Ryback Talks About His Time in The Nexus, Wade Barrett as Their Leader

Former WWE Superstar Ryback recently discussed his stint as a member of The Nexus during the early part of his WWE career when he was known as Skip Sheffield.

Ryback on how he was informed about the Nexus stable: “It was such a weird time, but they had this idea, I guess. And it was in Miami [Florida] and we’re all brought to TV. And this is after NXT had run its course. And, we’re brought into a room with Vince [McMahon] and Johnny [Laurinaitis] and Michael Hayes, where they explain to us The Nexus. And we have one chance, one opportunity, to go out there and get over. And if we don’t, we’re going to be f–king fired. And, like, our whole lives we’ve worked for this. And we were not given any instructions except to go out there and just cause hell and tear s–t apart and to go out there and get over, which is the best thing you can be told to do. They let us go out there and do whatever outside of the physicality with John [Cena], at the time, outside of knowing what that was going to be, none of us really knew anything else going on. Just tear the ring apart. We haven’t done this before, and, like, just cause chaos and I think there [were] a couple of things, ‘hit this guy here, hit that guy there’ where we kind of [knew]. But we didn’t go in, and, like, and it came and it was such a beautiful moment. And it is something I will forever be thankful to be a part of.”

Ryback on WWE telling the Nexus members not to associate with the rest of the roster: “At that time, with all the Nexus stuff, we were told to not, like, associate with the other guys. It was, kayfabe was in full effect. We had to ride together, workout together, not talk to any of the [other WWE performers]. If we saw John Cena in the gym, we weren’t even to look at him. It was like that enforced or so we thought at the time.”

Ryback praising Wade Barrett as the original leader of Nexus: “He was clearly the verbal leader, the minds behind everything, the brains behind everything looking back, he was so far [ahead], he was superior to all of us, I felt, as far as being able to handle the promos. He’s a very intelligent individual and everybody there is. But, like, he always handled that pressure, I felt, better than anybody else, which is why he was the leader.”