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#1 The Nexus lose to John Cena (2010)
If you thought the WWE's handling of the Summer of Punk was bad, wait till you see what happened to the Nexus. A group consisting of the eight rookies from the first season of NXT, they invaded Raw and left it like a dump to make a statement. They tore the entire place apart and ran roughshod over the entire Raw roster. Daniel Bryan would get fired, but the remaining seven members were a united front.
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They were ready to destroy anyone put in front of them. The first two months of the Nexus were actually well booked, showcasing them as threats to the established WWE structure. They were set to face John Cena and his team of WWE superstars, in a 7-on-7 elimination match, at SummerSlam 2010.
Cena's team consisted of himself, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, Bret Hart, R-Truth and the returning Daniel Bryan. There was heavy dissension within Team WWE, as Edge and Jericho went to do business for themselves, while all seven members of the Nexus were all for the team. It seemed like a no-brainer that Wade Barrett and co. would win this monumental match, but no. John Cena took matters into his own hands and altered the result of the match to him winning. It was a bizarre decision that literally made zero sense, even less after Cena was DDTed onto the exposed concrete floor.
It made Wade Barrett look extremely stupid, as he and Justin Gabriel failed to put out a damaged Cena. This was Super Cena at his toxic worst, as he single-handedly ruined the bright prospects of seven potential future stars in just one move. Edge and Chris Jericho had told Cena to put Barrett over at SummerSlam and knew it was the wrong decision for the multi-time World Champion to come out on top in that case. Cena himself admitted his mistake later that night, but it was too late to salvage the remains of the buried Nexus members. After such a bright start to their WWE careers, only one of the seven remains in the company as a full-time wrestler, Heath Slater. What a crazy fact.
Out of all the bad booking decisions at SummerSlam, this one was by far the worst one as it derailed the momentum of seven promising wrestlers at once. None of them would even hold one world championship in the WWE, including Wade Barrett, who had all the tools to do so. His stock was never higher than the period from his debut until that fateful SummerSlam night in 2010.
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