6. The Nexus Debuts - Monday Night Raw - June 7th 2010
The Nexus' debut and demolition of John Cena, CM Punk, the WWE staff at ringside and the very wrestling ring and ringside area itself has to be one of the most shocking moments in wrestling history. It was completely out of the blue for everyone, as WWE had done a brilliant job of keeping it secret, so whenever these 8 wrestlers came out of the crowd and started destroying everything in sight, the surprise factor was palpable. The Nexus was led by Wade Barrett, and included every member of the first season of NXT, WWE's semi-reality show about 8 rookies trying to win a WWE contract. As well as Barrett, the group also featured Skip Sheffield (soon to be known as Ryback), Heath Slater and David Otunga. Oh, and a little guy named Daniel Bryan who went on to become quite popular. The whole segment was expertly staged, with Cena really selling the terrified desperation of being blindsided by these men and swarmed upon. In many ways, history doesn't look favourably on the Nexus, as WWE bungled many aspects of the group over the subsequent months, but the impact of their debut cannot be underestimated. Wrestling fans, with their access to the worldwide web, are very hard to truly take by surprise anymore, but this was one special moment in time when WWE managed it.
