Nexus: Attitude Era

[BillAlfonso]

Where to begin? I was think about the Nexus angle and what if it was done around a decade earlier with a different cast of characters. What if instead of Cena and CM Punk being attacked that fateful night, it was Stone Cold Steve Austin and Chris Jericho? Here's my idea:

For a few weaks now, Vince McMahon is no longer his megalomaniac self, he seems a bit different. Mr. McMahon is deeply contemplative and somewhat brooding but no one knows why, he doesn't even tell those closest to him but he seems unaffected by the happenings each weak. One night on Raw, the top guy of the WWE, Austin, is taking on the CM Punk of that period, Chris Jericho, in a highly contested match. Then they are attacked by a group of young wrestlers but no one knows who they are. For the next few weeks, this group has been viciously attacking the top guys in the WWE, Austin, The Rock, 'Taker, Foley, HHH, etc. Soon we find out who these men are: Batista, Lance Cade, John Cena, Randy Orton, Tyson Tomko, and last but not least, Brock Lesnar who had been doing a particularly good job of taking guys apart. We learn that the one behind their attacks is, you guessed it, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. We also learn that the reason he's turned them loose on the WWE is that he realizes that every member of the current roster has turned on him at some point and that they're all treacherous. Mr. McMahon has deemed that, for as ungrateful as they are, he created them and must destroy them to allow their more fitting replacements to become the focus. This slowly but surely unites the current crop of stars against them in what could be an epic fued that could change the course of the company and, who knows, the careers of guys like Cade and Tomko.

What do you think an Attitude Era Nexus would look?

 

[Raven]

very good, i think this could have been done in the attitude era BUT the attitude era was full of controversial story lines ETC. the thing thast made nexus stand out is that this is hands down the best story wwes done in a while it was one of the very few things that brought the "shock value" we hadnt seen i a while back, so yes it would have worked but it wouldnt had made as big an impact as it did

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

Its not a bad idea by any means and I think that it might have given these guys like Cena and Orton more credibility had they started out by challenging guys like Austin and Rock.

 

[TUFFY54]

It would have probably worked to a degree, but it wasn't really needed. In addition to that, the time period your talking about with this "Nexus" would have been 2002-2003 when the Attitude Era was more or less dead. It would have had to be this time simply because most of the guys you mentioned wouldn't have been old enough to be in the WWF in 98-99. There are two main reasons Nexus wouldn't have really worked in the Attitude Era: First, we already had a ton of stables. Second, wrestling was exciting. You didn't know what was going to happen week to week. You had blood, cursing, scantly clad women, and big stars jumping ship to the WWE. Wrestling was so stale in the beginning of 2010 that people flipped when Nexus attacked.

I guess I'm just not entirely clear on what time frame your talking about. The guys you want them attack make it clearly 99-2000. However, all the Nexus guys joined the company between 2002 and 2004.

Attitude Era-No. It wouldn't work because it wasn't needed.

Post War Era (2002-2004)-Absolutely. It would have been a great angle to get the new guys over. I would even put Paul Heyman or Eric Bischoff in charge instead of McMahon.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I think that could have worked. Here is how I would book it.

I like the array of superstars in the faction, especially Randy Orton and Batista. I think a Nexus-style faction would have been a great way to introduce the characters to the screen. Hell, anything is better than having Batista debut as a Reverands assistant!! He would be excellent as the powerhouse/enforcer role while he developed his promo skills and eventually broke away to go solo. Perhaps he could take on the role of a Michael Tarver, they both have a great look but are both nothing special in the ring. I could easily see Batista getting fed up of a medium role in the faction and eventually challenging for leadership, but I think on his debut, an enforcer role would be right for him. Seeing Batista stood outside the ring, arms folded would look incredibly ominous to me, before interfering and helping his partner win, or destroying the opponent post-match.

Randy Orton was extremely bland when he made his debut on WWE TV, so a role in a faction would allow him to become comfortable in the spotlight and give him time to build his own character, eventually getting more mic time as he improved. He was always very talented in the ring, and I think as a member of the Nexus faction, he could take on the Justin Gabriel/Heath Slater role as one half of the tag team (as most large factions seem to take the tag-team titles). After the break up of the faction, Orton would shoot up the card as his talent would show.

Same for Lance Cade. He would be great as the other half of the tag-team wing of this new faction. We have seen Cade as a tag-team specialist with both Mark Jindrak and Trevor Murdoch in his short WWE career, so working alongside Randy Orton as a team could be great for him. With Orton using his intelligence and speed, Cade would use his size to wear down opponents, before Orton would strike with an RKO for the 3-count. Cade never really made it in the WWE, he never stood out so a role in a major faction would have been extremely beneficial for this young wrestler.

I think the way that John Cena debuted, challenging Kurt Angle was perfect for him. I was initially unsure that being in a Nexus-style group would have benefitted Cena any more than his association with Kurt. However, IF Cena was put forward as the leader of the faction, and as the mouthpiece like Wade Barrett is now, then I think it WOULD give him a launching pad to the main event. Barrett is extremely new to WWE TV and is already headlining PPV's very early into his WWE career, and the same could, and more likely, would have happened to Cena. If he worked as hard as he has done in the real world, then Vince would still have recognised the potential in Cena, and he would have been World Champion.

Both Barrett and Cena are limited in the ring, they are average but acceptable. However, both are very charismatic and have a great look. With Cena representing this Nexus style faction as the leader both in and out of the ring, I think it would be his ticket to stardom, as is happening with Barrett right now. We all know Cena is capable of gaining extreme heat, even in his face role. Imagine what he could do as a newly debuting heel, without the "rapper" gimmick.

Now for Brock Lesnar. If he had made his first appearance in a large faction, he would have to share the spotlight with the other wrestlers, including Batista who has a physique just as impressive as his own. He would have to take the Skip Sheffield role, the muscle, but doing this would make the limited, but menacing Tyson Tomko, redundant, so I would not do this. Someone as talented as Brock Lesnar deserves his own spotlight. For this reason, I would keep Lesnar away from the faction and let him debut as he did, destroying a couple of mid-carders with Paul Heyman as his manager. The way he did make his debut was perfect as it allowed him to display his unbelievable power, leading to the moniker "The Next Big Thing". If he was part of a Nexus-style faction, and wasnt the leader, then he would not have stood out as much as he did, and wouldnt have "The Next Big Thing" as his nickname. Lesnar should remain solo, and let the less talented Batista take on the "muscle" or "Enforcer" role in Nexus.

As a replacement for Lesnar in the faction, and taking on an important role in Nexus....I put forward Sean O'Haire. Now, we would already have been familiar with O'Haire from his minor role in the WCW/ECW Alliance, and his partnership with Chuck Palumbo, but he would return with his new "Devil's Advocate" style look, with the long hair and long coat. I see O'Haire as the second in command behind John Cena and competing in the high mid-to upper card, winning the Intercontinental Championship fairly soon after his debut. O'Haire had a great look, great mic skills and was very talented in the ring. I think he would have taken this opportunity in Nexus to get himself over big-time, and would eventually have challenged Cena for leadership of the faction, which would have allowed Cena to turn Face and into the money-making machine we know today.

After this, O'Haire would continue to develop further as a super-heel, using his unique look and excellent mic skills to represent Nexus as its leader and mouthpiece, utilising the faction on his quest to become World Champion, which he would achieve by defeating his former Nexus team-mate John Cena at Wrestlemania, giving Nexus total command of the WWE.

The faction would eventually dispand as members of Nexus would become fed up of O'Haires controlling ways, and he would suffer a group beatdown from the rest of the members, who would realise that O'Haire was just using them for his own benefit and did not care about any of them, all he cared about was taking the WWE title. This would allow Orton, Batista and Cade to go their seperate ways, which would end up with Orton and Batista reaching the main event after mid-card feuds with the likes of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho, and Cade forming another tag team in the future.

That is how I think I would like that faction/storyline to work. What do you think?

 

[AndyUK]

I don't know if it would have worked as well personally. I mean, in 1998 and 1999, the WWF were creating new stars anyway. In a time where a lot of the main event guys that they have attacked have been on top for years, that meant the Nexus angle had a lot more of an impact.

Plus, like someone above me said, it wouldn't have stood out because there was a lot of angles like this in that time period. This great storyline just came out of nowhere and there hadn't been anything like it in years.

 

[Judah's Lion]

i'm an enormous fan of stables. i love The Horsemen, DX, Corporation, Ministry, Nation of Domination, Evolution and especially the nWo and Nexxus. i think they all had something very unique that made them special and believable and watchable.

what i love so much about Nexxus is that it's comprised of rookies trying to make a mark. i can't remember seeing a debut like this from a stable. sure, we've seen it in individual matches (Cena's debut against Angle or Orlando Jordan's debut on Smackdown) but never from an entire stable. and it's awesome for this year because it really is the biggest story in the WWE PG environment by far.

during the height of the Attitude Era, this probably would not have been as big a storyline because of what was already happening during this time.

but, as noted by other posters, maybe somewhere right about 2002-2003 would have been perfect. plus, you'd have some major guys to bring in about that time.

i do like Cena as the leader and Orton involved in maybe the tag division part of the stable. i like Lance Cade as i always appreciated his work anyway. and given his tag team skills and history, maybe make him a part of that too. Batista as the enforcer would be perfect. i also love The Natural's idea of O'Haire as the second-in-command idea.

i wouldn't put Brock Lesnar in because, as also stated by The Natural, his debut and booking and push was done very well and needed to be done solo and not in a stable.

as far as anyone else being involved in a just-post-Attitude Era Nexxus-like stable...? i'm not really sure. i can't think of too many off hand that weren't already a part of the WWE home team, WCW/ECW Alliance, etc.

but given that timeframe, that would make this group all the more menacing. these guys would be wanting to make a name for themselves among a group of elite from the three biggest wrestling promotions of the time. so yeah, i'd say that i'd do something similar to the OP, but i'd do it around 2002-2003 instead with the names suggested by The Natural. the only thing missing would be the Indy/High Flyer role... maybe AJ Styles or Christopher Daniels...?

 

[Rasha]

Seems like many people forget this when they praise the "originality" of the Nexus angle but WCW had a very similar story with the Natural Born Thrillers not long before Vince's buyout. The NBT were a group of rookies from WCW's Power Plant program who, like Nexus, came in as a gang to try and muscle their way up the ladder and push out the veterans. They even went a step further and had the NBT be the muschle for Bischoff and Russo, which is a direction many people see the Nexus angle going once the RAW GM is revealed.

I always thought the NBT angle was one of the forgotten gems from WCW's dying days. It gaves us the awesome O'Haire/Jindrak tag team, the great mic work of Mike Sanders, and that sweet "Roll of the Dice" finisher that Reno used. None of these guys were probably as individually talented as Wade Barrett (though I'd argue O'Haire was very close), but from top-to-bottom I think NBT had a lot more talent than the rest of Nexus.

So yes, it easily could have worked in the Attitude Era. It almost did with the NBT angle (for another company, of course) and WWE could have done something similar with the guys you mentioned. It's an easy story for fans to get behind because fresh faces are generally exciting as long as there's some talent with it.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

i do like Cena as the leader and Orton involved in maybe the tag division part of the stable. i like Lance Cade as i always appreciated his work anyway. and given his tag team skills and history, maybe make him a part of that too. Batista as the enforcer would be perfect. i also love The Natural's idea of O'Haire as the second-in-command idea.

i wouldn't put Brock Lesnar in because, as also stated by The Natural, his debut and booking and push was done very well and needed to be done solo and not in a stable.

i'd do it around 2002-2003 instead with the names suggested by The Natural. the only thing missing would be the Indy/High Flyer role... maybe AJ Styles or Christopher Daniels...?

Glad you like my ideas mate

I really do think a heel rookie faction of

Leader John Cena
2nd in command Sean O'Haire
Enforcer Batista
Tag Team Randy Orton & Lance Cade
High Flyer/possbile 3rd member of tag team (Freebird rule) AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels/Shelton Benjamin

could have worked brilliantly, had WWE thought of it, or stolen the idea from WCW's Natural Born Thrillers as someone else mentioned

I like the thought of an AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels taking on the high flying role in the faction, like Justin Gabriel is now. They could also work as part of the Orton/Cade tag team using the Freebird rule. This 3 guys interchanging as tag champs was used in TNA with Triple X and also in the WWE with the Spirit Squad. I think a rookie AJ would be excellent in this kind of spot, especially as he wouldnt have to talk much, as his mic skills were pretty poor back in the day. Perhaps they could use a young Shelton Benjamin in something like this, surely he was in the developmental leagues at the same time as Cena/Lesnar etc?

 

[Judah's Lion]

Glad you like my ideas mate


could have worked brilliantly, had WWE thought of it, or stolen the idea from WCW's Natural Born Thrillers as someone else mentioned

I like the thought of an AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels taking on the high flying role in the faction, like Justin Gabriel is now. They could also work as part of the Orton/Cade tag team using the Freebird rule. This 3 guys interchanging as tag champs was used in TNA with Triple X and also in the WWE with the Spirit Squad. I think a rookie AJ would be excellent in this kind of spot, especially as he wouldnt have to talk much, as his mic skills were pretty poor back in the day. Perhaps they could use a young Shelton Benjamin in something like this, surely he was in the developmental leagues at the same time as Cena/Lesnar etc?

last time somebody called me "mate" was when my soon-to-be wife agreed to marry me and when my grandmother from England called home. is that you, grandma?

j/k.

glad you liked my idea, too, of Daniels and/or Styles. and i do love that Freebird Rule for the Tag Titles. it works so well with large stables like this, unless there is an already-established tag team in the ranks; such as The Brainbusters in The Horsemen or Beer Money in Fortune. but yeah, this stable could have been great with those guys and during the time we've already mentioned.

as far as it already being an idea from WCW... it must have been one of those forgotten gems of a dying company because i barely remember it.

still, welcome to the world of professional wrestling. next time someone comes up with a totally brand new and original idea, let me know. cuz i seem to notice trends and patterns and recycled stories and rehashed ideas happen quite often.

just saying.

 

[Rasha]

as far as it already being an idea from WCW... it must have been one of those forgotten gems of a dying company because i barely remember it.

still, welcome to the world of professional wrestling. next time someone comes up with a totally brand new and original idea, let me know. cuz i seem to notice trends and patterns and recycled stories and rehashed ideas happen quite often.

just saying.

Yes, "forgotten gem from a dying company..." pretty sure I used that exact words myself. Sorry you fail to remember it.

You make it sound like I was criticizing the Nexus angle because of what WCW did with the Natural Born Thrillers. Not at all. I was simply using that to show how a very similar story was done during the same timeframe of the Attitude Era and that it worked just as well then as it does now.

But anyways, thanks for the welcome and your helpful advice. You're as amazing as you think you are!

 

[The Crock]

No, it wouldn't have worked. During the Attitude era there was so much action and so many factions/teams that we didn't need any more. On top of that, I think that it would have destroyed the careers of some of those guys. We wouldn't have two of our current era's biggest stars, John Cena and Randy Orton. I also think that had something of this debuted during the Attitude Era that it wouldn't have had that initial shock-value that the current debut of Nexus had. During the Attitude Era every single week was packed with action and surprises, this would have just been another one. What would have been the point of wasting such a great angle? You know, during the original debut of Nexus on Raw, we were all just shocked. We didn't know what to say. The product has been fairly calm for a few years, so something like this really shook it to the core. It's a lot different today then it was then, keep in mind.