WWE · 2011
The New Nexus
Overview
A hostile takeover of a hostile takeover.
The New Nexus was the second and final version of The Nexus, the WWE stable that had spent 2010 as an invasion angle under Wade Barrett. On the January 3, 2011 episode of Raw the group announced it was under “new management” and revealed CM Punk as its leader, a position he took after Barrett lost a number one contendership steel cage match involving Randy Orton and Sheamus — Punk teased helping Barrett escape the cage, then knocked him off it. Barrett was exiled and the group was renamed to put distance between itself and him.
It existed because both halves of it needed rescuing. The Nexus had lost its central feud with John Cena and its threat had gone flat; Punk had come off the Straight Edge Society in September 2010 with no stable and no title. Handing Punk a ready-made crew solved both problems at once, and he immediately rewrote the group in his own image. On the January 10, 2011 Raw he made the members prove loyalty by hitting each other with kendo sticks. Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater refused, walked, and joined Barrett and Ezekiel Jackson on SmackDown as The Corre. Husky Harris, Michael McGillicutty and David Otunga took the beating and stayed.
What it changed, in the end, was Punk's career rather than WWE's landscape. The stable spent the spring being systematically dismantled by Randy Orton, who beat every member in turn and punted several of them off television, and who beat Punk himself at WrestleMania XXVII on April 3 and again in a Last Man Standing match at Extreme Rules on May 1. Losing that consistently to one man is usually the end of a group. Here it set up the alternative: if the Nexus could not get Punk over as a conqueror, his contract expiring could.
On the June 27, 2011 Raw, Punk sat cross-legged on the entrance stage and delivered the worked-shoot promo now universally called the pipe bomb, naming Ring of Honor and New Japan as places he might take the WWE Championship when his deal ran out. Three weeks later, at Money in the Bank in his home town, he beat John Cena for the title and left the building with it. The New Nexus is the only stable in WWE history whose defining moment is its leader quitting.
7
months active
7
members
2
titles
91
days tag champs
1
pipe bomb
| Promotion | WWE (Raw) |
|---|---|
| Active | Jan 3 – Aug 22, 2011 Punk revealed as leader Jan 3; tag titles lost and group disbanded Aug 22. |
| Leader | CM Punk |
| Members | 7 Includes Gabriel and Slater, who lasted one week before leaving to form The Corre. |
| Titles won | 2 WWE Tag Team Championship (Otunga & McGillicutty) and the WWE Championship (Punk). |
| Predecessor | The Nexus |
| Splinter group | The Corre |
| Ended by | Air Boom |
Members
7 membersSeven men wore the armband under Punk. Two of them for exactly one week.
David Otunga
Michael McGillicutty
Husky Harris
Mason Ryan
Justin Gabriel
Heath Slater
Who they were
CM Punk
Took the group from Wade Barrett, imposed the kendo-stick initiation, and used his last seven months under contract to build the pipe-bomb angle. Won the WWE Championship on his final night with the stable.
David Otunga
Passed Punk's initiation and stayed to the end. Won the WWE Tag Team Championship with McGillicutty on the May 23, 2011 Raw and held it 91 days. A Harvard Law graduate, which the commentary never stopped mentioning.
Michael McGillicutty
Third-generation wrestler, son of Mr. Perfect. Held the WWE Tag Team Championship with Otunga from May 23 to August 22, 2011 — the longest single thing the New Nexus actually accomplished.
Husky Harris
Passed the kendo-stick initiation and was gone by the end of the month: Randy Orton punted him on the January 31, 2011 Raw and he was sent back to developmental. He returned in 2012 as Bray Wyatt.
Mason Ryan
Joined on the January 17, 2011 Raw by attacking both Punk and John Cena during their match, after which Punk handed him a Nexus armband. Left the group on the June 27, 2011 Raw when an injury was announced.
Justin Gabriel
Refused to hit his own stablemates with a kendo stick at Punk's initiation and walked out the same night, joining Wade Barrett and Ezekiel Jackson on SmackDown as The Corre.
Heath Slater
Left alongside Gabriel for the same reason and on the same night. The Corre would spend the spring feuding with the group they had just quit.
Wade Barrett founded The Nexus and led it through 2010, but was exiled on January 3, 2011 and never wore the New Nexus banner. He is not listed here.
Timeline
15 beatsSeven months, start to finish, on Raw.
- Jan 3, 2011
The takeover
On Raw, The Nexus announces it is under “new management” and CM Punk is revealed as leader. Punk had teased helping Wade Barrett escape a number one contendership steel cage match, then knocked him off the cage. Barrett is exiled and the group is renamed The New Nexus.
- Jan 10, 2011
The kendo stick initiation
Punk orders the members to hit each other with kendo sticks to prove loyalty. Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater refuse and leave, joining Barrett and Ezekiel Jackson on SmackDown as The Corre. Husky Harris, Michael McGillicutty and David Otunga take the beating and pass.
- Jan 17, 2011
Mason Ryan gets an armband
Ryan interferes in Punk's match with John Cena, attacking both men. Punk hands him a Nexus armband on the spot.
- Jan 30, 2011
Royal Rumble
The New Nexus and The Corre are both in the 40-man Royal Rumble match. The New Nexus costs Randy Orton his rematch clause for The Miz's WWE Championship, starting the feud that will define the group's spring.
- Jan 31, 2011
Orton punts Husky Harris
On Raw, Orton punts Harris in the head and writes him off television. Harris returns to developmental; he will come back in 2012 as Bray Wyatt.
- Feb – Mar 2011
Orton clears the room
Over the following weeks Orton beats every member of The New Nexus in turn, causing several storyline injuries by punting them. By WrestleMania the leader is nearly the only one left standing.
- Apr 3, 2011
WrestleMania XXVII
Randy Orton defeats CM Punk. The group's biggest stage and its biggest loss.
- May 1, 2011
Extreme Rules
Orton beats Punk again, this time in a Last Man Standing match, closing out the feud with the New Nexus on the wrong end of it.
- May 23, 2011
Tag titles · the one real win
On Raw, with a distraction from The New Nexus, McGillicutty and Otunga beat Big Show and Kane for the WWE Tag Team Championship.
- Jun 20, 2011
Power to the People
Punk was to be named number one contender for Cena's WWE Championship; instead he is put in a triple threat with Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio under a fan-voted falls-count-anywhere stipulation. Punk wins, then reveals his WWE contract expires at Money in the Bank.
- Jun 27, 2011
The pipe bomb
Mason Ryan's injury is announced and he leaves the group. The same night Punk sits cross-legged on the stage and delivers the worked-shoot promo he called a pipe bomb, explicitly naming Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling as places he might take the title.
- Jul 17, 2011
Money in the Bank
At the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, Punk beats John Cena for the WWE Championship, blows a kiss at Vince McMahon and leaves the building with the belt. Some sources treat this as the night the New Nexus ends.
- Jul 25, 2011
A new champion is crowned
With Punk gone, WWE runs a tournament on Raw. Rey Mysterio wins the WWE Championship and loses it to John Cena the same night. Punk returns at the end of the show, still holding the belt he left with.
- Aug 1, 2011
The banner comes down
Otunga and McGillicutty stop working under the New Nexus name, continuing as a tag team without it.
- Aug 22, 2011
Disbandment
Otunga and McGillicutty lose the WWE Tag Team Championship to Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne, after 91 days. With the belts gone, the group is finished.
Championships
2 reignsTwo championships, both won in the group's last three months.
♛ WWE Tag Team Championship91 daysMichael McGillicutty & David Otunga · won May 23, 2011 on Raw, beating Big Show and Kane after a New Nexus distraction. Lost August 22, 2011 to Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne (Air Boom). The only title the group ever defended.
★ WWE Championship8 days as recognisedCM Punk · won July 17, 2011 at Money in the Bank, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, Illinois, beating John Cena with Cena's job on the line. Punk left the building with the belt as his contract expired; WWE crowned a new champion in a tournament on the July 25 Raw.
The WWE Championship is listed because Punk won it on his final night with the stable and left the arena holding it, which is the reading the source takes: the title was “finally held by the stable on their last night of existence.” It was not defended for the group, and WWE crowned a new champion eight days later. Count it or discount it — the dates are here either way.
Signature Moments
5 momentsFive nights that carry the run. Four of them are promos or angles, not matches.
“Under new management”
January 3, 2011 · Raw — after months of teasing, The Nexus reveals its new leader is the man who had just knocked Wade Barrett off a steel cage. The invasion angle becomes a Punk vehicle in one segment.
The kendo stick initiation
January 10, 2011 · Raw — Punk makes the group beat each other to keep their armbands. Gabriel and Slater refuse and leave to form The Corre; Harris, McGillicutty and Otunga take it. The Straight Edge Society's head-shaving ritual, reissued as violence.
Randy Orton beats CM Punk
April 3, 2011 — the New Nexus's WrestleMania match, and its loss. Orton had spent three months punting the stable's members off television; here he finished with the leader.
The pipe bomb
June 27, 2011 · Raw — Punk sits cross-legged on the stage and delivers a worked-shoot promo about his expiring contract, naming Ring of Honor and New Japan on WWE television. The most consequential promo of the era, cut while nominally leading this stable.
CM Punk beats John Cena in Chicago
July 17, 2011 · Allstate Arena, Rosemont, Illinois — Punk wins the WWE Championship in front of his home crowd, kicks Alberto Del Rio before he can cash in, blows a kiss at Vince McMahon and disappears through the crowd with the belt.
Legacy
A stable remembered for what one member did on the way out of it.
The New Nexus is the rare stable whose legacy runs entirely through its leader. As a group it lost its WrestleMania match, lost the rematch, lost most of its members to Randy Orton's punt, and won exactly one championship it could defend. What it did do was give CM Punk seven months of weekly television as the most visible man on Raw at precisely the moment his contract was running down — and that timing is the whole story.
The pipe bomb on June 27, 2011 and the Money in the Bank main event three weeks later reset Punk's standing permanently. He won the WWE Championship back at Survivor Series on November 20, 2011 and held it for 434 days until The Rock beat him at the Royal Rumble on January 27, 2013 — the tenth-longest world title reign in WWE history. None of that happens on that schedule without the runway the New Nexus provided.
The supporting cast did better out of it than the group's record suggests. Husky Harris went back to developmental and returned as one of the most distinctive characters of the decade. McGillicutty was repackaged and put with Paul Heyman. Otunga became a broadcaster. The New Nexus was a bad stable that produced good careers.
Where they went
CM Punk
Regained the WWE Championship at Survivor Series on November 20, 2011 and held it 434 days, losing to The Rock at the Royal Rumble on January 27, 2013.
Husky Harris
Punted off television on January 31, 2011 and returned to FCW. Repackaged as Bray Wyatt in April 2012.
Michael McGillicutty
Became Curtis Axel on the May 20, 2013 Raw with Paul Heyman as manager, and won the Intercontinental Championship at Payback on June 16, 2013.
David Otunga
A Harvard Law graduate from 2006, he moved into WWE commentary from June 2016 and was released on April 15, 2020.
Frequently Asked
6 questionsWhat was the difference between The Nexus and The New Nexus?
Leadership. The Nexus was Wade Barrett's invasion group through 2010. On the January 3, 2011 Raw, Barrett was exiled after CM Punk knocked him off a steel cage, Punk was revealed as the new leader, and the group was renamed The New Nexus specifically to distance itself from the old management. Same armbands, different religion.
Who was in The New Nexus?
CM Punk led it. David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty lasted the whole run; Husky Harris passed the initiation and was written off by January 31; Mason Ryan joined on January 17 and left in June with an injury. Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater were members for exactly one week before refusing the initiation and leaving to form The Corre.
What championships did The New Nexus win?
Two. McGillicutty and Otunga won the WWE Tag Team Championship on the May 23, 2011 Raw from Big Show and Kane, and held it 91 days until Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne took it on August 22. CM Punk won the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank on July 17, 2011 — on his last night with the group, walking out of the building with the belt as his contract expired.
When did The New Nexus actually disband?
Sources disagree, and the same source disagrees with itself. One reading ends the group on July 17, 2011, the night Punk left with the WWE Championship — described as “their last night of existence”. The other follows Otunga and McGillicutty, who used the New Nexus banner until August 1, 2011, continued without it, and lost the tag titles on August 22, 2011, which is given as the disbandment. This page uses August 22 for the group and July 17 for Punk, because both are true of different things.
Was the pipe bomb promo a New Nexus segment?
Technically yes, which is the joke. Punk delivered it on the June 27, 2011 Raw, while still the leader of the stable, on the same night Mason Ryan's injury was announced and he left the group. The promo has nothing to do with the Nexus and everything to do with Punk's expiring contract — the stable was the furniture he happened to be standing in front of.
Why did Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater leave after one week?
Punk's initiation. On the January 10, 2011 Raw he ordered the members to hit each other with kendo sticks to prove loyalty. Gabriel and Slater refused, left, and joined Wade Barrett and Ezekiel Jackson on SmackDown as The Corre — which promptly became one of The New Nexus's rivals.
Sources
6 sourcesEvery date on this page traces to one of these.
WikipediaThe Nexus (professional wrestling)
WikipediaMoney in the Bank (2011)
WikipediaCM Punk
WikipediaCurtis Axel
WikipediaDavid Otunga
WikipediaBray Wyatt
The disbandment date is the one point where the sourcing genuinely pulls in two directions; both readings are stated above rather than resolved silently.