NXT was not a good show. In description, it sounded a bit like the successful Tough Enough model that had made stars of the Miz and John Morrison. In execution it was a terrible attempt to combine reality TV with a live wrestling show. The WWE took wrestlers who were on the brink of being called up to their main roster and put them all together on a new show to compete for a WWE Contract. Thats not a bad idea, and gives the up and comers a chance to hone their skills on a less important show before finding a spot on Raw or Smackdown. Unfortunately, instead of just letting them wrestle and do normal promos, WWE made them do ridiculous tasks and games that had almost no relevance to being a WWE Superstar. In a stroke of genius from WWE, after the first season ended, winner Wade Barrett led the entire cast to invade Raw and completely destroy the show. The story was they were sick of being embarrassed by the NXT show and were there to cause havoc in WWE. The initial angle where they destroyed Raw was believable and extremely well executed. Over the next few weeks they continued their path of destruction by taking out Bret Hart, Ricky Steamboat and Vince McMahon itself. The entire WWE were running scared. After weeks of beating up the WWE, the roster had enough and banded together to face the Nexus at Summerslam. Daniel Bryan joined the WWE team after being supposedly kicked out of Nexus for feeling remorse. Instead of continuing to stay dominant, Nexus lost at Summerslam and they started to lose momentum fast. The following night, Darren Young left the group and returned to WWE Developmental. Shortly after they lost the powerhouse of the group Skip Sheffield to an ankle injury suffered at a house show. Skip was out indefinitely and only recently resurfaced as Ryback. The group were down to five members and looking less and less like a viable threat. Wade Barrett wasted his guaranteed title shot by taking part in a 6 man challenge instead of a one on one match, when having the world title would have made Nexus look important again. The idea instead was that John Cena would be forced to join the group. While Tarver was forced to leave the group due to another injury, they looked to be gaining momentum again when NXT Season 2 rookies Michael McGillicuty and Husky Harris joined. Unfortunately this wasnt the case. While Cena had joined the Nexus against his own wishes, he got another chance to leave. As per a stipulation set by Wade Barrett, Cena was fired by WWE after he failed to help Wade win the title from Randy Orton. Instead of remaining fired though, Cena showed up on Raw every week, making the stipulation completely meaningless. On top of that, he was managing to attack the Nexus one by one and make them look ridiculous in the process. They campaigned to get him back then shortly after ditched Wade and announced that they were under new management in the form of CM Punk. CM Punk was a very different leader, and shone in the role of New Nexus commander. He was a much darker, sinister leader who forced them to prove their loyalty to him. This was the beginning of the end for the Nexus as they split in half when Gabriel and Slater decided they were happier with Barrett and moved to Smackdown to form the Corre with him. The New Nexus feuded for a brief time with the Corre but once the infamous CM Punk shoot promo took place he cut all ties with the Nexus and moved on. What started off as one of the most innovative storylines in recent years, quickly fizzled out due to injuries and the addition of Super Cena. Some of the Nexus themselves were a bit green for the spotlight but it didnt really matter when they were travelling in a pack of seven. The addition of CM Punk as the New Nexus leader could have been the shot in the arm that the Nexus needed. Instead, the bad timing with Punks intention to leave the company killed off any chance of revival and any chance we had of seeing a Nexus that was as dominant or effective as it was in its beginning stages.
