Once it looked like Wade was faltering, they rushed through the stuff with him and Cena. I don't think the Otunga/Wade dynamic worked as well as they wanted to either since Otunga was more green than Wade. They didn't have to rush the Cena in Nexus storyline but they pushed the panic button and said f** it
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Post by Cvslfc123 on Jul 17, 2022 15:48:15 GMT -5
I think the only positive thing I would say is it appeared WWE learned from their mistakes when it came to The Shield 2 years later but I'm probably giving them too much credit.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Jul 17, 2022 16:03:29 GMT -5
I think the only positive thing I would say is it appeared WWE learned from their mistakes when it came to The Shield 2 years later but I'm probably giving them too much credit. Honestly, I do think they booked the Shield with the Nexus in mind. Keeping it down to three, barring Triple H and Angle filling in once or twice later on. Big wins over big names. Being very selective with who finally got wins over them. Having a cohesive image for the group that was more elaborate than matching t-shirts. It feels very calculated, and I think that was done with Nexus and some other groups in mind.
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Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Jul 17, 2022 16:14:26 GMT -5
I think the only positive thing I would say is it appeared WWE learned from their mistakes when it came to The Shield 2 years later but I'm probably giving them too much credit. Honestly, I do think they booked the Shield with the Nexus in mind. Keeping it down to three, barring Triple H and Angle filling in once or twice later on. Big wins over big names. Being very selective with who finally got wins over them. Having a cohesive image for the group that was more elaborate than matching t-shirts. It feels very calculated, and I think that was done with Nexus and some other groups in mind. Well, it is not from lack of trying tho More like Mox, Roman and Seth stood together as one and demanded and didn't budge on what they wanted. They were supposed to be fodder for Ryback and said f** that. Same thing when it came to losing to Cena or anyone. They fought hard for their image in the beginning and WWE realized oh shit we really do got something and followed suit
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Rave
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The Nexus
Jul 17, 2022 16:55:15 GMT -5
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Post by Rave on Jul 17, 2022 16:55:15 GMT -5
I knew WWE would f*** it up when they had Bret bury them on the mic the week after that awesome debut.
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Post by Susan "Poison" Candy on Jul 17, 2022 17:15:28 GMT -5
They also didn't do any favors showing a Promo for whichever WWE game was coming out at the time and showed in ring game footage of ACTUAL Playable Character: Randy Orton and a VERY SHITTY LOOKING CAW for Wade Barrett
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Chiral
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Post by Chiral on Jul 17, 2022 17:19:46 GMT -5
They also didn't do any favors showing a Promo for whichever WWE game was coming out at the time and showed in ring game footage of ACTUAL Playable Character: Randy Orton and a VERY SHITTY LOOKING CAW for Wade Barrett
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Post by kingoftheindies on Jul 17, 2022 19:12:11 GMT -5
Yeah, the Summerslam match wasn't the end all be all and has mostly been framed that way since Jericho brought it up a few years back. They were still making major moves but the major factor was Wade wasn't getting over as much as he should have (tho he had a ton of heat). WWE basically gave them everything they could have but Wade was still green for that spot and Orton was mega over so it shouldn't have been hard. Even a one month reign where Cena cost Wade the title would been better Their f** up was rushing the ending. Once it looked like Wade was faltering, they rushed through the stuff with him and Cena. I don't think the Otunga/Wade dynamic worked as well as they wanted to either since Otunga was more green than Wade. They didn't have to rush the Cena in Nexus storyline but they pushed the panic button and said f** it I think it's easy to forget but WWE tried for quite some time to push Otunga as this big time guy because he was Jennifer Hudson's boyfriend. Like for as green as Barrett was, he could talk and that hid a lot of issues (but as you said, he was NOT good in the ring at that point). Otunga had the look but he couldn't talk either (or at least not as well as they hoped) Really brings up this point as well, after Bryan got fired, the only two people who were really ready in ring for the main roster were Slater and Gabriel and neither were allowed to show any personality at that time.
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Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Jul 17, 2022 20:44:55 GMT -5
Yeah, the Summerslam match wasn't the end all be all and has mostly been framed that way since Jericho brought it up a few years back. They were still making major moves but the major factor was Wade wasn't getting over as much as he should have (tho he had a ton of heat). WWE basically gave them everything they could have but Wade was still green for that spot and Orton was mega over so it shouldn't have been hard. Even a one month reign where Cena cost Wade the title would been better Their f** up was rushing the ending. Once it looked like Wade was faltering, they rushed through the stuff with him and Cena. I don't think the Otunga/Wade dynamic worked as well as they wanted to either since Otunga was more green than Wade. They didn't have to rush the Cena in Nexus storyline but they pushed the panic button and said f** it I think it's easy to forget but WWE tried for quite some time to push Otunga as this big time guy because he was Jennifer Hudson's boyfriend. Like for as green as Barrett was, he could talk and that hid a lot of issues (but as you said, he was NOT good in the ring at that point). Otunga had the look but he couldn't talk either (or at least not as well as they hoped) Really brings up this point as well, after Bryan got fired, the only two people who were really ready in ring for the main roster were Slater and Gabriel and neither were allowed to show any personality at that time. Slater/Gabriel worked really as a team and one of the better parts that don't get talked about enough In theory, Bryan/Wade would probably been the better power dynamic tho I think regardless we were going to get babyface DB out of the whole thing so wouldn't had got a heel version of him as champ. WWE just rushed it when they didn't have to. Like could easily had Cena be there to teach Wade if they allowed that storyline to stick longer. Lack of patience def doomed it
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Venti
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The Nexus
Jul 17, 2022 21:05:40 GMT -5
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Post by Venti on Jul 17, 2022 21:05:40 GMT -5
The debut was intriguing but it got old to me quick, and they weren't very interesting to me outside of Barrett and Bryan(who ended up gone after the first appearance anyway). I feel like I'm in the minority of fans who really didn't care that they lost at Summerslam.
As far as stables go, CM Punk's SES from months prior to the Nexus was way more interesting and engaging television to me than the Nexus was. They had a storyline purpose rather than "we beat people up because we're bad guys. Also something something bigger picture."
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Post by Hit Girl on Jul 18, 2022 0:40:14 GMT -5
Their debut and initial attacks were incredible.
Then they were fed to Cena and that was the end of a promising faction.
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The Nexus
Jul 18, 2022 1:27:59 GMT -5
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Post by Andee9001 on Jul 18, 2022 1:27:59 GMT -5
I feel the idea of The Nexus was better than what we got. Ideally you want a group like that to create stars out of the team. Who became stars? Barrett had a good run was a midcarder, Slater, Gabriel, Otunga and Young were all midcarders of varrying success but didn't set the world on fire. Skip Sheffield had better success outside the group and Tarver never got a chance. Daniel Bryan became a bigger star by NOT being in the group.
Collectively it worked as a group as an idea but it failed to make stars out of them regardless of who else were added to it. By the end of Nexus, New Nexus and The Corre none of them were really any better off.
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