How about that for a question folks? Now, I grant you it seems super random, so allow me to explain my thinking here. It should shock no one reading this that I am a wrestling fan and a bit of a nerd. As such, I do have some theme music on my iPhone, and I play it on a regular basis on my commute to and from the day job. And over the last week or so, the theme for The Nexus has come on more than once. And it got me thinking-not just of how it was one of the most wasted angles of all time (started out hot and fizzled out faster than it should have, not taking anything away from it’s success), but thinking of how awesome-and challenging-it would be to do this again. So, could WWE do it? And would you want them to?
First, could they? It’s WWE and they are in the business of scripting sports entertainment, so of course they can. But, will all the ingredients ever come together in such a fashion ever again? That’s the harder question I think. When The Nexus burst onto the scene, it was a different time and it was a perfect mix of so many factors coming together. For one thing, exposure to the NXT developmental territory was not the same as it is now-there was no WWE Network back then (as if it were eons ago!). For another, the very nature of NXT has changed since then. While it still has developmental type talents, or home-grown (or sort of) talents, it is just as likely to give us talents who have been well known outside of WWE and are just now coming to the big show, so to speak. While the members of The Nexus were experienced in the indy world, there wasn’t an AJ Styles among them (I suppose you could argue Daniel Bryan, but the bulk of the membership had not made a name for themselves yet).
All that being said, WWE showed us last year that they can still do such surprises-they unveiled the Undisputed Era on NXT, and while not quite the same scale-starting with three and now at four members-it certainly had at least a comparable impact on it’s maiden evening with the company. Now, with social media and such so prevalent, people are always talking so it makes surprises that much harder to pull off…but they can be done (in another example, as much as everyone guessed Maatt and Jeff would show up at the 2017 edition of WrestleMania, it remained a huge surprise due to how WWE handled it. So again…it can be done).
As for the second question, would I want them to? Absolutely, 100 percent yes. Why? I for one am frankly tired of the McMahon-as-alpha-heel storyline. It feels like we’ve been in this endless loop of a program since the Attitude Era, with only random and brief breaks from it as we move along. And while introducing a new faction could very well end up being controlled by Stephanie or Vince or someone along those lines, The Nexus proved it was able to function without someone mysteriously pulling the strings. WWE has plenty of quality talents on it’s rosters that it could have a powerful faction without needing a McMahon at the top.
And perhaps the best part of all of this? I think there’s a very good chance that if WWE chooses to introduce a powerful new faction, we could get a women’s group running things. Why? Well, we have two Horsewomen groups under contract with WWE. While the MMA version of the group is mostly green and no doubt not yet ready for that level of engagement, it’s not hard to envision sometime in the next year the two groups tangling and really pushing the women into the spotlight. Could they bring us a new, Nexus-level faction and program? It’s possible, though it may not be as surprising (unless they pull an nWo level swerve and have a current Superstar align herself with Rousey and friends).
So, WNZ readers…are you interested in a new Nexus type program? And if so, how would you like to see it come to fruition?
