Heath Slater Details His Memories Of Nexus' Rise And Fall, WWE Firing Daniel Bryan
Heath Slater was a part of NXT when it was just a TV show and he then debuted as part of the NEXUS. The faction has a memorable beginning and Slater revisited that moment when he joined The Wrestling Inc Daily podcast.
"That happened in Miami and we were all living in Tampa at the time. I just remember getting travel and it saying you're coming to Miami. So, we're all just showing up biz-cas, walking in and doing our normal thing," recalled Slater. "Then they were like, 'We've got a meeting with you all. Go into the office as Vince wants to talk to you guys.' We walk in and it's Vince, Hayes, Laurinaitis, Carrano, all the top dogs.
"We're sitting in there thinking what's going on and if we're all getting fired [laughs]? They spilled the beans to us and said they want us to go down there and pretty much be like crazy hyenas just jumping and preying. I think they were getting a new set so they told us to destroy everything in sight. If people get in your way then get them out of the way. It was like a pump up session to go into battle type of thing."
Slater remembers all of them being given NEXUS armbands and that their destruction of everything was a great stress reliever even though drinks and sodas were being thrown at them.
"It was one of the moments where people are still talking about it a decade later. People still remember it! I always say it in the locker room, 'Hey, we need to bring NEXUS back' and they're like, 'Heath, that was seven years ago. Stop it!' But I'm telling you, if NEXUS came back full tilt and Wade came back as our leader and we had the solid seven, then man! Watch out now," exclaimed Slater.
That night is also memorable for Daniel Bryan being fired afterwards for choking Justin Roberts with his neck tie. Slater joked that Bryan took the orders of destruction too literally and that they should have reeled him back some.
"He was too rough [laughs]. It was one of those things where we should have walked up to Daniel and gone, 'Daniel, hold on now. We've got to work out there too.' He went out there ready. He's a little scrapper as he'll kick you ass in a second," Slater said before being asked about Bryan getting fired.
"It was bulls***; I'm just being real. They told us to go down there and destroy everything, so it was BS man? But it all worked out."
While the NEXUS had a great start, their ending was a fizzle. Slater was asked why he thought the group didn't last longer.
"It all goes down to the SummerSlam as that was the death of us. With [Cena] beating everyone at the end, it's just one of those things where it's like, 'C'mon man.' We could have easily took over, ran with it, made it interesting and then made a mega-group to destroy us at 'Mania or something. It could have been so good but it got ended shortly. But then again there's been a lot of storylines that ended shortly," stated Slater.
He was then asked if they questioned why they were losing in the fashion in which they lost.
"Of course we fought for it and were asking why are we losing because when we got there, we were supposed to be going over," revealed Slater. "Then it didn't happen and we were wondering what's going on. Then again, it was the SummerSlam main event and we didn't wanna press the buttons too much. There was confusion but I wish we would have at least said something."
Slater said after the SummerSlam loss, they didn't initially realize that things wouldn't be the same.
"We didn't know until it happened. Then the following night it was just like, 'Damn. This don't felt like it usually felt,'" said Slater.
You can follow Heath on Twitter @HeathSlaterOMRB. Heath's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.