Former Nexus member Michael Tarver recently spoke to VOC Nation’s Talkin Sass podcast. The former WWE Superstar discussed a number of topics during the interview, including how he felt he was ‘buried’ by John Cena during his time on the WWE main roster.
“The irony of how WWE works, you could be the man or the woman in developmental, and (when you) get to the main roster, it doesn’t matter how good you are,” Tarver began on the show.
“If one of the main people there don’t like you, they will do everything they can do to bury you” Tarver added. “I got to the main roster and just got buried.”
Michael Tarver on John Cena
“It was [John] Cena,” Tarver revealed, discussing who at the top of the card in WWE was ‘burying’ him. “I don’t have any heat with him now, I make jokes about it. But there was a target on my back. I don’t know why he targeted me, but it is what it is.”
“We ended up on good terms (but) I had to defend myself a lot” noted. “Everyone was high on me, and then all the sudden they all turned on me. People wouldn’t shake my hand, they wouldn’t even speak to me.”
AEW on-screen Coach and former WWE Agent Arn Anderson recently discussed the Nexus faction on his ARN podcast. This week’s episode is focused on the TLC 2010 event, which saw John Cena defeat Wade Barrett in the main event of the show.
At the time the Nexus were one of the top factions in the company, with Wade Barrett looking set to become WWE Champion. The crowning of Barrett would never happen, meaning that he would not become the fabled first-ever British WWE Champion. That honor would go to Drew McIntyre almost a decade later.
Arn Anderson would say that WWE were always looking to make Nexus/Barrett a massive part of the on-screen presentation; but this just never materialised due to a stop-start approach to booking.
Arn Anderson on PG Era
“It was the era of Cena” Anderson would begin on the podcast. “Which meant we were pointing towards children, having a PG product. Which was a far stretch from the Attitude Era, obviously, you know about as far as you can get.”
“I felt like we were trying to go with the Nexus full bore” Anderson would continue. “But it was start and stop. They [WWE] wouldn’t just go ahead and pull the trigger. I think the number of guys that were filtered through a card? There was probably seven or eight of those guys and you would filter them through a card…they were well represented, but they [WWE] weren’t pushing them. They never really pushed some heat on them, and I think that was a big mistake.”
Do you agree with Arn Anderson? Do you think that WWE could’ve made a much bigger deal with the Nexus group? Let us know in the comments
Former WWE Superstar and NWA Commentator Stu Bennett recently appeared on Ryback’s Conversation With The Big Guy podcast. The former Bad News Barrett discussed a number of topics during the interview, including his recent discussions with WWE and when he plans on getting back into the ring to wrestle.
Ryback addressed the recent Nexus rumors on the show. Darren Young recently claimed that the group was slated to return for an appearance at WrestleMania this year; these plans were changed supposedly because of the COVID-19 pandemic changing the venue for the show.
Stu Bennett and Ryback
Ryback would joke with Bennett and say that he turned down appearing with the Nexus because Ryback himself wasn’t going to be involved. “That’s definitely not the case at all! I was completely down for doing it without Skip Sheffield! Let me be clear!” Stu Bennett joked to begin the interview.
“I think Darren [Young] put out his podcast that he got a call?” Stu Bennett continued. I did get a call [from WWE], I wasn’t really going to speak about it, but I’ve been asked enough times, and I’ve said this already. It wasn’t a good offer, it wasn’t a good idea.”
Stu Bennett would then confirm that whilst he would be open to returning that the idea has to be right for him. “For me to go back to do something like that? It was a non starter and I shut it down very quickly. I was asked a question on an interview yesterday about my interest in returning to WWE or any other wrestling company and I answered honestly. I’m an open book, if people want to contact me with ideas like they [WWE] did? I will listen to it and if it makes sense for me, if it’s a good idea? if it’s something I really enjoy? Then maybe I’ll do it.”
Would you like to see Stu Bennett/Wade Barrett return to WWE at some point? Let us know in the comments
Darren Young isn’t the only former WWE star who has recently come out and stated that WWE had plans for a Nexus reunion as Stu Bennett shared some details.
A few weeks ago, Young recently revealed that WWE had plans for members to return to form the group once again at WrestleMania 36. However, due to the coronavirus, those plans were nixed.
Bennett, also known as Wade Barrett, joined The Wrestling Inc Daily podcast for a new interview to offer more insight into the idea. Of course, he was the leader of the group.
He recalled getting a phone call in January or February by the Talent Relations team in WWE. The company pitched a reunion to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Nexus at WrestleMania 36.
“I actually turned it down as I didn’t like the offer or the plan. I saw Darren just after that and he said he was gonna go and do something with them. But I wasn’t going to be involved in whatever it was.”
He continued, “In all honestly if it had been something more significant, I would have paid it more attention. But it was something, to me, that I wasn’t interested in doing. There was no benefit at all, for me, in doing it and I wasn’t excited about it, so I turned the offer down.”
The Nexus debuted on WWE television in June 2010. The group featured the likes of Barett, Daniel Bryan, Heath Slater, David Otunga, Justin Gabriel, Ryback, Michael Tarver, and Young.
Pro Wrestling Sheet has confirmed that former Nexus Member Darren Young has been cleared for an in ring return by WWE Medicals after staying out of action for almost 6 months.
Young was a part of the first season of NXT under the mentorship of CM Punk and he later became a part of the infamous Nexus stable lead by the winner of NXT season one Wade Barret.
He suffered an elbow injury back in January this year while competing in a match against Primo and Epico during an episode of WWE Main Event. He underwent a surgery in February to repair the injured elbow.
It was reported before that he is expected to be cleared this month and the site reports that he had his evaluation done this week in which he was found completely fit.
Yung who has previously won the Tag Team Championship with Titus O’Neil was involved in a storyline with Bob Backlund prior to his injury where he acted as a Protégé of the WWE Legend.
Though currently there is neither any news on when he will make his in ring return nor it’s known if his pairing with Backlund will continue when he returns to WWE Programming.
The following are highlights of a new Ten Sports interview with Bad News Barrett:
On working with John Cena after debuting on the main roster: “That was a pretty intense period in my life, to go from being pretty much an unknown wrestler, which I had been for 6 years at that point since I’ve started wrestling to suddenly get the opportunity to go out there and be a main event level character, and be the guy that’s opening up every RAW on the microphone and closing every RAW, wrestling all the top stars and beating up John Cena, which is a huge jump for me to go from that unknown around the world; I wasn’t recognized to immediately being one of the most important guys on the show. So it was a pretty intense period in my life, but I also loved every second of it. It was what essentially I was aiming to do, what I had sacrificed for, for over 6 – 7 years in my career to get to that point. So, to get that payoff, it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders; so I didn’t really feel the pressure much. I was just enjoying the reactions we were getting and I knew it was working. Everything we did was working perfectly, so that felt good.”
On if he thinks Nexus could have been booked better towards the end: “Yeah, 100%. I think there was definitely more life left in Nexus at the time. If I had been in charge, I wouldn’t have ended it like it ended. But then again, we got great opportunities for young superstars to come into the WWE, make a huge impact and then 4 or 5 years down the line, most of us are still around, and most of us are still making a very good living in the WWE, and are involved in great angles. So I don’t really look at it in a negative way; I think we were very fortunate to get that opportunity, and I’m also very grateful for the fact that Nexus came along when it did. I wish it could’ve gone a bit longer, but I think there’s always that appetite left for people where they want to see some more of Nexus. They know it didn’t end the way it should’ve ended, and I think there’s always a potential in the future where we could bring it back. So we’ll have to see how that goes.”
On his favorite opponents: “My favorite opponent to work with.. I’d say there are two to choose between, and it’s because I’ve probably wrestled them more than anybody else, and that would be Kofi Kingston and Sheamus. They’re two completely different wrestlers. Kofi is obviously a high – flying, technical kind of guy, and Sheamus is very smash mouth and last time there were a lot of bruises and black eyes and things like that. So two completely different kind of wrestlers; I always seem to have good chemistry with them, and I don’t think I’ve had a bad match with either of those two, despite the fact that we’d wrestled hundreds of times. So I love wrestling those two, and then just before I got injured, I had a couple of matches with Dolph Ziggler. He’s a guy I have a lot of respect for, and I’ve known Dolph for 6 or 7 years and up until probably 3 months ago, we’ve never had a match before. So to get in with him and we clicked instantly; he’s another one that I’m hoping that when I get back, I get to do stuff with him because he’s currently got my Intercontinental championship I got stripped off. So fingers crossed, when I get back I can go straight for him, and try and win that back, and see what we can do together.”
WWE storylines can be a short term or long term plan by management to push certain superstars or to do the complete opposite. Professional wrestling has had many hot storylines over the years – Hulk Hogan versus Andre the Giant, the New World Order taking over WCW, Stone Cold Steve Austin versus Mr. McMahon, Shane McMahon buys WCW and the list goes on.
The NWO, Austin versus McMahon and even Shane buying WCW, which led to the Invasion storyline, all lasted a long time. Multiple years were given to these hot storylines. Eras in the professional wrestling have been the length of some of these plots in WWE or WCW.
However, there have been times when WWE had a hot storyline going and then….BAM! It’s over. WWE fans wanted more and the company for whatever reason changed direction. This is one of the the most criticized aspects of WWE that fans complain about. The company was building a young star to the top or had a very compelling and interesting storyline happening, when the whole angle is just dropped. Sometimes it has to do with wrestlers being fired or suspended, but other times there aren’t any explanation for the change.
Here are ten hot storylines that quickly died and were killed by WWE management.
9. Nexus
WWE.com
Nexus was a group of rookie superstars from the very first season of NXT. At this point in time, which was 2010, NXT was supposed to be a reality television show where wrestlers competed against one another for a contract in WWE. In reality though, all the superstars were signed to WWE in some capacity. In any event, Wade Barrett (now Bad News Barrett) won the first season and at first was the only member to be on WWE programming.
However, Barrett would recruit the other members of NXT season one and form the Nexus faction. The group immediately caused havoc attacking everyone from John Cena to Justin Roberts. It seemed as if no one was capable of beating Nexus. Their fights always seemed to be a handicap match involving all members of the Nexus helping each other out.
Nexus’ big run in WWE began in June and then two months later, it was SummerSlam time. Nexus faced a team of WWE Superstars including John Cena, Chris Jericho, Edge, Bret Hart, R-Truth, John Morrison and former Nexus member Daniel Bryan. This was the perfect opportunity for WWE to put Nexus over their top stars. However, Cena wanted things to happen differently.
Edge joined Chris Jericho on his podcast in December of 2013 and they discussed the situation.
Chris Jericho: “It was Team WWE vs. Team Nexus, and the finish boiled down to [Edge] and [Jericho] in there, but it was Cena against a couple of them. John wanted to do things a certain way and we told him ‘you’re wrong’. He did it anyways, and it sucked. And then after he came over to us and said ‘I should have listened to you, but I wasn’t seeing it that way.'”
Edge: “I remember. I was like, fine I’m out of the match by that point.”
Chris Jericho: “He wanted to get DDT’d on the floor by Barrett, then kick out and beat them both. And you and I were like, that’s the dumbest thing. That’s just throwing it away for no reason.”
Edge: “They should have gone over because they were so hot.”
Chris Jericho: “We were fighting for Barrett to go over. And where’s Wade Barrett now?”
Jericho and Edge were probably right. After SummerSlam, Nexus was never the same. They would gradually lose members and gain new ones until CM Punk was the leader and began his Summer of Punk storyline in 2011.
WWE Hall of Famer Edge returned to Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast this week for the second part of their interview. During the show, the two revealed some interesting news about the year John Cena squashed Nexus at SummerSlam. The original plans called for the match to come down to Edge and Jericho vs. Nexus, however, John Cena squashed the idea and decided to he would be the last man standing, taking out both Wade Barrett and Justin Gabriel. Cena would later regret the decision.
Chris Jericho: “It was Team WWE vs. Team Nexus, and the finish boiled down to [Edge] and [Jericho] in there, but it was Cena against a couple of them. John wanted to do things a certain way and we told him ‘you’re wrong’. He did it anyways, and it sucked. And then after he came over to us and said ‘I should have listened to you, but I wasn’t seeing it that way.'”
Edge: “I remember. I was like, fine I’m out of the match by that point.”
Chris Jericho: “He wanted to get DDT’d on the floor by Barrett, then kick out and beat them both. And you and I were like, that’s the dumbest thing. That’s just throwing it away for no reason.”
Edge: “They should have gone over because they were so hot.”
Chris Jericho: “We were fighting for Barrett to go over. And where’s Wade Barrett now?”
Edge also spoke out about why he was successful the first time he won the WWE Championship from John Cena, and how Vince McMahon played a big role in that success.
“I had Vince on my side. Vince was the only guy who believed I could break through … The week before New Year’s Revolution I said ‘Vince I got an idea. I’m a heel. I’m probably the most despised guy in the company. If I cash this thing in after I’ve held it for ten months, in a straight-up match, that’s really stupid on my part, as a character. I can cash it in whenever. Why wouldn’t I do it after the Elimination Chamber?” … “I get there and Vince says, ‘prove me right.’ You can see when I hand that briefcase over to him, he says ‘prove me right’. They were only gonna give me three weeks. But in those three weeks I did everything I could to make them change their mind. 25 million hits on WWE.com the night I won the title. Big ratings.”
— Bret Hart revealed to Right After Wrestling that John Morrison once apologized to him backstage for handing out his sunglasses to children before his matches.
“He came up to me, John Morrison did, and he apologized to me, he said he felt bad and made references to stealing my gimmick,” Hart said.
“But the fact that he even addressed it was flattering to me. I don’t think it’s any different than Rey Mysterio giving stuff to the kids. It’s gotta keep moving on, and if there’s any kind of connection between his giving the sunglasses away and my giving the sunglasses away years ago, between an old fan and a young fan, I think that’s beautiful, I have no problem with it at all.”
— A SmackDown brand match pitting Trent Barreta against Tyler Reks was taped last night in Cincinnati, Ohio for this week’s episode of WWE Superstars.
— The Nexus has changed their Twitter handle to @NewNexusWWE.
– On Monday’s RAW, we saw the first face-to-face confrontation between CM Punk’s Nexus and Wade Barrett’s Corre group. Following the main event of RAW, members from both groups will be part of Sunday’s Royal Rumble match. According to a WWE source, WWE’s current plans are for the two groups to feud well beyond WrestleMania.
– Former WWE referee Jimmy Korderas said on the Right After Wrestling podcast that WWE recently sent out their annual Wellness Policy letter to former talents offering to pay for drug or alcohol rehabilitation treatment, if anybody feels they need the help.
– WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross wrote on Twitter that he would be doing some ring announcing for the upcoming WWE live event in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on Sunday, 3/13.
Ross also mentioned that he is taping interviews related to Ted DiBiase Sr. and Gorgeous George this week.
– Dustin “Screech” Diamond of Saved by the Bell fame (and Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling) will be appearing for the AAW indy promotion on 2/15 from Merrionette Park, Illinios. Screech has issued an open challenge to the AAW roster.
— On Friday’s SmackDown, we saw Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel and Ezekiel Jackson align themselves with Wade Barrett in what appears to be a new incarnation of the Nexus group. It’s worth noting that in promoting upcoming SmackDown live events, WWE is advertising Wade Barrett’s new group “Nexus.”
— Speaking of the SmackDown Nexus group, WWE is advertising Ezekiel Jackson as simply “Ezekiel,” so he may be dropping his last name.
— Fans interested in attending the WWE SmackDown taping at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York can use code LISD4PACK to purchase four tickets for $60. This promotion ends Friday.
— Former TNA Knockout Awesome Kong, who recently signed a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment, will be starting with the company soon, according to Mike Mooneyham.
* WARNING: The following contains a major SPOILER for Friday’s SmackDown:
A new Nexus faction was formed at Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown tapings.
Following Wade Barrett’s match with the Big Show that took place at the tapings, Ezekiel Jackson, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater joined Wade Barrett in beating down the Big Show. The four men banded together and made it known they are now working as a unit.
WWE has been teasing Jackson’s SmackDown debut for weeks with video promos, but up until this week’s tapings, there had been no indication he would be aligning himself with Wade Barrett.
Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel were apparently kicked out of CM Punk’s Nexus this past Monday on RAW after they couldn’t accept their initiations.
CM Punk’s Nexus now consists of himself, Husky Harris, David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty.
Wade Barrett’s new incarnation of Nexus is made up of himself, Ezekiel Jackson, Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel.
Posted January 12th, 2011 in News, WWE. Tagged: Nexus.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross is back with another blog, which you can read in its entirety at JRsBarBQ.com. Here are some highlights of what JR said about:
Rumors Of Brock Lesnar Leaving UFC: “Lots of crazy rumors floating around the MMA message boards about Brock Lesnar these days. Some fans feel that Lesnar is looking to leave UFC and return to WWE. That decision would floor me. It doesn’t seem to make sense at this time for Lesnar to leave UFC as there is too much Octagon money on the table for Brock to walk away at this time. I just can’t see the athletic freak going back on the WWE road for any significant length of time especially with young children at home and Brock being most comfortable when he is in the Minnesota woods enjoying family life and hunting. Don’t get me wrong, as a fan I would embrace a Lesnar return to WWE and it ‘might’ happen on a sporadic basis some day but not any time soon.”
CM Punk Joining Nexus: “The CM Punk/Nexus affiliation is intriguing. More questions than answers which is good. There is strength in numbers and it certainly puts the ‘hero,’ John Cena, in an uphill struggle. Punk is excellent both in the ring and on the mic and I look forward to seeing how the Cena-Punk scenario plays out over time. If they don’t get it on until the Royal Rumble match, I wouldn’t be offended. Sounds like Cena-Punk could theoretically be a solid WM27 attraction. Time will tell.”
Jeff Hardy Pleading Guilty To Drug Charges: “An emailer asked me what I thought about former WWE star Jeff Hardy’s ‘plea agreement’ to a variety of charges filed against him in North Carolina. I know only what I occasionally read on line about this unfortunate matter but if a plea agreement can bring this issue to an end and Jeff can move on with his life then it might be a good idea. Those types of decisions are better made by lawyers and the individuals involved and not by folks, like me, who are on the outside looking in.”
At the end of Monday’s WWE RAW from Albany, the Nexus crew attacked John Cena and beat him down badly. Out came CM Punk, who gave Cena the GTS, took a chair and sat in the middle of the ring. He took a Nexus “N” armband, put it on and saluted the rest of the Nexus crew on the stage – appearing to join the group.
— A radio advertisement for the Feb. 5 SmackDown live event at the Richo Coliseum in Toronto, Ontario is advertising The Nexus vs. Big Show in a 3-on-1 Handicap Match (Thanks to Matthew)
— Casting for the Tough Enough revival on the USA Network will begin shortly after New Year’s Day.
— WWE returns to the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut on Mar. 18, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. for a Raw live event. Tickets go on sale Jan. 14, 2011 at noon via Ticketmaster.com.
— Today is Raw Superstar Primo’s birthday. He turns 28 years old.
— The November programming schedule for WWE Classics on Demand has been released here.
— J.J. Dillon’s name has been discussed for induction into next year’s WWE Hall of Fame class. Should it occur, it is expected that he would be inducted with the Four Horsemen as a group rather than by himself.
— WWE’s creative department has discussed keeping The Nexus together through WrestleMania and then splitting the group via the annual Draft in April.
source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Posted November 6th, 2010 in News, WWE. Tagged: Nexus.
– Wade Barrett announced on RAW that Husky Harris and Michael McGillicutty are officially Nexus members.
– Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel beat John Cena & David Otunga to win the WWE Tag Team Championship on Monday’s RAW. The finish camed when Otunga laid down for Slater to pin him. Cena & Otunga won the belts from “Dashing” Cody Rhodes & Drew McIntyre the night before at Bragging Rights.
– There is talk of holding next year’s WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden. SummerSlam has taken place from the Staples Center in Los Angeles the past two years and it had been reported that Los Angeles was going to be a regular host-city for SummerSlam, but nothing is confirmed at this time.
– The mystery RAW General Manager will be making some “very special messages” at the December 26th RAW live event at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Michael Cole will be there to deliver the messages.
– After reports that The Undertaker is taking time off to heal a shoulder injury, it’s been announced that the Dead Man will no longer be appearing at the SmackDown live event on October 31st at the TD Garden in Boston, MA.
– Last week’s episode of Smackdown on Syfy drew a 1.74 cable rating with 2,662,000 viewers.
(Partial credit to pwinsider.com for some of the info used in this report)
– As evidenced by Monday’s RAW rating jumping around 22% from the previous week, there appears to be strong interest in the John Cena – Nexus storyline.
According to a reliable source, WWE creative is planning to book the angle in a similar way to the classic Million Dollar Man – Virgle relationship from 1990. The idea is that Cena will reluctantly serve under Nexus leader Wade Barrett – with hopes that WWE’s live audiences will be cheering Cena to stand up for himself and fight back against Barrett (as Virgil did with Ted DiBiase). Creative has done some longterm planning for this storyline and has a definitive finish in mind, but will be booking on a week-to-week basis until they get to the finish.
– WWE has announced that John Cena will be in the corner of Wade Barrett at WWE’s Bragging Rights pay-per-view. Barrett will challenge Randy Orton for the WWE Championship, with WWE teasing that Cena will be subservient to his leader and give Barrett the advantage.
– Kurt Angle just signed a 1-year contract extension with TNA Wrestling, but the Olympic gold medalist says he’s open to returning to WWE after that. Angle appeared on the Right After Wrestling radio show on Monday night and said:
“There comes a time when everybody has to hang it up. I’m coming to the close of my career whether it be a year or two or three. I know it won’t be full-time after this year. I would like to stay in TNA, but if I my option goes to WWE, I will. I want to stay in TNA, no doubt about it.”
— WWE has discussed tying the 20th anniversary of the debut of The Undertaker character with November’s Survivor Series. One of the ideas being discussed is a Buried Alive Match between The Undertaker and Kane.
There has been talk of it being Undertaker’s final run with the company and they wanted him to conclude his career with his longtime manager, Paul Bearer, by his side.
— Regarding WWE’s overall reaction to less than stellar television ratings in recent weeks, many are not worried. However, a number of people are butting heads over the company’s creative direction through the end of the year, as well as what to do with certain characters.
— While nobody expects Nexus to be disbanded, it has been noted that the faction’s merchandise sales have been poor. WWE officials expected the group to get over as anti-heroes, but its merchandise has failed to significantly move.
— World Wrestling Entertainment’s symbolic Nexus T-shirt has been a huge flop in terms of sales.
According to a company source, Vince McMahon was ‘mortified’ when he was shown the latest merchandising report on Nexus shirts.
— Rookie Diva Kaitlyn was accidentally bloodied at some point during Tuesday’s episode of NXT. Seeing as it was a taped show, WWE managed to edit around it. Post-match, Michelle McCool delivered a very stiff kick to Kaitlyn’s head, although it is believed that she didn’t cause her to bleed.
— A World Heavyweight Championship bout between Kane and The Undertaker was officially announced for Hell in a Cell last night on SmackDown. The match will take place inside the Hell in a Cell.
sources: Pro Wrestling Torch, Wrestling Observer Newsletter
– The current plan for Nexus is for the group to disband by October. There is talk of bringing in some of the standout rookies of Season 2 and many of the Nexus stars will remain part of the main WWE roster, but the group’s days are numbered.
– Vince McMahon made the decision to rename the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship the WWE Tag Team Championship because he wanted new belts to be marketed. Another reason given for the change is that it’s easier for talent to pass through airports with one set of belts than two.
It is currently unknown if the belts will be considered a brand new championship or if they will carry the lineage of either one or both Tag Team Championships.
– A battle royal featuring 7 SmackDown! talent, 7 RAW talent and the Nexus guys is set for RAW tomorrow, though it is expected to be a dark match. We’ll keep you posted on that.
– Bryan Danielson cancelled his appearance for NYWC in New York last night. He cited a family conflict but said he would be at the August 28 show. Danielson has no bookings on a Monday night listed on his website. He also is not booked on Night of Champions night.
– An article on the Big Show is available at Torontosun.com.
– Satoshi Kojima defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi in the finals of New Japan’s G-1 Climax tournament, making him the first non-NJPW talent to win the tournament in its 20-year history.
– An interview with Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore is available at Courier-journal.com.
– An interview with Jake “The Snake” Roberts is available at Pojoslam.blogspot.com Jake talks modern wrestlers and how he is the only guy who admits to taking drugs while others have died without ever confessing to having a problem.
-The current plan is for a major name to be revealed as the person behind Nexus. The two names being pitched for heel turns are Triple H and John Cena. Hunter has long wanted to turn back heel, and if you go with Cena, how you then explain all of the beatdowns becomes a logic issue, but that’s never stopped them before.
-Triple H’s tendon tear, for which he underwent surgery last week, is said to have been a minor tear that will keep him out of action anywhere from 2-4 months. With him likely out of the Summerslam picture, other ideas being talked about include John Morrison vs. Ted DiBiase, with Melina returning in Morrison’s corner to oppose Maryse, Big Show vs. Jack Swagger, and continuing the Harts-Usos feud for the Unified tag team titles.
– WWE.com has announced that tonight’s RAW will open with its anonymous General Manager announcing the fate of The Nexus after their recent attacks on John Cena, Bret Hart, Vince McMahon and the WWE Legends.
While the item does not mention this, it is believed that with his visa issues now behind him, Wade Barrett will be back on the show tonight as well. There will be no guest host.
– The situation with Wade Barrett’s work visa is said to be not as serious as it’s been made out to be. Apparently everyone knew the situation was coming as Barrett had been talking about it for weeks. He is expected to be back in the country as early as today and back on WWE TV as early as this coming week. There is still no word on Drew McIntyre’s return but it’s believed that he may be out for a bit longer.
– WWE officials have told the members of Nexus to play the heel role while in public in front of fans. They’re not allowed to pose for photos or sign autographs and are wearing the ‘N’ armbands while out.
– The decision has made that The Nexus stable will remain on the RAW roster and won’t be doing any run-ins on SmackDown. Most expect that this may change eventually.
