Wade Barrett Discusses What Vince McMahon & Fit Finlay Told Him Prior to The Nexus Debut, Reaction Backstage to the Segment After

In an interview with Inside the Ropes, former WWE Superstar Wade Barrett, aka Stu Bennett, discussed the Nexus debut where they attacked John Cena and trashed the entire ringside area, describing what Vince McMahon and Fit Finlay told him backstage prior to the segment, and what the response was to it backstage after it ended. Highlights are below.

Wade Barrett on what Vince McMahon told them backstage about the Nexus debut: “Vince speaks to us, he says, ‘OK, this is a huge opportunity for you guys, this is going to be big, we want you to go attack John Cena at the end of the show and smash everything up, here’s what I want you to do, I want you to wear these armbands with the little N on there,’ didn’t give us a reason why we were wearing the N, didn’t give us the name Nexus or anything like that, said, ‘Put these on, Wade you go down, everyone else join him, smash up everything, I want you to rip the ring apart, I want you to trash the table, I want you to punch the security guards, punch the referees, punch Jerry Lawler, beat up Justin Roberts.”

Wade Barrett on the two rules he gave them: “He said, ‘Look, we’re gonna replace everything next week so do as much damage as you can, there are two rules, one, don’t punch any member of the audience,’ I don’t feel like he needed to tell us that but he did, ‘Number two, don’t touch the cameras.’ Now the cameras in WWE, they’re high definition cameras, so they’re all worth over $100,000 and we can’t touch them because Vince isn’t wasting that kind of money.”

On what Fit Finlay told him right before he went out for the segment: “Just before I leave, Fit Finlay pulls me to one side and he’s a top agent in WWE, he says, ‘OK, whatever happens down there, the one thing I want you to guarantee that you’re going to do is to pull back the blue ring canvas, rip it off, cut, here’s a Stanley knife or whatever, cut it open, pull it back, and expose the wooden boards that are underneath it.”

On the response backstage after the segment: “We walk back and the entire locker room stood there clapping like we just performed a miracle. I’m like, OK, this is strange, these people normally don’t even want to shake our hands, what’s going on here. Then I realized how big an impact this had. Vince is thrilled. Triple H is thrilled. The writers are thrilled. Then we saw a replay of what we done and they showed a close up of the crowds’ faces and they genuinely looked terrified like something they never seen before.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Inside the Ropes with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.