David Otunga Thinks Nexus Could Have Been As Big As The Shield, Recalls Debut Segment

David Otunga recently looked back on The Nexus’ famous debut segment and said they could have been as big as The Shield. The stable of NXT season one rookies debuted on the June 7th, 2010 episode of Raw with an assault on Cena, CM Punk, Luke Gallows, Jerry Lawler, Matt Striker, Justin Roberts and more. The segment became famous for the shock moment, and for Bryan Danielson being fired for strangling Justin Roberts.

Otunga has always been open about his frustration around the group’s being buried, and he noted on Insight With Chris Van Vliet that he thought they had massive potential. He reflected on the debut segment and more; you can see highlights below:

On If He Knew How Big Nexus Would Be:

“No, not at all. None of us had any idea how big the Nexus was going to be. In fact, I think part of what made it work so well is it was so real because we were the guys who were on NXT the first season, which I don’t know if people remember, but it was a reality show.”

On the Nexus’ Debut Segment:

“I think part of it was too, because it wasn’t that well-staged. They just told us, ‘Go down there. Tear the place up. We’re gonna leave box cutters for you and different things, all right, tear up the ring. We have another one. I don’t care what you do to this one.’ It’s like, ‘Wow, this is the first time we got to expose what’s under a ring, and how it’s made,’ and it was something.

“I remember, for me, I was really green then, and at the time, I had to be the one to kick this off. I had to punch the referee when we first got in the ring. That’s a lot of pressure to put on me, because this is the first shot. This is gonna set the tone. If this does not look good, we’re done. We’re done. I was just learning how to throw good punches, so I was like, I’m just gonna have to haul off and hit Chad Patton. He might just have to eat one. Sorry, Chad, but it looked great, and luckily, that was probably the best punch I ever threw. He didn’t lose any teeth. And it looked awesome.”

On Justin Roberts Getting Taken Out In the Segment:

“And that was the first time that had really happened, and anything on that level. A story I heard that I think was so awesome is, while this is going down, you can hear somebody ringing the ring bell, that was a fan in the audience who really thought these guys went crazy. ‘Hey, get some people out here to help!’ They bought it that much.”

On How Much Potential The Nexus Had:

“I think we would have had a major run kind of like The Shield. Because if you ask me, I feel like The Shield was Nexus 2.0. What they did with The Shield, everything they did wrong in Nexus, they made sure they did it right with The Shield. That’s my opinion. So I assume we would have had a run kind of similar to that.”