On the latest edition of Brisco and Big Ace, Wes Brisco and Heath Slater discussed their time in FCW, learning under Dr Tom Prichard and Dusty Rhodes, the high’s and low’s of the Nexus angle, and much more.
Slater, a founding member of the WWE stable, says Gerald Brisco saw him the next night at a SmackDown taping and immediately put it over as something that will be remembered for years.
“I remember seeing him in Tampa… it was in Miami when Nexus happened, and I remember Smackdown I think was in Tampa the following night. He was there,” Slater said. “I just remember he was like ‘man, all that stuff y’all did last night, people are going to be talking about that for years.’ Look at it, a decade later and people are still talking about it.”
Wes, a wrestler himself and Gerald’s son, put the group over and says they were immediately successful because WWE let them do what was needed creatively, but ultimately started taking control away from Nexus and that signaled the beginning of the end.
“It was different, and they actually allowed them to take the handcuffs off and let them be them. I remember the downfall is when [WWE] started not letting [the Nexus guys] have creative control,” Brisco said. “That was when it was kinda starting to get a little shaky and started to run its course.”
Slater says Nexus was finally done for after they lost their huge main event tag team match at SummerSlam 2010, noting that nothing they did after that could help them recover.
“When it came to Summerslam, it all just fell to hell… When we didn’t take over WWE,” Slater noted, “[the angle] didn’t matter anymore.”
On a related note, Stu Bennett (Wade Barrett) recently spoke with WrestleZone about the tenth anniversary of the Nexus debut and he shared similar thoughts on the success and demise of the group.
“In terms of it falling apart, I don’t think storyline wise it was the right thing to lose at SummerSlam, for example. I don’t think it necessarily had the support of certain people in management, certain people writing the show that it would have needed to last longer than it did. But in terms of a shocking moment,” Bennett added, “it’s one of the greatest in recent memory. We’ll always have that and people still love talking about it to this day.”
Talk of a Nexus reunion came up earlier this year after Darren Young mentioned WWE planning something for the group at WrestleMania this year. As more details came out, it was supposed to be a group reunion at Axxess but it was something that Bennett says he was not interested in. Barrett says WWE contacted him in January or February of this year about it and others like Young were going to do the appearance, but Bennett ultimately turned it down because “to me, it didn’t have any legs.”
Bennett’s new film, I Am Vengeance: Retaliation, is available for rental or purchase on video-on-demand services including Amazon. Check out our full interview with Stu Bennett, including his thoughts on why Nexus was originally successful, why he’s been preparing for a career in commentary and much more below:
Read More: Stu Bennett On Why Nexus’ Shocking WWE Debut Still Resonates With Fans, Why The Storyline Fell Apart
