10 Times WWE Booked Themselves Into A Corner

2. John Cena Joins The Nexus

Baszler Fiend
WWE.com

WWE, in order to delay or simply not do anything of meaning, scripted copout after copout during the sh*t-show that was the John Cena Vs. the Nexus saga of 2010.

After the catastrophic events of SummerSlam, at which Cena recovered from a significant head injury in a minute and a half to kill a stable to "send the fans home happy" - "WWE is incapable of creating new stars, yay!" - WWE booked a bunch of b*llocks bullsh*t they were never going to follow up on to waste everybody's bastard time.

At Hell In A Cell - WWE's own version of the Uncensored '96 Doomsday Cage match stripped of all perverse entertainment - Cena was forced to join the Nexus, per the stipulation, following wave after wave of interference in a cage match built as more of a cage match than a cage match. It was an effective and halfway entertaining spectacle, to credit the work of those involved in the wrestling side of things, but then creative knackered it.

Cena joined the Nexus with a boo-boo face, and was fired when he failed in his duty to screw Randy Orton out of the WWE Championship at Survivor Series.

Wow.

That was huge.

Except it wasn't, because he turned up in his gear all the time, and then got rehired by Barrett because six grown men were too scared at getting attacked by one man that they threatened a mutiny.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!