It had been a few years since the last super-stable ran roughshod over Monday Night Raw. As everything is cyclical in the wrestling business, the time was right to form another group similar to the nWo, DX, or Evolution. And of all the people to choose to be in this stable, the WWE chose literally the last people you would expect. NXT Season 1 had just wrapped up, with Wade Barrett being declared the winner. But behind the scenes (in kayfabe), Barrett had conspired with his fellow NXT competitors to form a group to take over the WWE. On Viewers Choice Night, during a singles match between John Cena and CM Punk, Wade Barrett appeared at the top of the stage. Suddenly, the seven other NXT Season 1 competitors showed up, all with black armbands with a yellow N on them. They tore John Cena and the Raw set apart. The beatdown was infamously known for the tie choking incident that got Daniel Bryan fired for a couple months. This led to the forming of The Nexus, a heel stable that was much greater than the sum of its parts. What the WWE writing team did in the summer of 2010 was extremely admirable. They put their faith in eight rookies (especially Barrett) to carry the main storyline on Monday Night Raw, mixing it up on the very first night with the top star in the company. It put guys like David Otunga, Michael Tarver, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, and Skip Sheffield in positions they would have never been in on their own. Eight relative newcomers got skyrocketed to the top of the card on night 1. Not all of them may have been ready for that kind of responsibility, but at least it brought a breath of fresh air to a landscape that had gotten stale, especially considering that WWE lost Shawn Michaels and Batista in the span of two months. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVVtqoqzgNw Many could argue that the storyline could have gone farther (Nexus didnt even make it until the end of the year before breaking in half), but the storyline was at its hottest in the summer of 2010.
