Former Nexus Member Comments On Potential Reunion
A return of the Nexus group could happen, according to a former member of the group.
When the NXT brand name was first introduced to the WWE Universe, it was part of a “reality” competition show with rookie wrestlers being paired up with established WWE stars. In reality, most of the rookies were already experienced wrestlers.
The most well-known member of the original eight-man Nexus group was Daniel Bryan, whom wrestling fans knew as Bryan Danielson for about a decade before he signed with WWE in 2010. Bryan was paired with The Miz, who had about five years of WWE experience at that point, so that upset some fans who thought Miz “mentoring” Bryan was ridiculous.
They went on to have a competition for a few months with Wade Barrett emerging as the winner of the season. After the season was over, they attacked John Cena and others in WWE in an episode of Raw in June 2010. The group would be known as The Nexus with a black & yellow “N” logo.
For the next six months, The Nexus feuded with the likes of Cena and Randy Orton before the original group fizzled. There was also a reboot led by CM Punk, but it didn’t really take off.
Could The Nexus Reunite?
During a Captain’s Corner virtual signing, former WWE superstar and Nexus member Heath Slater spoke about the possibility of The Nexus reuniting some day.
“We have never had a second coming (of Nexus), ever. Think about that. You have (CM) Punk up there, you have Wade (Barrett) on commentary. Ryback is a little insane and doing his thing. You have D. Young that still looks like a stud. Me, I’m 250 now, I’m the dad bod but I’ll kick your ass if I need to. You got Michael Tarver that still looks like an evil, crazy son of a gun and David Otunga that still has a bodybuilder build that can damn do anything and then you have Justin Gabriel that is still out there high-flying, doing his 450 splash and kicking ass and looking good.”
“Imagine if it would happen, and that wasn’t even a pitch (he laughed). I just pitched it baby.”
“But being real, it could be — I feel like it could be an earthquake in wrestling again. But then again, who knows? That’s just me talking. Other people might be like, you delusional, old f**k. There’s no way. But, I feel like it could happen.”
Based on those comments, it doesn’t sound like there is any official plan for The Nexus to reunite, but in pro wrestling, you never know.
Daniel Bryan would go on to be by far the most successful member of The Nexus group since he was a WWE World Champion and WrestleMania main eventer. Barrett did well for himself as well and still works for WWE as an announcer on Raw. Skip Sheffield became Ryback and was a main eventer in WWE although the last few years have been tumultuous for him.
As for Heath Slater, he had an incredible 14-year run with WWE from 2006 to 2020 and went to have some success with TNA/Impact Wrestling as well.