Otunga admitted it was a “a lot to wrap my head around,” not only because he had been gearing up to lead the group, but because he felt Punk, his new stablemate, wasn’t a fan of his at the time. Things got even weirder, however, when Otunga saw WWE put together The Corre stable on “SmackDown,” led by Barrett and consisting of former Nexus members Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel.

For a moment, Otunga thought that this could set up The Corre and New Nexus on a collision course; he would soon learn he was mistaken.

“So now I see things are kind of being set up where there’s the Nexus, or rather we’re the New Nexus, and now they’re building an alternate Nexus in The Corre,” Otunga said. “It would seem eventually these two factions are going to meet up, especially cause Wade is leading one, I’m leading the other. Eventually we should culminate in some Survivor Series match or something like that. 

“But that never really happened…the creative was never explained to us. Why Punk was coming in, what the future plans were, if we were going to have any involvement with the Corre or not. It just was ‘You guys are now CM Punk’s new faction.’ Essentially, we were the new Straight Edge Society. But that was it. They really did not give us any direction. And after that, we were just taking it one day at a time.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “David Otunga” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription