Hello there, and welcome to the Wrestling Graveyard. This is a new series exclusive to the Clarion website where I basically pay my respects to WWE superstars who were effectively buried and never found their way back to the top again.
This is basically a series of eulogies dedicated to those who have fallen to the golden shovels of Triple H, John Cena and many more.
Before we begin, I’d like to set some ground rules. The superstars I will be looking over are those in particular who had the potential to be huge main-event stars. Dead on arrival gimmicks such as the Riott Squad will not be considered.
I also will not be including guys like Dolph Ziggler, Rusev, Kevin Owens or Finn Balor, who have been pushed down the card but managed to bounce back. Rather, this series will be focused on the best who were buried and never recovered. With that in mind, let us pay our respects to those who for one reason or another met their fate in the Wrestling Graveyard.
Aside from Triple H, nobody has become quite as synonymous with the term “burial” as John Cena. From Rusev to Umaga, “Super-Cena” has halted the momentum of many a great up-and-comer; But by far one of the most frustrating and unfortunate cases has to be Wade Barrett and the Nexus.
For those who are unaware, the Nexus was a faction formed by the rookies of the first season of NXT (you know, the awful gameshow version of NXT). The group was led by Wade Barrett and consisted of Justin Gabriel, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Darren Young, Michael Tarver, Skip Sheffield (Ryback) and Daniel Bryan (until he was fired).
In 2010, they burst onto the scene in one of the greatest and most chaotic debuts of all time. They surrounded the ring during a Raw main event between CM Punk and John Cena. As the commentators and competitors looked on in confusion, the eight men attacked Punk and Cena like a pack of ravening wolves.
They then proceeded to tear the very ring apart, bludgeon the announce team, assault the time keepers, beat down the refs, and choke Justin Roberts with his tie. In short, they were an unstoppable force like we hadn’t seen since the days of the NWO.
For weeks on end, they rampage around the WWE locker room punishing every star in their path. Their primary goal was to obtain WWE contracts for themselves aside from Wade Barrett, who won his contract in the first season of NXT. They went to many lengths to make their presence known. They cost John Cena the title on two different occasions, attacked multiple WWE legends and even attacked Vince Mcmahon himself.
Eventually, this came to a head at Summerslam 2010 in a seven on seven elimination tag match. The Nexus vs Team Cena, which consisted of John Cena, R truth, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, Bret Hart and a returning Daniel Bryan. After a grueling war, it came down to Cena vs Barrett and Gabriel. Wade Barrett then hit Cena with a DDT on the exposed concrete.
Then just when it seemed the as though the rookies would conquer their greatest challenge at the height of their momentum, Cena came back and beat both Wade Barrett and Justin Gabriel in one of the dumbest pay-per-view endings of all time.
Despite the disappointment of Summerslam, there still was hope that Barrett and the Nexus could bounce back. At Night of Champions 2010, Barrett challenged Randy Orton for the WWE championship. Despite the efforts of himself and the Nexus, he still failed to capture the title.
Things between John Cena and the Nexus came to a head at Hell in a Cell that year in a match between Cena and Barrett. If Barrett won, however, Cena would have to join the Nexus. The match itself was decent enough, and shockingly enough Cena lost and was forced to join the Nexus. Certainly, this would be a perfect opportunity to turn Cena heel, possibly revealing that the whole Cena-Nexus feud was a hoax and that John Cena was in on the gag the whole time, right?
Cena and the Nexus would be absolutely unstoppable like the NWO in the 90s right? Well, sadly not. John Cena reluctantly ran with the group for a month or two until Survivor Series. There, Wade Barrett faced Randy Orton for the WWE title under the stipulation that if Barrett didn’t walk out with the title, John Cena would be fired from WWE. As fate (or booking) would have it, John Cena turned on the Nexus and Orton hit the RKO for the win.
As the stipulation stated, Cena would be fired if Wade Barrett didn’t claim the WWE title. The next night on Raw, Cena gave a rather long goodbye speech that maybe indicated he would be going away for a while, allowing the Nexus to regain some lost momentum.
Again, this was not the case. John Cena came back eight whole days later. He forced the Nexus to rehire him, challenged Wade Barrett to a match at TLC, won clean and then literally buried Wade Barrett under a pile of chairs.
After that, the Nexus abandons Wade Barrett and were led by CM Punk (an odd choice). Wade Barrett went on to form the Corre with three other former Nexus members. After that folded, Wade Barrett went on to spend his remaining years with the company in the mid-card. Despite this huge setback, it wasn’t all bad news for Barrett.
His transformation from Wade Barrett to Bad News Barrett in 2013 somewhat rejuvenated his character and allowed him to connect with the crowd more than he had in years. He had a couple runs with the Intercontinental championship and even became the last King of the Ring.
While these accomplishments were impressive, they were not nearly significant enough to help him stand out or advance up the card. His alliance with the lack-luster League of Nations didn’t help his cause, and his run as King Barrett was mediocre at best. Due to frustrations with his booking and lack of creative control, Wade Barrett refused to re-sign his contract and left the company in late 2016.
While he didn’t end up as bad as other talents I’ll soon be discussing, Wade Barrett remains one of the biggest main-event stars that never was. He could’ve been the first ever British WWE champion. His work rate both in and out of the ring was impressive and it’s a shame we never got to see him reach the top of that mountain.
At least guys like Dolph Ziggler or Finn Balor made it to the top for a moment or two. As for Wade, he sadly is remembered as just another bright star who was crushed by the higher ups, and left to die, along with many others in the Wrestling Graveyard.
Samuel Claude
Reporter