WWE has spent years of putting great storylines together, the Attitude Era was a hell of an era, because of how outlandish the storylines, and characters were. Guys like Steve Austin, The Rock, Undertaker, Kane etc. all carried that era on there backs because people cared about what they were doing. Later when the Monday Night War ended, and WWE purchased their competition (WCW) the show became more about the wrestling and less about the storylines, and that’s the biggest problem, there’s no happy medium, and I will continue to say that until it consistently happens. This past decade was no different, there was things that worked, things that definitely didn’t, and somethings that were working, and they ended badly.
So this will be a series of articles because of the expected length of each entry, this idea came to me because of how easy it was to put together, which says a lot about storylines that have happened this past decade, all of these in my opinion were times WWE had something good going, only to ultimately ruin it. So let’s get it going and start off with the first year of this past decade, 2010.
2010 – The Nexus
So this is pretty obvious, WWE had lightning in a bottle here, when NXT was a competition based show to give a “developmental” talent or as they were called “rookies”, a “Pro” to work under, and the winner would receive a main roster spot and a title opportunity, when Wade Barrett ultimately won the competition, we were unsure what was next for him. Then on June 7th, 2010, during the scheduled main event of CM Punk versus John Cena, every member of that season of the NXT competition would appear and destroy everything in site. Lead by Wade Barrett, Daniel Bryan, Skip Sheffield, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Michael Tarver and Darren Young would attack everyone, destruct the ring in the havoc, and Daniel Bryan would even be fired for a short time due to his actions during the chaos.
They would go on to be called The Nexus and the remaining seven members minus Daniel Bryan would become a dominate force in the business for a few months, that was until Summerslam of that year. The main event of Summerslam of 2010 would see the team of John Cena, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth, Bret Hart and a returning Daniel Bryan face The Nexus in a 7-on-7 elimination tag team match. In storyline they would explain that Daniel Bryan didn’t agree with the actions of the Nexus during there debut brawl and he walked out, despite the fact he was fired for his own actions during said brawl.
This match would result in John Cena once again “overcoming the odds” like he was known to do during this period and years prior. This result killed all the momentum that The Nexus had, because how can a group of seven guys be seen as a threat if one guy was able to ultimately beat them? In the next few weeks, Darren Young would be exiled from the group for being the only member to lose a singles match on an episode of RAW, and Skip Sheffield would injure his ankle, and be out for a very long time before he eventually returned as Ryback. Then in September, Wade Barrett would use his guaranteed title opportunity in a six-pack challenge at that months pay-per-view, Night of Champions that he would lose. Another wasted opportunity to help this group flourish in my opinion and establish Wade Barrett as a heavy hitter.
The following month, Wade Barrett would face John Cena in a match with the stipulation that if John Cena won The Nexus would disband, but if Barrett won Cena would have to join The Nexus. Barrett would win this match, thanks to interference by Michael McGillicutty and Husky Harris who would also join The Nexus. Whenever WWE does an angle like this where a top babyface is forced to team with a rival, it always results in that babyface coming out on top in the end, when the people who need the wins and the recognition is the young talent. Cena would be used as a pawn to do Wade Barrett’s bidding for the next few weeks, and Cena would even win the the WWE Tag Team Championship with Nexus member David Otunga. Following this Barrett would receive a WWE Championship match against champion, Randy Orton, the stipulation being that Barrett was given the choice to appoint a referee so he picked John Cena. Barrett decided that if he didn’t win the title that night, Cena would be fired. Barrett would win by disqualification and Cena would be “fired” but would appear on RAW ever week after and attack members of The Nexus, further hurting the storyline, by not adhering to the stipulation at all.
So in December, Cena would “get his job back” after he continued to threaten to attack The Nexus and the other members wanted this to stop, so Barrett and Cena had one final match at the TLC pay-per-view, the other members of The Nexus told Wade Barrett if he didn’t win, they would exile him from the group and that’s exactly what happened, further destroying this angle and this group forever. WWE ruined this without even trying just because Cena had to win when people like Chris Jericho, and Edge had told John Cena that his team winning at Summerslam that year was a big mistake, Cena would later admit in later years he made a mistake insisting he win that match. The New Nexus would form with a new leader CM Punk, and Wade Barrett’s WWE career never again reached the heights it could have and should have.
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