Welcome to WIR, Top 5 Debuts in the 2010′s era. Today I cover number 1, the debut of Nexus
The Nexus Debuts; Attacks John Cena & CM Punk, destroys the ring 6/7/2010 by RatedREdgeHead316
Nexus is the greatest debut of the 2010’s era because of one thing: the sheer surprise of it all. Here were two prominent superstars in CM Punk (and his Straight Edge Society) and John Cena, having a match on the main event of RAW when suddenly Wade Barrett, the winner of NXT season 1 appears. From then on the carnage continued with the other 7 members of Nexus coming from the crowd (Darren Young, Michael Tarver, Daniel Bryan, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Skip Sheffield (aka Ryback), and David Otunga) and wreaking havoc on the ring and the area surrounding the ring.
Nexus left no stone unturned, attacking ring announcers, medical doctors, commentators, ripping up the barricade, ripping up parts of the ring, and more. More impressively, they easily dispatched of the Straight Edge Society, and then ganged up on Cena, taking him down in no time due to numbers.
There were memorable scenes from the debut, Daniel Bryan choking the ring announcer with his own tie (something that apparently got Bryan fired), Daniel Bryan spitting in Cena’s face and yelling “you think you’re better than me!?” before kicking him in the head, Michael Tarver’s superman punch, Justin Gabriel’s 450 splash, and the spectacle of watching 8 rookies destroy the main face of the company and swarm him like a group of flies.
I remember watching what seemed to be a normal or even boring RAW and then the Nexus came and turned everything into a Holy Sh!t moment where you wonder if what you think you saw actually happened. It was surreal, it was exciting, and was the first of its kind for a long time (maybe ever). This debut also led to the establishment of the careers of main stays in the roster such as Bad News Barrett, Daniel Bryan, Heath Slater, Ryback, Bray Wyatt, and Curtis Axel, and it led to memorable moments of Nexus beating up legends like Ricky Steamboat, Bret Hart, and Vince McMahon himself. Not to mention when the entire RAW locker room came out for revenge and chased Nexus through the building, when Cena was forced to join Nexus, when Roddy Piper cut that riveting promo begging Cena not to let Barrett win the title, and when CM Punk betrayed Wade Barrett and took over as the leader of the New Nexus.
This debut almost laid the foundation for the Shield (the surrounding the ring and swarming the opponent thing, the appeal of rookies beating down main eventers, and ending every beatdown in a specific finisher) and was so out of nowhere and shocking that no other debut has topped it this decade (2010-current).
Overall the Nexus debut was unique, historic, and amazing in many ways, which earns it the #1 spot on this list.
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