"You are only as strong as your weakest part"
This is something that many of us have heard throughout our lives. I know it to be true, because I can remember being stranded on third base in the league championship when our worst player struck out to end the game. With a better player up, perhaps we win that game. As it stands, I have a second place trophy and a lifetime of "what if?"
As for the Nexus, their cohesiveness was brought to question Monday after they lost in the main event of Summerslam. They were made to wonder whether they had any weak links. Thus, they all had matches against members of Team WWE, and anyone who lost would be out of the group. There's a bit of a flaw in this logic, but I'll get to that after we discuss who is HOT and who is NOT:
HOT
1. Wade Barrett - Still standing as the leader of Nexus, he redeemed himself from tapping out to Cena by defeating his former mentor, Chris Jericho in singles competition. Barrett is clearly on the brink of being pushed as a main eventer, and a win over Jericho certainly gets him moving in the right direction. Biggest win of young Barrett's career, and with no turn the night before, he is still (and deservedly so) the leader of the Nexus.
2. Randy Orton - "Actions speak louder than words" is the best way to describe this man. His promos are average, but it's nights like this that make him a megastar. He was the sub for Bret Hart against Justin Gabriel and these two did very well against each other (though I wondered if they argued pre-match about who spent more time in the tanning bed). He got chased out by Sheamus and FLIPPED OUT. This psychotic rampage is what people love about The Viper and he delivered. A vicious chair shot beatdown on Sheamus got the crowd riled up, but RKOs to Gabriel and then Sheamus after he thought about leaving blew the roof off the place. Through all of that, no words were uttered. Orton is a character that needs to act, not speak. When he does, there is no one better.
3. Skip Sheffield - This guy probably moved up the ladder the most on Raw. He's gone from the dumb redneck on NXT to being the most devastatingly powerful NXTer, but last night truly put him over. Paired with David Otunga, he basically singlehandedly took out Truth and Wisdom (R-Truth and John Morrison). By cleanly pinning Morrison, Sheffield put himself on a level at least equal to, if not greater than the Shaman of Sexy. On power alone, Sheffield may be a future main eventer. He's the closest thing to Batista that I've seen, and if pushed that way, you may be looking at a future champion. Yep, he's been that good.
NOT
1. Darren Young - This one was pretty obvious. The dude lost to John Cena (not surprisingly) and was kicked out of Nexus. His former team decimated him, leaving him with no group, and probably no future. In 2 days he went from main eventing Summerslam to being in danger of losing his spot on the Raw roster. Not good for the "South Beach Party Boy", though is former partner Percy Watson was just eliminated from NXT, so maybe he'll find life in the tag team division. That may be his only hope of survival at this point. Even still, Nexus was his big opportunity and it's gone. No one has fallen faster than Young.
2. John Morrison - One year ago, this man was main eventing Smackdown. Now, he's losing to rookies. Granted, Sheffield is being booked as an absolute monster, but it does no wonders for Morrison and his career. I'm not sure if he'll ever get a main event push, but it certainly doesn't look likely at this point. Perhaps months of terrible promos and absolutely no character development will have that affect on a talent. Morrison's star is falling faster than Lindsay Lohan after a night on the town.
3. Eve - As much as I love her and think she is the future of the Divas division, getting pinned by Jillian Hall does no wonders for your night. Of course, I now that Jillian is an immensely talented performer strapped with a horribly annoying gimmick, but the core audience knows Jillian as the least credible Raw diva at this time. Thus, getting pinned by such a woman is not good for the lusty latina Diva. Obviously, she's behind Melina in the pecking order as far as babyfaces go, so she was screwed anyway, but this didn't do her any favors either. In her defense, the red and gold looked great on her, though I still prefer the blue and gold.
As you can tell by these lists, we got a chance to see Nexus and not just a whole, but as parts. Some are better than others, and one is no longer a member. The problem I have with that though, is that Young was always arguably the worst of Nexus and he challenged the face of the WWE. If you were a betting man, would you take Young to beat Cena with Nexus unable to help? Me neither. The only man I would give a chance to is Barrett and even then it's an uphill battle. Thus, I get it as far as the storyline goes, but to say that a guy is the weakest link because he lost to John Cena is a bit ridiculous.
But, we suspend our disbelief and know that Darren Young sucks anyway and is now out of the Nexus. Will this indeed be addition by subtraction? You'll find out when I do as the week roll by towards Night of Champions.
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