The booking, thus far, has been OK and enough to keep them going but it's been far from great. There have been flashes, though. The first few initial attacks and the Legends angle were awesome. The attack on McMahon was cool, if only to blow him off the suspects list. The pushing of the "wolf pack mentality" was interesting if only because it's something we haven't seen in a group in a long, long time. It was unique in this era.
If it would've been great booking, Nexus would've went over strong in the Elimination Matches to really push them as stronger as a group than the WWE Superstars, who've spent their careers looking out for themselves. I think establishing Wade Barrett as a sniveling, coniving heel who uses others and, for now, needs John Cena to get him the WWE Championship is OK because it fits the Nexus gimmick and there is always time later to establish him as a strong Champion. But they needed to pull the trigger on him while the iron was hot and Cena was still under Nexus control. Too late for that now. Great booking would've seen Cena bring the WWE Championship into Nexus then have to fight to get it back.
Skip Sheffield really missed out with his broken ankle. Had he still been around, I think WWE would've been working alot harder to establish a "second" in Nexus. Sheffield had a presence to him and his heel facials and cockiness worked well. He was, for lack of a better term, the latest version of Batista 2004. For about a month or so before his injury, WWE seemed to be leaning towards him with favorable booking, giving him several eliminations in the Multimans and having it take several top finishers to eliminate him.
Justin Gabriel, while having a good look and excellent facials, just seems to be missing something as far as being a top star goes. Maybe it's just because his character hasn't been defined much (which is the main problem with most of Nexus sans Barrett and Otunga) but, right now, I can't buy him as a headliner. Slater, while a solid worker, is in the same boat here. WWE just hasn't done enough with them to make people care. The "wolf pack mentality" is great and it works but, at some point, you also need to plan for when you're going to split these guys up and start giving each of them some personalities. One thing I've noticed about Slater is, when Bret Hart was involved in the Nexus angle, he was almost always working exclusively with Slater. Think there's anything to that?
Husky and Hennig, while in the same boat as Gabrial and Slater with the personality problems, also have the problem of alot of people already knowing who they are. When these guys have such recognizable real names and that awesome "family history" in the business you can build off of, why lump them with these rediculous stage names? Both guys would do fine in heel roles, as evidenced, but it just seems like they'd have so much more swagger and connectability (is that a word?) to them if they were allowed to use their real names. The names RHODES and DIBIASE did alot to keep people interested in Cody & Ted until they grew into their roles (well Cody did, we're all still waiting on Ted I guess) and something as simple as introducing Husky and Michael to the RAW audience as Windham Rotunda and Joe Hennig, and then explaining who they were, could've done alot to connect these two new Nexus members to the audience and establish them in the pack.
Otunga...what do you do with him? I mean, yes he has some charisma and presence to him but all of his promos sound like he's reading from a script and he's certainly no Miz or Rock where his mic ability will give him the edge he needs to allow him to develop in the ring. It's already been said, he's worse now than he was a year ago. Once the Nexus angle runs it's course, I can see Otunga being one of the first casualties.
I like the Nexus. I think it's a great concept with the right ingredients plugged into the right roles. I just think the booking and storytelling could've been alot better, which would've made the end of this year and the Road to WrestleMania alot more interesting.
