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Nexus is still remembered as one of the most dominating factions in WWE history. Wade Barrett led the members of NXT's first season and viciously attacked the main roster, targeting superstars such as John Cena.
The faction split up soon after, with some members of the Nexus moving away and calling themselves The Core. This group was under Wade Barrett's leadership, while a majority of the superstars moved under the leadership of CM Punk while retaining the name Nexus.
Matt Cardona, formerly known as Zack Ryder in WWE, revealed an interesting plan which WWE scrapped, on MC! True Long Island Story. The plan was to have Ryder become the leader of Nexus after CM Punk. Punk had been the leader of Nexus from January 2011 till July 2011.
Ryder revealed that scrapped WWE plans had him lead Curtis Axel and David Otunga when only two of them remained in Nexus.
“Something happens with, I don’t know if they’re the Nexus, or the New Nexus or whatever Nexus they are, it’s (David) Otunga, Michael McGillicutty/Curtis Axel…well I come out (after their match) with my music, I just say ‘Woo, woo, woo. You know it.’ And that’s it. Nothing happens the next week. They don’t tell me, I’m not asking questions. To me, it’s like, ‘Alright, I get to come out on stage. I get to be on RAW,’' said Cardona.
How Matt Cardona found out about scrapped plans of him becoming the leader of Nexus
Cardona revealed that he was never told in person that WWE had been planning to make him the leader of Nexus. It was only years later that he found out that there was ever such a major plan for him.
“I later find out, years later, and I haven’t found like the script, essentially, where, the first draft, I don’t know if it’s supposed to be this RAW or the next RAW, where like I become the new leader of the Nexus. But no one ever said that to me before, like while that was all going down. Like no one said, ‘Okay, and then next week you’re gonna form the new…’ I think it was gonna be the ‘Woo, Woo, Woo Nexus’ or something like that,” Cardona said. “But no one ever told me like this was a plan until years later,'' said Cardona.
Matt Cardona was released by WWE in 2020. After a brief run in AEW, Cardona is now part of IMPACT Wrestling.
