John Cena is currently on his retirement tour, set to wind down with two more appearances in the coming months, before he officially ends his in-ring work with WWE. He’s indicated several times in interviews, promos, and online comments that he’s looking to leave the company in a better place as it moves forward.
Although many people are celebrating Cena as one of professional wrestling‘s greatest legends during this tour, some continue to mention how he’s buried several individuals behind the scenes. A former WWE star recently called attention to how Cena buried his popular stable years ago.
During an interview with Chris Van Vliet, released on Tuesday, David Otunga shared his thoughts on the stable he was in, The Nexus. The group initially formed from NXT stars who banded together to invade WWE Raw, led by Wade Barrett. Along with Otunga, it also featured Daniel Bryan, Darren Young, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, and Skip Sheffield.
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While on “INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet,” Otunga said he believed a major push he was part of in WWE came to an end due to SummerSlam 2010. Van Vliet asked him if the narrative that Cena buried The Nexus was true, prompting Otunga to sound off.
“That’s 100 percent accurate. I mean, that’s what happened. That is what happened,” Otunga told Van Vliet, also suggesting it occurred because “John wanted to go over.”
“I don’t know why he wanted to go over. We knew all day we were supposed to go over, and then things started getting weird, and then they tell us, ‘No, the finish changed.’”
SummersSlam 2010 featured a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match as the main event, with one team captained by Barrett featuring The Nexus. Cena captained the other team, which included John Morrison, Bret Hart, R-Truth, Chris Jericho, Edge, and Daniel Bryan.
Cena ultimately won the match, eliminating Gabriel, followed by Barrett. According to Otunga, the finish was originally going to be that Barrett won the SummerSlam match against Cena. There were supposedly some “shenanigans” involved from The Nexus, but they “ultimately went over” with that original finish.
Otunga indicated that the individuals in the match were upset when they learned that it wouldn’t happen, and that he thinks “John probably knows that wasn’t the right idea.”
“You spend six months building this faction, and we’re the hottest thing they have, and then, now, why would you have us lose? This is the main event. Like to really build these new stars, you want us to keep going,” the former WWE star said, adding that the momentum stopped, and later CM Punk took over as leader of The New Nexus.
“Obviously, at the time, [Cena] thought that was the right call, but in retrospect, I don’t think he’d even agree,” Otunga indicated.
Otunga isn’t the only one to suggest that Cena got involved in halting a potential big moment in a WWE career. Former WWE stars Ryback and Jake Hager, aka Jack Swagger, have also made claims about Cena regarding their own singles careers and others’.
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