Legendary WWE Faction Were Threatened With Shocking Firing
A former member of a memorable WWE faction admits that the pressure was on during the group’s debut.
On the June 7, 2010 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw, there was a shocking ending to the show as eight “rookies” attacked John Cena, CM Punk, and others around ringside.
Those 8 rookies were from the original version of the competition show known as NXT. The wrestlers were Wade Barrett, Bryan Danielson, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Darren Young, Skip Sheffield (later known as Ryback), David Otunga, and Michael Tarver.
It was a shocking storyline that would carry on for most of the second half of 2010, with the leader Barrett elevated to a main event heel role as he feuded with the likes of Cena and Randy Orton. The group also made life hell for Cena as much as they could.
While speaking on the F Y’All Podcast, Michael Tarver talked about how their NXT season ended, and then they got the call to go to Raw.
“The debut weekend, we had just finished the first season of the original NXT, and they were kinda keeping us on a string, we didn’t know what was gonna happen week to week, we thought we might have got released, and I was the first person, myself and Daniel Bryan, we were the first ones to get eliminated. So I’m thinking I might actually lose my contract over a scripted game show, that’s kinda weird.
“I went back down to developmental, just tried to keep my head up and then the season ends and the winner was Wade Barrett, then a week later I get travel again. I’m like ‘Miami? Ok.’”
Vince McMahon told WWE Newcomers It Needed To Look Real
Michael Tarver would go on to recall what it was like going to Raw in Miami, and the strict orders given to the group by former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
“So they send us to Miami, that weekend I had proposed to my second ex-wife the day before, I had no idea what was about to happen the next day. So I proposed to her the day before, and we get to the arena and they bring us all into a room and said here’s what’s gonna happen.
“There’s Vince McMahon, John Cena’s in the room, all the agents, the producers, and they start handing us these armbands, and we’re like ‘what’s this?’ So they said ‘this is what you’re about to do, you’re going to go out there and destroy everything, and it has to be real.’ Everything, anybody runs up, you knock em out no matter who it is. We’re giving people bonuses if they get hurt, so it’s all real.
“And we look at each other like ‘oh, okay’, and then Vince said ‘if it doesn’t look real you’re fired’. Yes sir. Yep. Everybody getting punched.
“We weren’t allowed to tell any of the talent either, so we’re walking around chilling and they end up asking us ‘what are you doing tonight?’ ‘Nothing. We’re not doing anything.’ but people kept coming up to us to see which of us would break.”
That “real” beating also included Daniel Bryan choking the ring announcer Justin Roberts with a tie and also spitting during the segment. Those incidents led to Bryan being fired for about two months, and then he was brought back for SummerSlam in August.
As the years have gone by, members of the Nexus have spoken about what it was like during their official main-roster debuts, what they were told, and how much pressure they were under. David Otunga has spoken critically about how John Cena treated him, and it wasn’t complimentary.