It’s very rare to create a new and organic moment in professional wrestling but Stu Bennett says that’s exactly what they did by capturing “lightning in a bottle” with Nexus’ WWE debut.
Bennett recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard about his new film, I Am Vengeance: Retaliation, which is available on VOD services now. The former Nexus leader spoke about it recently being the tenth anniversary of the group’s debut in WWE and how their infamous RAW appearance still resonates to this day. The stable consisting of NXT season one rookies took WWE by storm and while they ended up splitting the next year, it’s still a group that’s remembered for pushing themselves right to the main event scene.
“The biggest strength was the shock factor of that. That day that we attacked the ring, I think there was a level of believability to it and after we attacked and ripped the ring apart, we beat up John Cena, we came to the back as a group,” Bennett said, “just the carnage in the ring and the looks of the people in the crowd and there was a combination of both shock and fear on the faces in the crowd. It’s very rare that you can get that level of visceral, very real reaction from a fan base. That’s why people still talk about it to this day, it was so shocking, it was so unbelievable.
“It’s very hard to make those moments in pro wrestling happen because let’s face it, WWE alone is pumping out ten-plus hours of wrestling content and then you’ve got AEW and everything else. We’ve all seen everything now,” Bennett said, “so it’s very hard to get something new and when it does happen it’s magic and lightning in a bottle.
“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 at the top of this page.
