The nXt Invasion Has Begun!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been excited to write about an angle that WWE has produced. RAW is just about the same thing every week, one big commercial for the next PPV, and the guys in the main event stand there looking at each other and holding up belts. Well not this week. WWE gave us a 3 hour viewers choice special, which was an OK change, but nothing earth shattering. The stuff they did with the A-Team was descent and the surprise appearances by legends like Roddy Piper and Dusty Rhodes always add to the show in my opinion. For the main event, viewers were given the opportunity to choose John Cena's opponent for the night, between Rey Mysterio, CM Punk, or Jack Swagger. Mysterio was the obvious choice, being by far the most popular, and just about every other viewers choice for the night went as expected. So the first surprise was that CM Punk was selected as the opponent. Whether it was Punks hardcore ROH type fan following, or whether WWE wanted it that way who knows. So it looked like we would get Cena winning, and probably facing off with his ppv opponents....but that's when things got interesting.

Enter Wade Barret (NXT season one winner,) who earlier had cut a promo saying that by this time next week, everyone would be talking about the accomplishment he would achieve that had never been done. So it looked like Barrett would challenge Cena, and step right ino the main event picture. This is when all hell broke loose. Suddenly we see other members of NXT season 1 appearing from the crowd all over the arena. Before we knew it, the NXT roster was jumping CM Punk, John Cena, the referee, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, ring announcers, Matt Stryker......EVERYone. The riot scene continued as the NXT group destroyed the ring and everything around it. The angle was great.....the crowd was genuinely concerned as Cena got his ass kicked by every member of the crew. It all seemed natural and real......a lost art in today's wrestling. Bodies were lying everywhere, as Wade Barrett stood tall with the NXT Army, as the whole group were brought to the next level in 1 segment. Daniel Bryan even spat in Cena's face after continuously yelling "I'm better than you!" The realism first used in the Michael Cole/Daniel Bryan feud was maximized here, as you had a group of legit pissed off guys deciding to take a stand and become stars on their own, not due to a joke of a game show.

Not since the nWo days have I seen such a segment that really got the people like this did......maybe the stars used weren't on the same level of Hogan/Hall/Nash.......but the impact with this can still be huge if WWE does this right being it is being done with a group of young guys. If WWE can run this as an invasion angle, with the NXT group lead by Barrett......then Barrett can definitely use it to step right into the title picture. And if WWE is now seeing that realistic serious angles like this are what people want, they are right. Give us a choice, don't force us to love Cena, we don't. Give us a group of rebels who won't take no for an answer, and if you tell them no they will kick youur ass and destroy the arena. WWE gets the first big thumbs up from me in years on this one.