Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes sent along the following:
Following their impactful WWE arrival in 2010, The Nexus were a dominant force in the lead-up to their match at SummerSlam, where they faced Team WWE in a 7-on-7 elimination match. However, in one of the most infamous booking decisions of that era, John Cena was the last man standing despite being hit with a DDT on the concrete floor and at a 2 on 1 disadvantage. The move was met with mass criticism and became something that The Nexus never recovered from.
Slater first spoke about the lead-up to the match itself and the sudden change in finish:
“It was amazing being a part of SummerSlam, being the main event, and being in a hot story of that size. The outcome sucked. Because one, when we first got there, we were going over the match finish, and we’re going over. So we were like, oh crap, we’re taking over. Literally, it was like an hour after doors opened, maybe, everything got changed. We’re not winning any more, we’re losing, and we’re all just like, that makes no sense. Why would we [lose]?
You would think they would let us have WWE in jeopardy, move on. Here comes ‘Mania. Get your supergroup, your Avengers, have them come in and beat us, as easy as that. But I tell the story as if we had a rocket ship between our legs headed to the moon, and before we landed we ran out of gas. That took the wind out of our sails. There was Cena pretty much taking to bat for himself and next thing you knew, everything got changed.”
Continuing, Slater referenced how Edge and Chris Jericho put the match together and were also not happy with the change:
“Edge and Jericho were the ones that put the whole match together, made it make sense and it was good. Then Cena didn’t like it, is the story I’ve heard. He didn’t like it, so he wanted to change it. Edge and Chris went to bat for us. They were all for it.
Then it got switched and Jericho and Edge were p—sed. They were just like, “Are you kidding? Are you serious? This ain’t good for the story. This is just for his ego.” Back then I’m just like, hold on, what? So I’m gonna die? I gotta take everyone’s comeback and lose now? What the hell?”
Concluding, Slater elaborated further on how the loss saw the group’s momentum halt, which they never recovered from:
“What got me is that once they beat us, it takes the threat away. So us trying to get Cena to join Nexus, or have a match where Wade won and now he has to join Nexus but he fights underneath… It’s like, have us win and then we make the stipulation that Cena is in Nexus, and then have him beat us from the inside. Not beat us, join us, and beat us again. It’s like, come on man.
I get you want to be Superman, but this story is great and now it’s watered down and tainted to the point that it’s not believable. We couldn’t get the steam back after SummerSlam.”
Check out the complete interview by clicking here.
