John Cena beat The Nexus at Summerslam 2010, in one of the biggest mistakes the WWE have made in years.
After debuting as the biggest faction in years, The Nexus look set to terrorise the WWE roster for years.
Lead by Wade Barrett, they had the chance to legitimise 7 brand-new main event heels at Summerslam 2010, but only if they could defeat a team that included John Cena, Chris Jericho and Bret Hart.
However, it was John Cena who won that match, beating out The Nexus and dooming them to a career of mediocrity. Another example of John Cena burying the young talent, but why?
Why Did John Cena Beat The Nexus?
John Cena beat The Nexus at Summerslam 2010 because they wanted to give the fans “a happy ending”.
Vince McMahon didn’t want the bad guys to win the match against Team Cena, so changed the ending to make the good guys beat the bad at Summerslam.
Wade Barrett revealed this during an interview with Inside the Ropes, where he talked about a number of topics from throughout his career.
He revealed that the decision for the match ending came from Vince McMahon, although it was Arn Anderson who informed the Nexus they would be losing to Team Cena.
After confronting Vince McMahon, Wade Barrett was told that John Cena was beating the Nexus, because Summerslam needed a “happy ending” to close out the show.
“Not only did we think we were gonna win because it was really the first test of this killer group that we had. It was like, okay, this is the first time we’re put to the test against these top WWE Superstars. We’ve been termed rookies the whole time.”
“We can’t lose this because we have a ton of hype. We have all this attention. Now is our chance to prove our credibility. We’ll win this.” And then, we were told a week beforehand by one of the agents, I remember who, that yeah, you guys are going to be winning. We’re just figuring out all the details.”
“So anyway, a week later we turn up at SummerSlam, and it’s in LA at the Staples Center, a huge arena. And we get there, and we get down to the ring, and Edge and Chris Jericho, who were part of the team that we were fighting against, they’re already down at the ring. But we all come down, there we are in our suits, I’m looking all smart, being a good boy still, and just go over and say hey.”
“And I say, “Hey, guys, we’re just trying to figure out how to make you guys look like stars today.” And we kind of chuckle about it, and we go off to the caterer and get some food.”
“And then, we come back down later on and we’re pulled to one side, and Arn Anderson says, “Hey, guys, here’s the finish. It’s gonna be you eliminating him, he’s gonna eliminate this guy, this guy’s gonna eliminate this one.” “
“So it’s kind of like, you know, dominoes are falling. This guy’s out. And then, we get down to the final three, which is myself and Justin Gabriel on the Nexus side against John Cena. And then, we’re told, “Okay, Cena’s gonna beat you both and go over.” At which point, I kind of thought he was joking just to gauge our reaction. And now, I realize, no, he’s not joking. This is serious. John’s going over.”
“So we bring up, you know, why is John going over? We really need to win this match. And Arn puts his hands up and says, “Nothing to do with me. You’ve got to go and speak to Vince about this.” So, trying to get your hands on Vince during a pay-per-view day or a TV day or anything is tough.”
“So it took about an hour or so for us to track him down and wait outside his office and get to speak to him. We go in there and have a chat with him and say, “Hey, Vince, here’s the situation. We’ve just been told that John’s going over in this match. We think it’s a bad idea. We think we need to go over.” And Vince looks me in the eye and tells me, “The reason we’re doing this is because SummerSlam needs to have a happy ending.”
However, he did not believe this was the whole story behind the match finish.
Barrett claimed that he did not believe that the real reason for John Cena beating the Nexus. He did not mention what he thought the reason was, but implied that it may have been of John Cena’s doing.
“There’s not a lot you can do with that point. We’ve argued our case, Vince. We need to go over.” And Vince says, “Here’s what I need. I need this to go over well at the end. I need the kids to be happy.”
“So, I knew at that point I was being lied to. I knew it was a nonsense, a nonsense reply. I didn’t believe it at all. I don’t believe it to this day. I thought it was a terrible idea.”
“I don’t think you’ll find anybody who will come forward and say that any level of rationality says, ‘Yeah, that was the right decision that day.’ But that’s what it was, and there was nothing we could do about it. The decision had been made.”
“How they got to that decision, I don’t know. But Vince looked me and told me that was the reason. I don’t believe it, but there we go.”
The ending of that match saw John Cena kick out of a DDT onto concrete, before kicking out of the pin fall and going on to win the match.
This made The Nexus look week, burying the group in the eyes of the fans.
Edge and Chris Jericho spoke about that ending on an episode of Talk Is Jericho, revealing they fought backstage for Barrett to go over on John Cena.
“I remember you and I at SummerSlam, uh, when we had the seven-on-seven with NXT, with Nexus. It was WWE team versus Team Nexus. And the finish, it was an elimination tag, and the finish boiled down to you and me. We were in there, but it was Cena against a couple of them.
And John wanted to do things a certain way, and we told him, ‘You’re wrong.’ Remember that? And he did it anyways, and it sucked. And then afterwards, he came over to us and said, ‘I should have listened to you, but I wasn’t seeing it that way.’ And sometimes, you just don’t see it that way, you know?
One of those things. And sometimes, you need to kind of bend in order to go, ‘Oh, yes, exactly.’ And that was one of those deals where he was adamant about what he wanted to do. And I remember, I was like, ‘Fine, I’m out of the match by that point.’
Exactly. He wanted to get DDT’d on the floor by Barrett, then kick out, and then beat them both. And you and I were like, ‘That’s the dumbest thing. That’s just throwing it away for no reason.’
And anyways, especially when I thought they should have gone over because they were so high. I remember we were fighting for Barrett to go over.”