Joe Hennig, Formerly Curtis Axel, Recalls His Time In WWE's Nexus Heel Faction
Joe Hennig, who worked in WWE as Curtis Axel, competed in a variety of different gimmicks throughout his time in the company. However, one that's often forgotten is his time in Nexus, which he was brought into later on alongside Husky Harris (aka Bray Wyatt) as the creative team looked to shake things up for the group which he admitted was an awesome moment.
"The Nexus thing was really cool. Me and Windham (Bray), we got called, I didn't even know, I saw him at the airport and was like, 'What are you doing here?' He said the same thing, we had no clue what we were doing until we got to the arena the next day that we were joining the Nexus and jumping John Cena and all that kind of stuff," he told "Busted Open Radio."
His time in Nexus was primarily spent working under CM Punk, as he took over from Wade Barrett as the leader just a few months after Hennig was called up. While he wasn't part of the original group, he admitted that the faction was crazy, particularly for those who were involved from the start.
The faction was made up of the competitors from the original "WWE NXT" gameshow participants as they debuted by destroying the ringside area in a scene unlike anything that had been witnessed before in WWE.
"I didn't know what was going on, I remember watching the monitor backstage going, 'What is going on? They're tearing the ring up and choking out people and stuff like that,'" he said about Nexus' original debut. "But that is special because it was my first moment legit in the WWE finally.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.