WWE: Why the Firing of Kevin Nash Is a Brilliant Storyline

Coming off of Sunday’s riotous Hell in a Cell pay-per-view and the shocking events of Raw the following evening, it is clear WWE’s corporate conspiracy angle is in full swing. Struggling COO Triple H has seen his once-formidable and extremely well-run company quickly unravel and descend into chaos because, as announcer Jerry Lawler explained, some mysterious figure is working against HHH and sabotaging him as leader of the company.

This whole angle came to a head at the end of Monday’s Raw, with the majority of the roster and the referees and announcers expressing their lack of confidence in their boss and walking out on the beleaguered COO. Poor HHH; even some of the camera guys dropped their cameras and walked out on him. Although, thankfully, the lighting guys stuck around, so Raw didn’t end with everyone being plunged into darkness.

While the storyline has seemingly shifted focus onto the unhinged tag team of Awesome Truth and the duplicitous John Laurinaitis, viewers would be unwise to forget about the importance of veteran Kevin Nash and the significance he will have to the angle in the future.

As attention-paying viewers will recall, Nash was fired by Triple H on Raw several weeks ago, but returned to the promotion in mid-September, getting involved in the Punk/HHH bout at WWE’s Night of Champions pay-per-view and attacking both men. Nash was then put temporarily out of action thanks to a brutal sledgehammer shot by his former friend and hasn’t been seen in WWE since. In reality, Nash was written out of the angle for a short while because he’s taking time off to film a movie role. He’s playing a male stripper. Seriously.    

But what about Nash’s inevitable return to the promotion when he’s fulfilled his movie obligations? Nash was, of course, the man who started this entire storyline off by running in and shockingly attacking CM Punk at WWE’s Summerslam event. He then proceeded to spend the new few weeks antagonizing Punk and the COO and getting cozy with John Laurinaitis before, as noted, HHH finally had enough of his lies and deceit and dramatically fired him on Raw.

Nash’s on-screen firing is a smart move for several reasons.

First of all, the flawed Nash is far better in small doses. Once a cool, charismatic talker, Nash struggled in some of his initial promos after returning to the promotion and was easily upstaged by the younger, wittier Punk during their interactions on Raw. During his skits, it was almost embarrassing to see how out-of-depth Nash was as he struggled to adapt in WWE in 2011.

Worse still, despite the WWE-ordered dye job, the wrinkled, haggard Nash looks entirely his age (he’s in his mid-50s), and it’s highly questionable when, at a time WWE should be building for the future, they should be having an obviously past star hogging the airtime on Raw every week.  

Thus, the firing allows Nash to play to his strengths—running in and attacking established players—and avoids the pitfalls of making him a regular character on the show.         

Secondly, when Nash does make his return to the promotion, he’ll likely side with fellow disgruntled ex-WWE wrestlers, The Miz and R-Truth, who are also sworn enemies of HHH and the current WWE establishment. It has been widely speculated that the three will form sort type of New World Order-like type group.

Certainly, if this is the case, the experienced Nash will be used mainly in a managerial role, which again plays directly to his strengths.

Undoubtedly, his WCW past (where Nash often played the rebellious outsider as part of the aforementioned NWO) will also help aid the credibility of R-Truth and The Miz as they attempt to get themselves over as outsiders. Behind the scenes, Nash will also be able to offer the pair advice on getting over in a unique angle such as this.   

Finally, Nash’s return will quite nicely tie up his relationship with John Laurinaitis and reveal the sneaky corporate executive’s role in the conspiracy.

After months of lying, double-crossing and manipulation, even Mr. Magoo could see that Laurinaitis is clearly up to something (although, strangely, HHH has been rather slow on the uptake and is only just now realizing he probably can’t trust John. If he simply watched Raw and pay-per-views, he would have figured this out ages ago). Nash, judging by all those private meeting in Laurinaitis’ office, is in on whatever it is.

It is not yet time to unveil all the details and inner working of the plot, and Nash’s firing is a good, logical reason for the viewers at home not being able to find out who is behind the complex scheme to oust HHH just yet.