Arn Anderson On WWE Putting Titles On Stars To Get Them Over, The Nexus

During the ARN Podcast, Arn Anderson covered the Money in the Bank 2010 event where Sheamus defeated John Cena inside a steel cage, The Miz became the Raw Money in the Bank winner and Kane won the Smackdown briefcase and World Heavyweight Championship in the same night.

Anderson also talked about how during that era, Vince McMahon was against blood. During the Cena and Sheamus match, the two never used the cage as a weapon. Anderson mentioned how weird this was and said if that was the case, the match should've never happened inside of a cage.

"Don't run him into the cage cause he might bleed, how ludacris is that?" Anderson said. "If you can't use the cage as a weapon and you can't bleed, what the hell are you doing in a cage? The answer would've been don't have a cage match. Cage matches are meant for guys like heels that have screwed the baby face time after time and now he's locked in the cage."

In June of 2010, The Nexus debuted and attacked everyone in sight including John Cena. Cena went into a long feud with the group that continued at the Money in the Bank pay per view, where their interference cost Cena his match with Sheamus for the WWE Championship.

The Nexus disbanded later that year and the heat from the group came to a massive halt after their SummerSlam match against Team Cena. Anderson talked about the big mistake WWE made with The Nexus interfering in the match and the way it should've ended.

"The one fumble was taking any heat off those guys," Anderson said. "If they would've gotten in that cage with Cena and all those kids would've left Cena in a pile [of blood], you would've put more heat on those guys. I think they got their water cut off a year and a half too soon. They should've ran with those guys for at least a couple years before you start breaking them up."

During this time, WWE used Sheamus as the champion in a feud with John Cena to get Sheamus over. Arn described why this wasn't a great idea but the WWE has continued to do so since, with superstars like Roman Reigns and Jinder Mahal. He also talked about how WWE needs to learn not to put the championship on someone they want to get over rather than putting the championship on someone who is over.

"You never put the title on somebody to get them over," Anderson said. "What you do is you take your championship and put it on the guy that's the most over, that's the reason, because that guy is ready to draw you money. The audience can smell it, if you put the title on somebody to try to get the guy over that's just shoving him down people's throats and that's not what works."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit ARN Podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.