By Richard Gardner, Torch specialist

The group of former NXT wrestlers continues to dominate WWE television. Now named Nexus, the group was involved in several key angles last Monday night on Raw. While Raw was a fairly mundane episode, the interaction with Nexus succeeded in further raising the profile of the group.

It was announced early in the show that the former NXT wrestlers could not attack WWE Superstars or risk being fired. By the same token, Nexus was given the same protection from WWE Superstars. It seemed as though the Nexus storyline was on hold while Wade Barrett was back in England sorting out Visa issues.

Ricky Steamboat, Arn Anderson, Michaels Hayes, Dean Malenko, and Mike Rotunda stood in the ring in what appeared to be a segment designed to sell the new Steamboat DVD. Wrong. The mutual appreciation was halted abruptly by the Nexus group, minus Wade Barrett, walking down to the ring and ultimately beating down the Legends. Two days later, whether related or not related, Ricky Steamboat was in the hospital with reported neck pain. Concerning WWE's storyline, the end result was further development of the Nexus group.

The vicious attack on the Legends was essential in re-establishing the Nexus group as heels. Beating down Vince McMahon the week before was an impressive visual, but in terms of putting the group over as top heels, it failed. Vince McMahon has been one of the top heels in the business for over a decade. Leaving him laying may have portrayed Nexus as an anti-establishment group, but it wasn't much different than what Steve Austin was doing several years ago as one of the biggest babyfaces in the history of wrestling.

Just as important was the opening segment featuring John Cena and Sheamus. Not that it was of a high quality; it wasn't. There were constant interruptions from that infernal Macbook Pro that is acting as general manager these days. Also, some of Cena's dialogue was so atrocious that it made me wonder whether the WWE creative team is comprised of a bunch of nine-year-old boys. Particularly stupid nine-year-old boys. No, the importance of this segment was that as Cena pleaded to Sheamus for the pair resolve their issues for the greater good of joining forces to repel Nexus, it made it clear in the storyline that the group is a threat to WWE's entire infrastructure.

After all, the point of putting together a heel group containing so many wrestlers who are clearly not ready for the main event is that their strength in numbers makes them a constant threat to the WWE roster. Monday night's episode of Raw did an excellent job re-establishing that fact.

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