Heath Slater Recalls Vince McMahon Pitching The Nexus, Channeling Real Frustration Into It

– Heath Slater looked back on the formation of the Nexus and the angle that followed during the latest E&C Pod of Awesomeness. Slater was part of the famous stable, which formed from the NXT season one class of Slater, Wade Barrett, David Otunga, Justin Gabriel, Darren Young, Skip Sheffield (Ryback), Daniel Bryan, and Michael Tarver. Highlights are below:

On the origin of the Nexus: “That was one of those things where I swear, I still think to this day, something happened to where we all jumped Glenn [Kane] in the ring to where every one of us was getting booed. And then, from that day on, there was just like eliminations. Just, go go go, elimination, elimination, elimination. And then it was just one of those things where we were in Miami and Vince called us all in the office. And next thing you know, he’s just like, ‘You know, I want you all to be like this pack of wolves, these coyotes that [are] just out for blood, this and that I want you all to wear these arm bands, I want you to do this tonight.’ And we’re all just like ‘Whoa, whoa, really? Is this really happening? Wait, this is cool as hell!’ So we had kayfabed the whole damned night, stay in our suits and everything. Last minute, get suited up in our gear and everything, and then damn, it was just fireworks.”

On being told by Vince McMahon about the stable: “Yeah, right in his office in Miami. And Michael Hayes was in there, I want to say [John] Laurinaitis was in there.”

On if they knew how big of an opportunity it was: “We had no idea. Like literally, we all were just like, ‘This is awesome, but we don’t know how it’s gonna go, we don’t know what’s going to happen.’ I mean, we were nervous. This is their big shebang here! I just thank God it worked, and we all were vicious. The stars were lined up for us.”

On if the scrub work they had to do in NXT influenced their performance as the Nexus: “100%. I mean, we even added that in the promos. You know, like making us change in the broom closets and stuff. Because we weren’t allowed in the locker room back then. We were changing in little sideways broom closets. We weren’t allowed in the locker room, we had to do these goofy shows like juggling, and cutting these promos, and keg carrying and track and field course-type things. And we used that too, being like, ‘Yeah, you treated us like caged animals, you did this, you did that, you know. Well, if you poke the dog too many times he’s gonna bite back, so we bit. So come and get it.’ We used that, and it was just good and raw, and real.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the E&C Pod of Awesomeness With with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.