In my personal opinion, The Nexus storyline has been a missed opportunity. Now, before you start going “But X, Nexus is the greatest storyline in forever!” hear me out. The Nexus debuted strongly. They appeared on Raw, interfered in the main event, took over the show, attacked personnel, and destroyed the ring. They left a huge mark in little time.
Mistake #1: The firing of Daniel Bryan. Without a doubt, at the time of their debut; Daniel Bryan was the most over member of The Nexus. He had a strong storyline going during NXT and had the best crowd reaction from the audience. Do I understand why WWE fired him? Yeah, it’s PG. But FIRE? A simple warning and/or possibly a consequence booking-wise may have been suitable. But firing? Why? You have angles of people getting kidnapped and held hostage, thrown off buildings, ran over, etc. But spitting on someone or choking out with a tie (whichever reason he got fired for) is setting a bad example for kids? Compared to some of the stuff WWE does; I think not.
Mistake #2: Nexus has become watered down. How? They started off with a big bang and leave now nothing more than a little whimper. Nexus: disgruntled rookies looking to leave an impression on WWE by taking over shows. What have they been turned into now? Faceless names with the letter “N” on their shirt. They are cronies. For whom you may ask? Wade Barrett. Sure, I understand Wade is their leader. He won NXT after all, so it’s not that out of the question that he represents them as their leader. But they are faceless characters. The Nexus are a prop to Wade Barrett. You cannot have Nexus appear on-screen without the announcers talking about Wade Barrett or John Cena. It’s not about leaving a name for themselves anymore, it’s about Wade Barrett, WWE championships, and John Cena. They lack a gimmick except for the fact that they are in Nexus. They’re extras compared to the leading roles, so to speak. They’re just another group of heels working for a higher ranked heel now, much like how SES were the goons for CM Punk. But that angle worked: they were followers. Nexus was supposed to be an entity within the WWE Universe. That entity has now become Wade Barrett and company. Some mark they’re leaving on WWE, eh?
My Alternate Timeline: So, how would have I dealt with the situation past their debut? How would have I tried to keep Nexus a hot storyline for a long period of time? Surely not the way the WWE did. We all know how Nexus started, as it was the most talked about American wrestling angle in recent memory. I applaud WWE for coming up with such a creative debut. I think WWE should have played up on that angle a lot more than they did. Nexus could introduce themselves and why they did what they did: then go back to doing what they did (which WWE did for the most part at first). Cause havoc, cause destruction, attack the main stars, and interfere in big matches. Do what Nexus’ job is to do: leave a mark. Build this up to the point that WWE starts banning The Nexus from appearing. No matches, no BS; they’re banned. Then Nexus can start buying tickets to the show, appearing in the crowd, and causing more havoc within the company. Build Nexus as the Black Hole of the WWE Universe: sucking in and destroying everything in sight.
Now what can WWE management do? Nexus is appearing on the shows still, still causing more havoc than ever. WWE is left with no choice but to fire the members of Nexus, Wade losing his title opportunity in the process. They are banned from WWE events; they have no way to get into shows. Or do they? Nexus still begin appearing on shows, coming from the backstage nonetheless. This goes on for a while with Nexus causing more havoc than ever. But the WWE Universe asks how? Eventually, Nexus will reveal that there’s a mole within the WWE locker room. There is an inside job; courtesy of The Nexus.
How do you go about this? You don’t put a big name guy as this inside member, nor do you acknowledge who they are at first. WWE begins taking tight security measures to find out who this mole is. A security camera will reveal who this person is as they are caught on camera letting The Nexus in the arena. This person will be a mid-card wrestler, someone without an angle that needs a big push to make them a star. This someone needs to leave their mark within WWE, a similar goal to that of Nexus. Someone such as Bourne, Morrison, whoever fits the mold of what I just mentioned. This person is confronted and fired for their actions. But it keeps happening, over and over. Security cameras are being destroyed, production trucks getting raided for evidence. Nexus are taking out top guys, possibly even taking out the champion during a PPV and kayfabe injuring him. There are more midcard insiders leaking The Nexus into the WWE Universe.
Soon the management will be cornered from The Nexus’ power and show stopping capabilities. Nexus will make a simple proposition; if they get contracts and title shots they will stop the extreme acts of violence and destruction. WWE can’t risk not giving into their demands as their shows and stars could suffer greatly from it if not. Slowly the inside members will be revealed and Nexus will begin taking over the majority of the championship scene in WWE by going after champions who have been attacked already by Nexus, thus making the storyline not seemed forced. The champions will have a reason to hate The Nexus. But the venom of Nexus proves too much for most of these champions and they begin dropping their titles to Nexus one by one. Soon WWE IS Nexus.
Of course, you’d want to run with Nexus as the almighty force within WWE for a while to build the legitimacy of the group. You can’t keep doing that forever though, so how do you disband Nexus? With Nexus on top, how do you stop them? Greed would be the key. There will be a few members of Nexus without titles. There will also be a few championships not held by Nexus. Members of the WWE Universe begin plotting and bribing these members of Nexus with promises of future title shots if they work as insiders for them. This won’t be shown on TV of course, because it wouldn’t make sense to show that live because Nexus could view the show and simply kick out those members. But slowly The Nexus’ plans begin to be foiled on a constant basis, their cheating, and their interferences. Something is going on and they’re getting angry. Soon Nexus will begin dropping titles. The group will slowly crumble from inside, members accusing each other of being the traitors causing fights to breakout and members to quit. Once the group has dwindled down, the main champions of Nexus are left. This would most likely involve Barrett as some form of world champion (WWE or Heavyweight) as he is the spiritual leader of the group. He loses the title on a PPV, The Nexus’ plans of keeping the belt around him being foiled by a disgruntled group of the WWE Universe and the inside Nexus members turning on Barrett. Soon the master plan will be revealed and Nexus is dead.
The Alternate Timeline Payoff vs. The Real Timelines Payoff: What do you get out of this? An effective blend of an entertaining storyline with lots of twist and the buildup/creation of many careers/star names. The group would be dead of course but it would do exactly what The Nexus’ goal was all along: leave an impact and make names for rising stars. The version of Nexus we have now made a boom entry into the Universe, as I’ve mentioned. But they dissolved slowly after that into a rather bland storyline in my opinion. What may seem good to a lot of viewers and fans may not be so great once you analyze what exactly it’s doing for the group as a whole and the group’s image at the same time. Nexus was supposed to be a group of renegades; instead they’re just another bunch of heels whose careers are going nowhere slowly (apart from Wade Barrett).
You say that all members of Nexus didn't wrestle until after SummerSlam, but they still wrestled plenty beforehand. So I'm missing your point I think? Also, they weren't doing as big of attacks as their first one; that was my point. They kept getting more minor and minor after the whole limo incident. 
