Heath Slater On The Nexus Thinking They Would Get Fired Before Their Debut, His New Wrestling School
The Nexus' debut in 2010 is still one of the most memorable debuts in WWE history. Former member Heath Slater was a guest on Wednesday's edition of the Wrestling Inc. Podcast with Glenn Rubenstein and WrestlingInc.com owner Raj Giri and revealed none of the members of The Nexus knew what they would be involved in.
The Nexus appeared on RAW and interfered in a match between John Cena and CM Punk, attacking both superstars, the commentary team of Michael Cole and Jerry "The King" Lawler, and Justin Roberts. They also destroyed the ring and dismantled the equipment. Slater recalled the stable members being called into Vince McMahon's office and not knowing what his plans were.
""Nope. We all thought we were getting fired," Slater said. He said once McMahon explained to them what they'd be doing, they were all excited and they had a lot of fun during that television angle. It was also a great way for them to immediately generate heat for their team.
"You're talking about one of those things, we had gotten there and waited around and had no idea what was going on. We were just blinded until we went to Vince McMahon's office and he pretty much told us that we were going to be a stable, everyone of us, and we are a young talent that is just going to go in there and destroy everything," Slater said. "We were all looking around at each other like what the hell is he talking about right now? He said that he wants us to destroy everybody in the ring, destroy the ring and everything. Pretty much in there a bomb had gone off, and here we were. We went down there and beat the hell out of everyone; including the announcers and refs and whoever we saw, and we had fun doing it. We had so much fun doing it, and my gosh people hated us. You had your rebel crowds were they loved the bad guys, but my gosh, I was getting food and treats being thrown at me, it was like, man, they hated us."
The debut was seven years ago, so Slater got nostalgic and said, "A reunion would be amazing." Giri suggested that the reunion take place on the 25-year anniversary of RAW.
Slater also discussed his new wrestling school, Face 2 Face Wrestling, that he's opening in Atlanta, Georgia. Slater revealed that some wrestling legends will be on hand to help train the students, including Teddy Long, Jazz and Ron Simmons.
"The school is amazing. We have two rings in there, brand new. We are going to be running shows–we are running shows. We have Teddy Long is working hand & hand with students. He is so wonderful, and has always been wonderful. Teddy Long was good to me back when I first started because I met him through Mr. (Curtis) Hughes and Rocky King back when I first started in Atlanta, and Teddy, since the first I met him, has been a saint, a good soul, just a good man," Slater said. "He has always helped me with right from wrong, and is now helping with the school and it's amazing because he's legit done it all. He has set up rings, took down rings, refereed, managed, General Manager. He is like a book of knowledge since being around the business years and years, so he has so much to give. Mr. Hughes, as you know, is the head trainer and is teaching everything the right way just like he taught me. We have Ron Simmons coming in, we have Jazz coming out, we have over 100 years of knowledge that you can get."
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.