Raw Fusion: A Foreshadowing Finale?

by Firefly on 11th November 2010

The 8th November 2010 episode of Monday Night Raw starts with John Cena in the middle of the ring at a podium bearing The Nexus’ logo, reading from a scroll he hypes and introduces the leader of The Nexus; Wade Barrett.

Barrett makes his way to the ring accompanied by the rest of The Nexus as we are told by Michael Cole that Josh Mathews is taking the place of Jerry “The King” Lawler as he is recovering from a knee injury.

Barrett thanks Cena for the introduction and says that he couldn’t have said it better himself, but he did write it for him, and after telling the crowd in Manchester, England that “the prodigal son has returned” and getting cheers, he says that there is going to be a preview of the championship celebration later on.

Before The Nexus is to hoist him onto their shoulders, he needs to take care of something, and after the footage of what happened involving The Nexus on SmackDown! (click here for our SmackDown! report) is rolled, he asks David Otunga to step forward.

Barrett says that next time he decides to undermine his authority as the leader of The Nexus and take them to SmackDown! without his permission, pausing as the crowd interrupts with “who are you” chants for Otunga, he should make sure that he is successful.

Moving on to Cena, he says that last week Cena had the opportunity to show the world what will happen at Survivor Series in his match against Randy Orton, but instead did something else, with the footage of the match last week then rolling.

Barrett asks him to explain himself, with Cena pretending to misinterpret it and starting to explain how his character came about, before he is told to stop. He clarifies that he meant the match and asks again, but is met simply with the response that they lost.

He tells Cena not to test him and that he’s lucky that he’s in his hometown, as he’s not going to let him or anybody else ruin the celebration to come later on. He says that the fact is that in two weeks time, Cena is either free or fired; he’ll either raise his hand as the winner of the title or flush his career down the toilet.

Cena says that he’s glad that Barrett is home and that his country-people embrace him, but he hopes that he remembers what he told him a couple of weeks ago; whether free or fired, when the match is over, he will give him and anybody else who wants to interfere the beating of a lifetime.

Barrett calls Cena’s statement “cute” but says that they both know that he holds his destiny in both hands, so at Survivor Series he will do exactly what he tells him to do. At this point in time, he says that they should practice what will happen after the match at Survivor Series and say that Wade Barrett is the new WWE Champion.

Cena protests at first by saying that he hasn’t won anything yet, but is reminded it is a practice – as he says “whatever” though, Randy Orton’s music hits and the current WWE Champion decides to make an appearance.

Orton says that the last time he checked, he was still the WWE Champion, and addressing Barrett, he tells him that though it’s true that he has Cena under his thumb, Cena isn’t fighting him for the title and there is no doubt in his mind that he can beat him no matter who the referee is.

He says that in two weeks time, Cena is either free or fired, but he doesn’t care – all he cares about it making sure that Barrett never has the WWE Championship. Barrett says that it’s funny he says that, as the last time he checked he had an army of men standing behind him, something which Orton can’t claim to have.

The sound plays and the lights flash as Michael Cole informs us to a chorus of boos that he has received an email from the Anonymous Raw General Manager. He says that Barrett’s championship celebration has been officially cancelled, and to make sure that there is a decisive victory, the match at Survivor Series must be won by pinfall or submission only, and that furthermore The Nexus will be banned from ringside.

Before then however, Orton will have his own army too as Team Barrett (comprised of The Nexus) will take on Team Orton (comprised of members personally chosen by the General Manager) in a 10-Man Tag Team match later on, with John Cena as the Special Guest Referee. Cena pushes over The Nexus’ podium over followed by pushing over Otunga too, before leaving the ring.

Next up, we have a 6-Diva Tag Team “Divas Cup” match pitting Eve and The Bella Twins (dressed in the Manchester United football/soccer kit) against Tamina, Alicia, and Maryse (dressed in the Liverpool football/soccer kit). The match ends with one of the Bella Twins getting the victory for their team with a small package after switching places behind the backs of Alicia and the referee and then playing possum.

Going backstage, Otunga is complaining about Cena “punking” them until Barrett makes himself known, to which he explains that he was just telling them to step it up. Barrett says that he’s glad that he feels that way as he also needs to step it up, but he won’t be doing so as a part of Team Barrett as that is reserved for the rest of them, but rather in a match against John Cena.

Reminding him of his statement saying that he is the most talented member of The Nexus, Barrett tells Otunga that we will find out later on if that is true, as he wants him to give it everything he’s got and do some damage, which he says he will be telling that to Cena as well.

Back in the arena, The Hart Dynasty (accompanied by Natalya) take on The Uso’s in a match which sees Jay Uso get the victory for his team with a splash from the top rope.

Matt Striker interviews Randy Orton, he asks him who he thinks the General Manager will choose for his team, but gets the response that he couldn’t possibly know the answer to that question, but he can’t say that he doesn’t care because he does.

Orton says he needs to worry about five members of The Nexus and John Cena, so his team better be the best of the best. At this point, The Miz interrupts to say that he has just heard from the General Manager, so he can tell him that one member of the team is him, so not to worry about having the best of the best, as right now his team is awesome.

Backstage again, Otunga tries to assure the other members of The Nexus that when he was talking about being the most talented member, he was directing it at Cena not them. He says that he’s going to show how a leader really handles things as he will beat Cena, and as they are a team he’d think they’d be out there to have his back. After Justin Gabriel asks him whether Barrett knows about this, Otunga says that they don’t have to ask Barrett for permission, talking about as far as he can see they are all Nexus.

Back in the arena once more, as Mathews and Cole talk about the events involving Aksana and Goldust on NXT (click here for our NXT report), Goldust goes against Ted DiBiase (accompanied by Maryse).

A bewildered Goldust gets the win by rolling up DiBiase for the 3-count after Aksana causes a distraction when she comes to ringside, slaps Maryse, and grabs the Million Dollar Championship from her before leaving again.

Now, John Cena is pitted against David Otunga, with Otunga accompanied down the ramp by the other members of The Nexus until Barrett makes a point by signalling for them all to turn around and head back to the locker room. Cena gets the victory when he makes Otunga tap out to the STF.

We see Otunga tending to himself with an ice-pack when he is approached by Barrett, who recounts the fact that last week Otunga was pinned in the tag team match, pinned again on SmackDown! after taking the rest of The Nexus there with him, and finally embarrassing him in his hometown with that match against Cena.

He says that he is going to give him a chance to redeem himself by taking The Nexus back to SmackDown! this week and having a match against Edge, but if he doesn’t win, then he is done – he won’t have to worry about being Nexus any more as he’ll be against them.

Next, Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov (dressed similarly to Laurel and Hardy) stage a tea party with their special guest; Sheamus. Santino spends most of the time thinking he may have inadvertently offended Sheamus, when he says that there is Ginger tea, asks if he prefers his tea to be milky, and an explanation of having researched the root of Sheamus’ anger as being one of two reasons; either being hit by gamma rays, or being excluded from activities growing up due to being Ginger, causing a “Santino” chant to erupt.

Sheamus says that Santino’s a funny guy, and that he’s laughing so hard that he’s forgotten why he hates him in the first place, with Santino responding that he thinks they have the potential to get along famously and can’t remember why he hates him either.

Kozlov helpfully interjects that it’s because Santino beat him, continuing to make it worse by saying that it was the biggest ever upset in WWE history, causing a “Kozlov” chant to erupt, at the bemusement of the announcers.

Santino notices that Sheamus is low on tea, so with visibly shaking hands attempts to remedy that situation but instead ends up pouring it in Sheamus’ lap, who understandably isn’t very happy about it so pushes over the table.

Cole gets another email from the General Manager, and informs us that the time for tea and crumpets has come to an end, instead it’s time for action as Santino Marella will take on Sheamus, with Kozlov not allowed to be at ringside.

The match ends with Santino getting disqualified by hitting Sheamus with a blatant low-blow, afterwards he celebrates but ends up being hit with the Brogue Kick and is set to get the Irish Curse when John Morrison makes the save with a flash-kick the face and helping Santino up the ramp.

We see John Cena backstage watching a monitor which shows a video hyping WrestleMania XXVI (27), with Barrett shown standing next to him when the video ends and the focus returns to him. Barrett tells Cena to imagine never being able to experience it all again, but says that in two weeks time at Survivor Series, all he has to do is the right thing and raise his hand to award him the WWE Championship, before handing Cena a referee shirt and telling him to do his job right or his career will be nothing but a distant memory.

After we are asked to “Stand up for WWE”, Team Orton takes on Team Barrett in a 10-Man Tag Team match, with Team Orton comprising of Randy Orton, R-Truth, Daniel Bryan, Mark Henry, and The Miz. The match ends with Barrett getting the win after The Miz (aided by a briefcase shot to the gut by Alex Riley) hits Orton with The Skull-Crushing Finale behind Cena’s back, which allows Barrett to get the pin.

Afterwards, Barrett sits on the shoulders of The Nexus on the stage, with Orton watching from the ring as Raw goes off the air.

About the Author: Firefly

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Discovering WCW Monday Nitro in the 1990s, he has been hooked on wrestling ever since, later going on to also discover WWF (now WWE), and even later numerous independent promotions, IMPACT Wrestling (Formerly known as TNA) and now the very captivating challenger known as AEW.

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