What If Cena Had Chosen Himself Over Orton At Survivor Series 2010?

[Justin Satiable]

Presumably I'm not alone in my feeling that Wade Barrett's Nexus was pure gold that was wasted over time. The Cena story was intriguing, but ultimately caused the downfall of the entire storyline, as well as a fall from grace for their leader Wade Barrett. The real killing blow to this angle was the inception of the Free or Fired plot. I feel, however, that if one small thing had been different, the entire angle could have become stronger than ever.

Broken record incoming. Cena makes the heel choice. He doesn't affiliate himself with Nexus, he doesn't become some badguy Cena super-heel. All he does is choose his own career over Randy Orton's championship reign.

The difference that would have made to the entire angle would have been astounding. Cena would no longer be affiliated with Nexus, but now would have to bare Orton's rage, setting up a feud between the two that would actually MEAN something, not the wannabe Rock vs Austin feud that they had for the WWE Championship. This would allow Wade Barrett and Nexus to distance themselves from Cena and focus more on the "higher purpose."

This higher purpose, in key with most of what they were doing, would be to do away with the old and bring in the new. Wade Barrett's influence as WWE Champion would grow, and with key figures such as Vince McMahon out, he could focus on controlling Raw. The Raw GM always seemed to favour the Nexus, so he could be in on it too.

The ultimate build would be to Wrestlemania though, where beforehand The Undertaker would return for revenge against Wade Barrett and the Nexus. What would happen at this match? Taker could win with help from other superstars who want revenge against the Nexus, or Taker could simply fend off the Nexus and defeat Barrett. Barrett could win and become a legend, or could win only to be rushed by other superstars, leading to the Miz cashing in MITB.

I feel the possibilities were there for an epic storyline leading right through to Wrestlemania and possibly beyond. What happened seems wasteful, and what I see now of Wade Barrett is a waste of his talents. He definitely could have thrived further in his role as a super-heel.

Anyway, what're your thoughts on this? Could the Nexus storyline have been saved by such a simple change?

 

[Derf]

I feel that had Cena made a different choice, things would have been alot different for the next few months, but just about the same as they are now. Nexus would have never lasted forever, and Wade would have found his way back to the midcard like many other former World Champions in WWE. Cena would have NEVER gone heal, regardless of the outcome of that match, and Orton would have shrugged it off and continued winning championships. We would however never have had Miz in the ME of Mania, so there's that...

 

[TempestH]

You brought in a good point with The Miz cash in.

I think Barrett should have been WWE Champion. CM Punk could still get involved (without taking over the Nexus) and cost Cena and Orton their chances at regaining the title (Cena for turning "Hustle, Loyalty & Respect" into a catchphrase and Orton for costing Punk the World Heavyweight Title). Maybe after Barrett beat Orton and Cena in back to back title defenses, Miz elects to cash in the briefcase at the Elimination Chamber PPV, and turns face. Miz would be hyped up as "the WWE's last hope," and would defeat Barrett after a distraction by Taker (the lights going off and the bell sounding). Cena vs. Miz at WM would still happen but it would be face vs. face, and Miz would still retain because he's focused on winning while Cena is focused on The Rock.

 

[Pink Wolf]

I thought the outcome of the match was great. What it hurt it was Cena being fired, but returning to TV week after week. He should have been kept off tv for at least a month, and have Nexus control RAW. I think that would have made the storyline much better.

As we all know, Cena can't be kept off tv in fear of the rating declining...

 

[GrandSword]

OP, I've got to say, I really like your idea! Barrett and the Nexus continue their reign of domination over the WWE, but by Cena screwing Orton these two supers would then have to take each other on and they distance themselves from the Nexus storyline.

Barrett could then take on other face contenders to build them up leading to Cena vs. Barrett and the end of Nexus at WM. Man this would have been all sorts of awesome.. especially since Punk could have used Cena chossing himsefl over Orton in his "shoot" about Cena being the Yankees.

Cena being fired was just silly in the end and Super-Cena vs. Super-Orton would have been great. Reps to you sir for such a great idea

 

[DeathClutch]

This was a storyline.

I believe Nexus was gold and if revived could still be gold and allow Barrett re-take over Nexus or the higher power be HHH himself, I said it in another thread today I wouldn't be surprised if some kind of faction is created in the near future maybe have Nexus members return (injured ones) and Otunga/Mcgillishittyname and turn on Punk for his disrespect of Nexus.

 

[Lord_Frish]

I remember there were a lot of comments about Nexus splitting even when it had only just started. It always seemed to me that it was meant to be a platform to springboard the members into singles competition. It gave each wrestler in the group a great position to start a singles career from. Nexus allowed those guys to appear on Raw and Smackdown regularly when most wrestlers that come up from development end up on Superstars. It wasn't meant to be the second coming of the nWo, it was there to make Wade seem like a legitimate threat and to help these young guys gain a strong position in the WWE.

There are many ways that WWE could have extended the Nexus' life or kept the story interesting, but I think it is simply that it was not their goal to do so.

 

[xxxdaniel_ariesxxx]

It was Survivor Series 2010, not SummerSlam, where Cena "just couldn't screw his buddy, Orton" and thus was "fired" (but never left).

and as for the Nexus angle, that angle was over at SummerSlam when they lost the 7-on-6.25 match. They had 7 healthy, young guys why had been running rough shot over the entire company for months, and one of the guys on the opposite team was an invalid who literally cant fight because he might have a stroke and die, AND THEY STILL LOST!!! They didn't even have to win clean, Daniel Bryan could have turned on Cena in the final moments and showed his allegiance to Nexus and it wouldn't have hurt anyone...

anyhow, regardless of what happened with Cena joining Nexus, and getting "fied" and Punk taking over, and all of that, it doesn't matter because after SummerSlam any momentum that they had was lost, and lost for good.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Cena's decision isn't what ruined the Nexus storyline. Turning Nexus into CM Punk's underlings that do nothing but lose all the time is what destroyed it. Cena placing Orton's title as more important than his "career" actually helped the Nexus storyline. Barrett got tons of heat when he was pushing Cena around during the time he was "fired" and his servant. It led to a non-title main event at TLC where Cena threw two dozen chairs onto Barrett to finally get revenge. Then of course they started CM Punk's version of Nexus after that.

If Cena had chosen to let Orton win then Barrett would have gotten a rematch but might not have been as hated as a heel. Cena being his servant ended up helping him quite a bit in getting over as a heel due to pushing the top face around week in and week out. Another Orton VS Barrett match at the next PPV, but then what? How would Nexus have kept going after that? Cena being forced to help them helped keep the angle alive when it seemed to be going nowhere. They never fully took over like they should have, even in the original lineup.

Granted the Nexus angle COULD have kept going all the way to Wrestlemania, but that has next to nothing to do with Cena's decision at Survivor Series 2010. If Barrett had remained the leader then they would never have turned into a random group of underlings that do nothing but lose all the time. I think the original Nexus could have stuck around all the way to Wrestlemania under Barrett's leadership, especially if they had still done the angle where Cena had to help them. His decision ended up being better for Nexus in the long run.