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Nexus Redux

The disappointments post, along with the Barrett/Gabriel match the other night got me thinking...
What if Nexus reformed, say, next week on RAW?  Cena or Sheamus (or anybody really) would be cutting some standard promo about their current feud and all of a sudden, Barrett, Otunga, Slater, Gabriel, Young, Ryback and Daniel Bryan all come out, in their current gimmicks more or less, and just wreck shop.  Is this feasible?  If you were booking, what are the pros and cons of doing it?  If so, when would be the right time to pull the trigger?

Holy god, are we really to the point where we're nostalgic for the NEXUS?  Is this what the state of pro wrestling has done to you poor people?  It was a nothing gimmick and was never explained in the first place, we really don't need to revisit it again past the Corre and New Nexus and Punk Nexus and all the other tries at reviving the original idea.  Let it die, we need original ideas, not recycling 2010 ones.  

Comments

  1. I miss the glory days of tag team wrestling, like Show-Miz, Truth/Morrison, Hart Dynasty, and Carlito/Primo.

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  2. I pretty much said this in the "Smackdown" thread, but I wouldn't be opposed to a loose alliance between some of the guys (Barrett, Gabriel, Slater, Young w/ O'Neil), but there is NO point in ruining the good things that they have in Bryan, Ryback, and Otunga.

    I was a huge mark for the group, and REALLY would have loved to have seen them pushed as a serious group, but, realistically, they were a bunch of goobers that were hot for all of six days. May as well revive the "Dungeon of Doom".

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  3. I think the point is that a new heel stable could be a good idea but come up with a new name for them.  Having said that if WWE ever signs Flair I think they should finally try a Horseman stable in WWE.  That's the only recycled idea I want though.

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  4. We've got Kane/Bryan now.  Let's just hope they continue to rebuild the division slowly but surely.

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  5. I think the fact people have fond memories for the original Nexus gimmick is a good thing for a few years down the line. Face it, Slater, Gabriel and Otunga aren't going anywhere good, and I'm sure Young/Ryback/Barrett will see their pushes dwindle sooner rather than later.

    If a bunch of them are still struggling in a year or two, bringing the group back with the 'star power' that Bryan provides would provide a few months of fresh storylines.

    Incidentally, Barrett sent out a good few tweets this week, basically saying the Nexus was a fun time, but The Corre was the worst thing he'd ever been involved in, in 11 years of wrestling.

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  6. Mentioned this already but if WWE insists on reforming the Nexus I'd rather them use mostly new talent from NXT.

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  7. You forgot Slater/Gabriel.

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  8. http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/news/255911/WWE-Considering-Bringing-the-Nexus-Back?.htm

    It's not like it's not being considered.

    What I don't get is why they're afraid to let Barrett be his own man.  His in ring work is fine, he has a good look and he can talk.  Why can't he be on his own?

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  9. The Nexus was awful. Let it die.

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  10. New Nexus and Punk Nexus were the same thing. And it had a very clear explanation; they all wanted WWE contracts and they were going to get it by force. It wasn't Lost.

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  11. Sure, but what was all the stuff about working for their greater purpose and the whole Undertaker deal all about?  After losing the initial Summerslam blowoff they just lost all direction.

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  12.  I've preached this forever and my first nominee, in the Flair role, has to be Ziggler.  They need to stop treating him like a JTTS at some point though.

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  13.  I'm pretty sure by the time we got to New Nexus/Punk Nexus and the Corre, they all had "contracts".  Is there anything WWE you won't defend?  Oh yeah, Sheamus. ;-)

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  14. You can't spell Nexus without sux.

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  15. They lost all direction the moment they fired Daniel Bryan.  The angle might have progressed very differently if he were around...

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  16. Wouldn't mind an angle where Slater goes around trying to get the band back together as he realises that Nexus was the high point of his career (tangent: Slater has become a fantastic job guy. His sell of the Clothesline From Hell on Raw 1000 was a thing of beauty).

    There's some comedy gold to be had in slater approaching Ryback, Barrett & Bryan to try and reform nexus only to get rebuffed.

    But as a serious group? No thanks. Bryan has grown way beyond it, Young & Ryback have their own things going on which are good fits for the both of them. Plus the last thing Barrett needs is to be saddled with another group that fizzles out. I've said countless times that Barrett reminds me of HHH in 98, a main event in making. He needs to start becoming HHH in 99/2000 and a lone wolf / cerebral assassin is the way to go, not as leader of a job squad

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  17. Didn't defend anything. There was misinformation and I corrected it. Sure, by the time they got to New Nexus they all had "contracts" because the Anonymous GM gave them all contracts.

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  18. I think people are a little nostalgic about Nexus because for the first few months, it WAS great.  If you blow the whole thing off at Summerslam and stop dragging it out afterwards then it goes down as a hot summer angle where WWE went TOTALLY outside their comfort zone and actually pushed heel rookies as legitimate threats due to their unwavering loyalty and strength in numbers.

    When you didn't know when they would strike, and when they were capable of beating up ANYONE, including Cena, they had such real teeth that we so rarely get anymore.

    After Team WWE beat them at Summerslam it all went to crap though.  That should have been the climax and then maybe let Cena and Bryan spend the next two months dismantling them completely to wipe them away as a unit.

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  19. I think the story of Barrett trying to steal the title by using Cena was a high point also.  Piper gave a real money promo the week before talking about how he never won the title and Cena couldn't let Barrett steal it just like that.

    The Nexus storyline had a good six months or so in it and people overrate the loss to Cena.  The story was:
    1)  Come in, raise hell.
    2)  Be defeated only by Cena.
    3)  Realize that Cena was the only thing standing between them and total domination, so they get Cena on their side somehow.
    4)  Threaten Cena with everything until it comes down to a make or break decision.
    5)  Cena rebuffs them using the POWER OF HEART and they're done for good.

    When you look at it that way the story was pretty good and the Summerslam loss makes sense.

    Everything after that including the entire Punk Nexus was basically pointless but most stable angles end in a whimper instead of a bang.

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  20. Honestly, if they reunited them now, it'd be like the DX Reunion in late 1999, almost a somewhat supergroup, especially if they kept each character as they currently are.

    Imagine Wade Barrett (leader) having a group of Slater & Gabriel (high fly tag team), Young & O'Neil (heavyweight tag team), and Ryback (enforcer); with Otunga as their lawyer (manager/occasional wrestler). Think of it as a modern Nation of Domination. 

    And you don't need Bryan since he was in the group for one day.

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  21. Let's also reboot The Four Horsemen, The Flock and The Un-Americans while we're trying to keep things fresh.

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  22. I'd rather they just release an anthology CD featuring all 32874523 versions of the Corrrrrrrrrrre theme

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  23. Vintage Sick Boy!

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  24. I'd wait a few more years.  Plant a few seeds of former members helping each other in matches or just hanging out in backstage vignettes.  Then have somebody get "fired" due to some heel shenanigans and have the entire rest of the group storm the ring, beat the shit out of everyone and get the fired member reinstated by holding the show hostage.

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  25. Forget Nexus and let Otunga form his own stable and call it The Firm.

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  26. Thats a terrible story.

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  27. The next time the WWE decides to do another stable make sure its members are treated as relative equals rather than one or two members being featured and the rest of the group being a bunch of cannon fodder jobbers. What made the Four Horsemen work was while Ric Flair was the clear leader and their goal was to protect him, the other three members were presented as threats in their own right and not treated as a bunch of interchangable jobbers. Hopefully the WWE would remember that.

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  28. To answer Scott's question, yes, yes we are.

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  29. The one thing Michael Cole does that regularly cracks me up is whenever Heath Slater is wrestling he says:

    "He's a one man rock band. Plays all the instruments."

    Slater is gold, he's becoming the new Stevie Richards in my eyes; a funny heel yutz job guy there to put a smile on my face ever week.

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  30. People actually liked the Nexus's theme music? Dear lord what happened to this world....

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  31. It'd give Slater and Gabriel something to do. Of course that something would likely be jobbing in 2 minutes to whoever is feuding with Barrett. 

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  32. Maybe they could try to appeal to undecided voters in Connecticut by reforming The Union?  Then again, they could try to firm up support on the other side by bringing back The Corporation.

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  33. Is there no nostalgia for The Cabinet? (JBL, Bashams, OJ)

    Or how about La Familia? (Edge, Vickie, Chavo, Hawkins & Ryder, Bam Neeley)

    *felt the need to list the members b/c these are pretty obscure.

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  34. Scott you're wrong about this being the coolest thing in quite some time but you're right in terms of the fact that who does this help? Pretty much just Slater. All the other guys are over or getting over in their current gimmick.

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  35.  I missed Gabriel I'm higher on him than most of the rest of you but it would clearly be a step up from what he is doing now.

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  36. Supposedly they are actually considering doing this because the fans were chanting "We Want Nexus."  So when it comes to bringing back failed storylines from 2010, the WWE listens to what the fans want.  But they continue to spite the fans by demanding we cheer Cena despite this asinine and illogical heel/face dynamic between Punk and Cena???  Boggles the mind...

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  37. That Slater storyline is hilarious. And have it lead to him getting squashed by a different Nexus member every week, until finally Mcguillicutty takes him up on the offer. New New Nexus!

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  38. That'd be a great little angle that could easily last for two months (one former member each week, especially if you add guys like Kane and O'Neil who are currently tagging with former members).

    And "Worst_in_the_World" actually had the perfect payoff of Slater settling into a nice little comedy tag role for a bit.

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  39. Disagree - Bryan would have been treated like a two-bit jobber just like the rest of them.

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  40. I think it's just the idea that he did such a fantastic job in the "leader" role that he's now being typecast. They're not good at moving out of their comfort zone.

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  41.  I can't believe no one mentioned the greatest stable in pro wrestling history, The Dudes with Attitudes! I mean come on, it had JYD and Paul Orndorff and El Gigante, what more could we want?

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  42.  There wasn't misinformation, they already had contracts, and Barret kept rambling about a "higher purpose" but never actually told us what it was

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  43.  Then as a followup to the e mailer's question, what would you have made the "higher purpose" that Barret was talking about?  

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  44. If only Trucker Norm were in that group. Then they'd be legendary.

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  45. long term booking? are you wacky?

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  46. exactly. the only way Barrett could benefit from this is if he seemingly accepts Slaters offer just to turn on him and destroy him completely - maybe even include a promo in which he explains that he is on his own now.

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  47. if this ever happens, a new good, fitting nickname for Ziggler (not only because of the hair) would be "The Natural".

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  48. WWE: We listen to our fans. NOW CHEER CENA OVER PUNK DAMMIT!

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  49.  Man, isn't it weird fate or ye gods have intervened on Bryan's behalf?  We were so pissed off at him being fired.  But if he doesn't get fired and come back in dramatic fashion, he isn't viewed as at the same level as Miz and Ziggler in late 2010.

    Then, WWE goes through with their 18 second plan, and he's basically an upper mid-card or lower main event level guy now because of how the reaction to the match propelled him afterward. 

    You could write a book on his WWE career, let alone becoming one of the greatest wrestlers of the 2000's via the indie scene.

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  50.  Barrett did toss off a line at one point about taking out Undertaker to show the old guard that none of them were safe, or something to that effect. It was just a lampshade but at least they mentioned it.

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  51.  This is taken straight from WWE's website: "The mystery GM was quick to act. His first order of business? Hiring all
    seven NXT Rookies."

    Their first goal was to get "contracts" and they got them.

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  52. And the angle kept going for months after that.  Many months after that.  When they helped Kane bury the Undertaker, they mentioned there was a higher purpose.  When Otunga almost turned on Barrett he mentioned that he would expose the higher purpose if Barrett kicked him out.  And then it was never mentioned again during the rest of Barrett's run and never mentioned at all during Punk's run.

    The initial goal was to get contracts and they got them.  What everyone's asking is "what was the higher purpose and/or why were they still a unit months and months after that?"

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  53. The New Nexus: Another example of a super hot angle that got no blowoff because the writers were bored with it.

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  54. I was kind of wishing that at Raw 1000, after Slater had taken his beatdown from the APA and company, the reformed Nexus would storm out of the back and beat the hell out all those legends to re-announce themselves as a threat.

    Two years down the road, most of the Nexus guys have re-established themselves with new personalities and are much smoother in the ring.  A stable of Barrett, Gabriel, Slater, Otunga, Young, McGillicutty and new member Titus O'Neill would be pretty strong, with Barrett as the clear leader of the pack.  It sets up easy feuds with Bryan and Ryback as the two former members who refused to rejoin....hell, it'd cement a Bryan face turn if he answered Barrett's request with a big NO!  NO!  NO!

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  55. Okay, I've settled into the Twin Cities, and Flair4dagold, you're right...I couldn't stay away. I promise no burials, no soapboxes, and I'm willing to bury the hatchet with jobber123.

    I have defended Nexus, backing it up with my idea of a storyline that would tie The Miz into everything. I won't go into detail, but it involved Miz and Ryan Reeves, being on Tough Enough 2004 together, coming up with the idea to build a stable of rookies (with Miz being the bigger picture).

    This would justify Bryan's ousting from the group, Miz wanting to be in the 10-man tag, and it would give Miz backup for his "Money in the Bank". Hey, they'd make better backup than the "Varsity Villain" Alex Riley.

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  56. I was actually a big fan of The Bashams - sure, they had no personalities, but I really enjoyed their in-ring work. And their velour tights were friggin' awesome, right up there with Team Angle's velour track suits.

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