And a star is born ( Stu Bennett )

Feud with Cena

During the Summer of 2010, Nexus had a feud with John Cena. First, Cena faced The Nexus in a 7-on-1 handicap match the Raw, causing Cena to further attack Young, subsequently removing him from the following week's scheduled match, which became a 6-on-1 handicap match, which The Nexus won anyway. On July 18, 2010 at Money in the Bank, The Nexus attempted to get involved in the WWE Championship match involving Sheamus and Cena in a steel cage, but Sheamus and Cena were able to hold them off and escape, with Sheamus winning the match and retaining the WWE Championship. Their following match would take place at SummerSlam, where The Nexus faced the team of Cena, Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, Edge, John Morrison, R-Truth and the returning Daniel Bryan, being defeated after Cena pinned Barrett and Gabriel. According to Jericho and Edge, the original plan was to put over Barrett, but Cena asked for a change and defeated Barrett and Gabriel. The following night on Raw, The Nexus invoked their SummerSlam rematch clause and competed in seven one-on-one matches against Team WWE (except Hart, who was replaced by Orton), with the stipulation that whichever Nexus member lost their match would be exiled from the group. Young was the only Nexus member who failed to defeat Cena in the main event, therefore The Nexus attacked Young with their respective finishing moves and officially exiled him from the group. At a live WWE live event in Hawaii on August 18, 2010, Skip Sheffield broke his ankle during a tag match where he teamed with Otunga against The Hart Dynasty (David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd), putting him out of action for the next two years, leaving The Nexus with only five active members heading into September. On September 19 at Night of Champions, Barrett used his guaranteed championship match that he won for winning NXT in the six-pack elimination challenge for Sheamus' WWE Championship, but he was eliminated by Orton who later won the match and the title.

On October 3, 2010 at Hell in a Cell, Barrett and Cena faced each other in a match with the stipulation that if Barrett won, Cena would have to join The Nexus, but if Cena won or any other Nexus member got involved, the group would be permanently disbanded. Thanks to interference from Husky Harris and Michael McGillicutty, who would join The Nexus on October 25, 2010 edition of Raw as a reward, Barrett managed to win the match and keep the group going and Cena was forced to join the Nexus. The following night on Raw, Michael Tarver was paired with Cena who attacked him after the match. Barrett in the next segment said that he was planning on getting rid of Tarver and that Cena did him a favor by attacking Tarver, implying that Tarver was no longer a member (in reality, Tarver had a nagging groin injury and was later released from his contract in June 2011). The anonymous Raw General Manager stated that Cena had to honor the stipulations of the Hell in a Cell match and take orders from Barrett or be fired, but later that night he instead ordered Cena to help him win the number one contender battle royal for Orton's WWE Championship and as the match came down to Cena and Barrett, Barrett ordered Cena to eliminate himself and won the match. On October 24 at Bragging Rights, The Nexus won their first championships in WWE when David Otunga and Cena defeated Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. In the main event, Barrett defeated Orton via disqualification, this time caused by Cena, who as a result was chosen by Barrett as his own special guest referee for his WWE Championship rematch against Orton at Survivor Series, declaring that unless he won the title, Cena would be fired, but if Barrett defeated Orton, Cena would be relieved of all responsibilities to The Nexus.

On the November 5, 2010 edition of SmackDown, Otunga, who had been questioning Barrett's leadership over the past several weeks, led Gabriel, Harris, McGillicutty and Slater to an invasion of SmackDown, interrupting a match between Alberto Del Rio and Edge, but The Nexus was then defeated in the main event in a 5-on-5 tag team match by Edge, Del Rio, Big Show, Kane and Kofi Kingston. Barrett did not approve Otunga's decision to lead The Nexus on SmackDown and as a result forced him to defend his spot in the group a week later on SmackDown. On the November 12 episode of SmackDown, thanks to interference from Kane, Otunga defeated Edge in a lumberjack match to keep his spot in The Nexus. On November 21, 2010 at Survivor Series, Orton retained the WWE Championship against Barrett via pinfall and Cena was fired (kayfabe) from WWE and subsequently exiled from The Nexus. Despite this, Cena continued to show up on Raw in the subsequent weeks, causing interference in The Nexus' matches and attacking them as well as costing Slater and Gabriel lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov in a fatal four-way tag team elimination match. on the December 6 episode of Raw. Later that night, Cena informed The Nexus that his attacks on them may stop, but only on the condition that Barrett rehires him. Wanting the attacks to stop, The Nexus, with the exception of McGillicutty, who was (kayfabe) injured after being attacked the previous week by Cena, threatened to exile Barrett from the group unless he got Cena rehired. On the December 13, 2010 edition of Raw, Barrett rehired Cena for fear of being exiled by The Nexus, but on the condition that A. Cena face Otunga in the main event and B. Barrett and Cena settle the score in a chairs match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs. At the event on December 19, Cena defeated Barrett in the main event by dropping 23 steel chairs on him after dispatching the rest of The Nexus.