To begin 2010, Sheamus and The Undertaker were the Raw and Smackdown champions. Undertaker won the world title from CM Punk at Hell In A Cell and Sheamus defeated John Cena for the WWE title at TLC. Undertaker had a solid reign as champ, despite not wrestling very often; however, Sheamus wasn't a strong champ for many different reasons. First off, he won the belt a month after debuting on Raw from the ECW brand. Basically, he was a rookie, and fans took it as Sheamus being shoved down their throats. And secondly, he never got a convincing win as champ. Both Sheamus and Undertaker lost their titles at the Elimination Chamber PPV, to Cena and Chris Jericho respectively. Cena would lose his belt to Batista, who has been a heel for the last few months, a few minutes later. The main feuds heading into Wrestlemania were Cena vs. Batista, Edge vs. Chris Jericho, Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels, and Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon. Michaels, after losing to Undertaker in an epic encounter at Wrestlemania 25, wants a rematch with Undertaker. Undertaker accepts, only if Michaels puts his career on the line. Michaels accepts, and at Wrestlemania, Undertaker wins to go 18-0 at the event, and Michaels has a retirement ceremony the next night on Raw, a fitting ending to an excellent career. Bret returns to WWE programming on January 4th, as a counter to TNA Impact making their Monday night debut. That night, Bret and Shawn finally bury the hatchet, and Bret has his sights set on revenge against Vince McMahon, the mastermind of the Montreal Screwjob. They have a heated, and generally well-received feud, despite some fans questioning the decision of putting Bret in the ring after the stroke that ended his career. The match takes place at Wrestlemania, and consists of Bret beating up Vince for several minutes without giving up any offense. The match was not well-received. Cena wins back the WWE title at the show while Jericho retains. 2010 starts to really go downhill after this event, though.
The next night on Raw, Jack Swagger, who won the MITB briefcase at Wrestlemania, cashes in on Chris Jericho to become the new world heavyweight champion. This turned out to be a very bad move as Swagger just wasn't ready. His wrestling skills were good, but not main event caliber, and his mic skills were not nearly on the level as they should be for a world champion, plus in the months leading up to Wrestlemania, he was mainly wrestling on Superstars. His reign was badly booked, as he rarely won clean, and he lost it at Fatal 4 Way to Rey Mysterio. Also, the ECW brand was discontinued in early February, with NXT replacing it. As a result, most of the ECW wrestlers were moved to Raw and Smackdown, meaning that wrestlers from those shows who weren't used very often had to be let go to make room for these ECW wrestlers, and it also meant that the rising stars on ECW, such as Zack Ryder and Yoshi Tatsu, were now mused mainly as enhancement talent. Cena continues to feud with Batista until Over The Limit, where Cena retains the gold. This was Batista's final match in WWE.
The WWE product treads water throughout the spring, with very little going on on either show (Smackdown loses nearly all of its star power in the draft, which leaves the likes of Kane and Rey Mysterio to main event throughout the year, and the guest host stuff from 2009 is still going strong in the first half of 2010 on Raw). On June 7, however, things would get VERY interesting. John Cena and CM Punk are main eventing, and during the match, Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Daniel Bryan, Skip Sheffield, David Otunga, Michael Tarver, and Darren Young, all from the first season of NXT, attack both Cena and Punk, as well as cameramen, timekeepers, and commentators at ringside, and DESTROY the ringside area. This creates a massive buzz amongst the fans, both casual, and online, and Cena vs. Nexus is the main storyline throughout the rest of the year, as they cost Cena the WWE title against Sheamus at the Fatal 4 Way PPV against Sheamus, and cost him his rematch against Sheamus at Money In The Bank. However, WWE continually drops the ball with Nexus throughout the storyline. Daniel Bryan is released a few days later for choking somebody at ringside with a tie because it wasn't PG. He'd return at Summerslam as a babyface against Nexus, but as a result of Bryan's release, Nexus lacked a workhorse who could put on quality matches every night. At Summerslam, Nexus lost to the team of Cena, Edge, Chris Jericho, R-Truth, John Morrison, Bret Hart, and Daniel Bryan in an elimination match. While the babyface team at a big 4 PPV, with a legend and a big return on the team, should win, most fans consider this the point where Nexus started to go downhill. However, that happened shortly after.
The night after Summerslam, Darren Young would be kicked out of Nexus after losing to John Cena, shortly after, Skip Sheffield injured his ankle, taking him off of TV as a result, leaving Nexus as a 5 man group. At Hell In A Cell, Barrett defeated John Cena, forcing Cena to join the Nexus. The next night, however, Cena and Michael Tarver would lose to Mark Henry and Evan Bourne, and Cena viciously attacks Tarver after the match, writing him off TV, and indirectly getting Barrett's approval as Tarver was seen as a weak link of the group. Over the next few weeks, Husky Harris and Michael McGillicutty from the second season of NXT would join Nexus. At Survivor Series, Barrett would face Randy Orton, who defeated Sheamus for the belt at Night Of Champions, for the WWE title. Cena was the guest referee and if Orton won, Cena would be out of Nexus, and out of the WWE as well! Fans were looking forward to the Cena heel turn they were dying for... at Survivor Series, however, Orton retained, and Cena was out of WWE. Very disappointing result. Orton would lose the belt to The Miz the next night on Raw. Despite the stipulation, Cena still showed up on Raw, and defeated Barrett at TLC in a chairs match. Cena was now reinstated. The hottest angle of the summer ended in a return to the status quo.
On Smackdown, Rey defeated Jack Swagger in a rematch at Money In The Bank, before losing it to Kane shortly afterward, who cashed in his MITB briefcase. Kane had a lengthy run with the belt that he deserved, despite some bad storylines with the Undertaker "vegetative state" angle, which did result in Kane going over Undertaker several times, and the feud with Edge that consisted of Edge kidnapping Paul Bearer and teasing Kane by injuring a mannequin version in a wheel chair. Kane lost it to Edge at TLC.
2010 was a lackluster year for WWE. Instead of slowly building new stars, they panicked and pushed them to the title out of nowhere. Their main storyline, Nexus, resulted in a return to the status quo as none of the Nexus members finished 2010 in a better position than they started in. Also, a very subpar TV product for both Raw and Smackdown as well. 2011 would be the year they return to making new stars the right way.
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