Source: Wikipedia
Pictures Credit: SnowMan Jones @ Florida Championship Wrestling
World Wrestling Entertainment / World Wrestling Entertainment (2008–present)
In November 2008, Otunga signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment and was assigned to its development territory, Florida Championship Wrestling.[1][7] He made his debut on May 29, 2009,[1] under the ring name, Dawson Alexander, in a six-man tag team match. Otunga teamed with Barry Allen and Jon Cutler to defeat Abraham Saddam Washington, Derrick Bateman, and Tonga.
NXT and The Nexus, Two Time Tag Team Champion (2010–present)
On February 16, 2010, it was announced that Otunga would be wrestling on the first season of World Wrestling Entertainment NXT under his real name, with R-Truth (Ron Killings) as his storyline mentor.[2] He made his debut on the inaugural episode of NXT on February 23, quickly defeating Darren Young.[8] Young defeated Otunga in a rematch on the following week’s broadcast, thanks to interference from Young’s mentor, CM Punk. After the match, R-Truth (Ron Killings) tried to offer his support, only to be shoved away by a frustrated Otunga. R-Truth (Ron Killings) took exception, confronting and brawling with Otunga backstage.[9] On the March 30 episode of NXT, Otunga won an 8-man over the top rope battle royal against the other NXT Rookies to earn the right to guest host Raw the following week.[10] On the April 5 episode of Raw, Otunga put himself in a tag team match with John Cena for the Unified World Wrestling Entertainment Tag Team Championship against ShoMiz (The Big Show (Paul Wight) and The Miz). Later in the match, however, he refused to tag in and walked out, allowing ShoMiz to retain.[11] On May 11, in the second Pros Poll, he was moved to second place.[12] During the season finale on June 1, Otunga came in second place overall in the competition, losing out to Wade Barrett.[13]
The following week on Raw, Otunga and the other NXT rookies from season one interfered in the main event match between John Cena and CM Punk, attacking the competitors, the announce team, and the ring announcer Justin Roberts, before dismantling the ring area and surrounding equipment.[14] On the June 14 episode of Raw, the rookies attacked General Manager Bret Hart, when he refused to give them contracts.[15] The following week on Raw, Vincent K. McMahon fired Hart and announced the hiring of a new General Manager, who had signed all seven season one NXT rookies to contracts.[16] The following week, the group was named The Nexus.[17] On the July 12 edition of Raw, The Nexus, excluding Daniel Bryan (Brian Danielson) (who was fired by Vincent K. McMahon after the Nexus’ first night on Raw in part due to choking ring announcer Justin Roberts with his own tie.), competed in their first match together, defeating John Cena in a six–on–one handicap match.[18] The Nexus continued to feud with Cena and the Raw roster, resulting in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match at SummerSlam. Otunga was the fourth member of The Nexus eliminated, when he submitted to Chris Jericho, and The Nexus went on to lose the match.[19]
Cena was later forced to join The Nexus, as a result of losing to Barrett at Hell in a Cell.[20] At the following pay-per-view, Bragging Rights on October 24, Otunga and Cena teamed together to win the World Wrestling Entertainment Tag Team Championship from Cody Rhodes (Cody Runnels) and Drew McIntyre (Andrew Galloway).[21][22] The next night on Raw Otunga and Cena lost the Tag Team Championship to fellow Nexus members Justin Gabriel (Paul Lloyd Jr.) and Heath Slater (Heath Miller) when Barrett ordered Otunga to allow Slater to pin him.[23] On November 5, Otunga, who had been questioning Barrett’s leadership in the past weeks, led Nexus, minus Barrett and Cena, to an invasion of SmackDown.[24] Barrett did not approve of Otunga’s decision to lead The Nexus to SmackDown and as a result forced him to defend his spot in the group a week later.[25] On the November 12 edition of SmackDown Otunga defeated Edge (Adam Copeland) in a lumberjack match, after Kane (Glen Jacobs) interfered, to keep his spot in Nexus.[26] About a month later, Otunga started to rebel against Barrett with the rest of Nexus behind him. After the group disobeyed direct orders and walked away from Barrett, Otunga told Barrett to rehire Cena the following week or be banished from Nexus.[27] In January 2011 Barrett was exiled from Nexus and CM Punk took over his spot as the leader of the group.[28] While Justin Gabriel (Paul Lloyd Jr.) and Heath Slater (Heath Miller) chose not to follow Punk’s orders and left Nexus, Otunga agreed to take his initiation test, a beating from the Big Show (Paul Wight), and remain with the group.[29] In late February, it was announced that Punk would face Randy Orton at WrestleMania XXVII, with each member of The Nexus facing Orton to win the right to accompany Punk to the ring in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania. Otunga faced Orton on the March 7 episode of Raw, but lost. Following the match, he was punted in the skull by Orton.[30] Otunga was absent from television for over a month, returning on the April 11 episode of Raw with the other New Nexus members, and preventing Orton from earning a World Wrestling Entertainment Championship match.[31][32] On the May 23 episode of Raw, Otunga teamed with fellow Nexus member Michael McGillicutty to win the World Wrestling Entertainment Tag Team Championship from Kane (Glen Jacobs) and The Big Show (Paul Wight) with the help from a distraction from Ryan and a kick to the back of Big Show’s skull,resulting in him being hit with a double ddt for the loss.[5][33]
