WrestleTalk@WrestleTalk_TV
Former WWE star Michael Tarver has recalled Vince McMahon telling members of the Nexus they would be fired if their debut attack 'didn't look real':
"The debut weekend, we had just finished the first season of the original NXT, and they were kinda keeping us on a string, we didn't know what was gonna happen week to week, we thought we might have got released, and I was the first person, myself and Daniel Bryan, we were the first ones to get eliminated. So I'm thinking I might actually lose my contract over a scripted game show, that's kinda weird.
"I went back down to developmental, just tried to keep my head up and then the season ends and the winner was Wade Barrett, then a week later I get travel again. I'm like 'Miami? Ok.'
"So they send us to Miami, that weekend I had proposed to my second ex-wife the day before, I had no idea what was about to happen the next day. So I proposed to her the day before, and we get to the arena and they bring us all into a room and said here's what's gonna happen.
"There's Vince McMahon, John Cena's in the room, all the agents, the producers, and they start handing us these armbands, and we're like 'what's this?' So they said 'this is what you're about to do, you're going to go out there and destroy everything, and it has to be real.' Everything, anybody runs up, you knock em out no matter who it is. We're giving people bonuses if they get hurt, so it's all real.
"And we look at each other like 'oh, okay', and then Vince said 'if it doesn't look real you're fired'. Yes sir. Yep. Everybody getting punched.
"We weren't allowed to tell any of the talent either, so we're walking around chilling and they end up asking us 'what are you doing tonight?' 'Nothing. We're not doing anything.' but people kept coming up to us to see which of us would break."
(F Y'All Podcast)