Thriller Ant
Beep Bop Boop
Welcome, guys, to WrestleZone Forums. It is a pleasure to have you guys, and cant wait to get your opinions on the topics at hand. My topic actually comes from the episode of your show before you initially mentioned us: The Nexus vs. Team Cena at SummerSlam.
I will be arguing that the match WAS booked properly.
You see, many wrestling fans did not like the fact that a) The Nexus lost and b) John Cena won the match in the fashion he did. I will address both of these points.
SuperCena is a myth, and Cenas comeback for victory in the match was not at all unrealistic.
Lets flash back. John Cena is suffering a 2-on-1 beatdown at the hands of Wade Barrett and Justin Gabriel, including getting a DDT, if I remember correctly, to the concrete floor. He gets rolled back into the ring, with Gabriel being the legal man. Here is where the controversy starts. Gabriel goes for his finishing maneuver, the 450 splash, but misses. Cena moves a foot or two after blocking the move, and rolls up Gabriel for the pin. Barrett runs in, but receives a drop toehold and Cena locks in the STF for the submission victory. I can see how this can seem unrealistic on the surface. But how much energy did Cena really expend? Getting the knees up takes very little energy. Rolling up a man who just got the wind knocked out of him takes very little energy. Drop toehold, you guessed it, very little energy. The STF is really the only part of this sequence where Cena would need to expend energy, but with the crowds energy it is entirely conceivable for Cena to be running on pure adrenaline at this point. You may call it unlikely, but definitely not impossible. Now, for the overarching topic:
Team WWE defeating the Nexus was the proper booking move.
Now, I watched the episode where you guys discussed this, and Justin made a point that I want to center my argument around. Sorry for paraphrasing, but it went something like, You cant have a bunch of rookies beat a bunch of former champions, but you cant squash the top heel group on the show. You could not be more correct. Team WWE had 31 World Titles, 33 if you include R-Truths NWA reign and Danielsons ROH World Title Reign, plus countless midcard titles. Nexus had a few weeks on the C show beating each other up and some sneak attacks. Team WWE had some of the biggest names in wrestling, with Cena, Hart, Jericho, and Edge, where Nexus had Darren Young and Heath Slater. So strictly from that sense, it would be outrageous to even suggest that Nexus had any sort of shot at defeating the WWE team.
But WWE, in all their wisdom, made sure it wasnt that simple. They added in the unrest between team members. They took out the Great Khali, which was a great move from a non-kayfabe point-of-view, but left the team shorthanded. And finally, they made Nexus a dominating force the likes of which we havent seen from a faction in years. No one could stop them, no matter how hard they tried or how they went about doing it. They were built up as being able to end Raw as we knew it. This would be the heel group that could finally win, I mean, we had already seen them do things we had never seen before, could taking over Raw be next?
So, as Mr. LaBar said, the WWE was partially trapped in a booking sense. Do you put rookies over some of your top guys or do you take out your top heel group? I feel that WWE definitely accomplished more of the former, but in a logical sense. Think back to the eliminations, did any of them really seem that outrageous in the heat of the match? Did we really see kayfabe issue with Heath Slater pinning Edge and/or Jericho or Bret Hart swinging a chair? Was there really issue with Bryan making 2 of the Nexus tap out then being ambushed by the Miz or Edge and Jericho turning on Cena once they were eliminated? I can honestly say the answer. The match went exactly as it should have. The Nexus looked strong eliminating 6 very good wrestlers, but Team WWE took out the rookies like they should in all kayfabe.
The other issue that came up in the show was the suggestion that Nexus should have cheated to win. I honestly believe that would have been much worse for the group than losing cleanly. This group had/has relied on sneak attacks and outnumbering their victim to take them out during their time on Raw. This was their chance to prove that they could actually hang with the Raw guys in a controlled environment. If they start using low blows or chair shots, all it shows is that they arent as good as the Raw guys, and they know it. By keeping the match clean, it showed that the Nexus had faith in their abilities and truly believed they could beat Team WWE, which in turn, helped us to believe they could.
This really is exciting to have this opportunity to debate you guys, and I am honored to have been given this opportunity. I have a new-found respect for both of you for accepting to do this, and I can say you have probably picked up a new viewer in me from this.
I will be arguing that the match WAS booked properly.
You see, many wrestling fans did not like the fact that a) The Nexus lost and b) John Cena won the match in the fashion he did. I will address both of these points.
SuperCena is a myth, and Cenas comeback for victory in the match was not at all unrealistic.
Lets flash back. John Cena is suffering a 2-on-1 beatdown at the hands of Wade Barrett and Justin Gabriel, including getting a DDT, if I remember correctly, to the concrete floor. He gets rolled back into the ring, with Gabriel being the legal man. Here is where the controversy starts. Gabriel goes for his finishing maneuver, the 450 splash, but misses. Cena moves a foot or two after blocking the move, and rolls up Gabriel for the pin. Barrett runs in, but receives a drop toehold and Cena locks in the STF for the submission victory. I can see how this can seem unrealistic on the surface. But how much energy did Cena really expend? Getting the knees up takes very little energy. Rolling up a man who just got the wind knocked out of him takes very little energy. Drop toehold, you guessed it, very little energy. The STF is really the only part of this sequence where Cena would need to expend energy, but with the crowds energy it is entirely conceivable for Cena to be running on pure adrenaline at this point. You may call it unlikely, but definitely not impossible. Now, for the overarching topic:
Team WWE defeating the Nexus was the proper booking move.
Now, I watched the episode where you guys discussed this, and Justin made a point that I want to center my argument around. Sorry for paraphrasing, but it went something like, You cant have a bunch of rookies beat a bunch of former champions, but you cant squash the top heel group on the show. You could not be more correct. Team WWE had 31 World Titles, 33 if you include R-Truths NWA reign and Danielsons ROH World Title Reign, plus countless midcard titles. Nexus had a few weeks on the C show beating each other up and some sneak attacks. Team WWE had some of the biggest names in wrestling, with Cena, Hart, Jericho, and Edge, where Nexus had Darren Young and Heath Slater. So strictly from that sense, it would be outrageous to even suggest that Nexus had any sort of shot at defeating the WWE team.
But WWE, in all their wisdom, made sure it wasnt that simple. They added in the unrest between team members. They took out the Great Khali, which was a great move from a non-kayfabe point-of-view, but left the team shorthanded. And finally, they made Nexus a dominating force the likes of which we havent seen from a faction in years. No one could stop them, no matter how hard they tried or how they went about doing it. They were built up as being able to end Raw as we knew it. This would be the heel group that could finally win, I mean, we had already seen them do things we had never seen before, could taking over Raw be next?
So, as Mr. LaBar said, the WWE was partially trapped in a booking sense. Do you put rookies over some of your top guys or do you take out your top heel group? I feel that WWE definitely accomplished more of the former, but in a logical sense. Think back to the eliminations, did any of them really seem that outrageous in the heat of the match? Did we really see kayfabe issue with Heath Slater pinning Edge and/or Jericho or Bret Hart swinging a chair? Was there really issue with Bryan making 2 of the Nexus tap out then being ambushed by the Miz or Edge and Jericho turning on Cena once they were eliminated? I can honestly say the answer. The match went exactly as it should have. The Nexus looked strong eliminating 6 very good wrestlers, but Team WWE took out the rookies like they should in all kayfabe.
The other issue that came up in the show was the suggestion that Nexus should have cheated to win. I honestly believe that would have been much worse for the group than losing cleanly. This group had/has relied on sneak attacks and outnumbering their victim to take them out during their time on Raw. This was their chance to prove that they could actually hang with the Raw guys in a controlled environment. If they start using low blows or chair shots, all it shows is that they arent as good as the Raw guys, and they know it. By keeping the match clean, it showed that the Nexus had faith in their abilities and truly believed they could beat Team WWE, which in turn, helped us to believe they could.
This really is exciting to have this opportunity to debate you guys, and I am honored to have been given this opportunity. I have a new-found respect for both of you for accepting to do this, and I can say you have probably picked up a new viewer in me from this.
