It was a boring episode of Raw on June 7, 2010. Not much was happening in WWE at the time. Cena was wrestling against CM Punk, who was wearing a mask because he was upset about having his head shaved. They were having a solid match like they usually do when all of a sudden a clean shaven "rookie" Wade Barrett arrived at the top of the ramp. He walked down to the ring. We found out quickly that Barrett was alone. He had seven others with him: Daniel Bryan, Darren Young, Heath Slater, Skip Sheffield (Ryback), Justin Gabriel, David Otunga and Michael Tarver. Those eight men focused on Cena in the center of the ring. From that moment on, those guys were on a mission to destroy Cena. It was a ten minute beating where they destroyed Cena by hitting all of their signature moves and also destroying everything around the ringside area. http://youtu.be/vVVtqoqzgNw They attacked people around the ringside area as well, including announcer Jerry Lawler, timekeeper Mark Yeaton and of course there was the moment where Daniel Bryan choked ring announcer Justin Roberts with his tie, which led to Bryan being fired for a few months. CM Punk actually tried to get involved, but they beat him down too. The purpose of the segment was to send a message that this group that would come to be known as The Nexus was there to try to take over things in WWE. They were rookies who targeted Cena because if you're going to make yourself known you might as well do it against the top guy. Cena did a really good job of taking that beating. He wasn't moving. They even showed fans in the crowd that looked on with concerned faces. Cena was decimated. It was a terrific wrestling angle.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
