David Otunga has lifted the lid on one of WWE’s most unforgettable debuts, revealing that the 2010 arrival of The Nexus was driven by a very real ultimatum from Vince McMahon. Speaking with TMZ Inside The Ring, Otunga explained that the eight rookies were told their jobs were on the line if the invasion did not look authentic.

“With Nexus, it was so organic. And I’ll tell you what made it real is that it was real,” Otunga said. Fresh off the first season of NXT, the group felt uncertain about their future. “We thought that we were going to be fired, really. Right before the show started, they call us into Vince’s office… and Vince tells us, ‘And if it doesn’t look vicious enough, you’re fired.’”

The pressure fell heavily on Otunga, who was responsible for initiating the attack. “I was really green… when Vince said, ‘Hey, if it doesn’t look good, you’re fired,’ I was like, ‘Well, we gotta really start.’ Chad Patton, sorry buddy, but you’re gonna have to eat one,” he recalled.

The chaos looked so convincing that it fooled much of the roster backstage, who had not been told about the plan. “When we got backstage, some of the boys, some of the other wrestlers, were lined up because they were going to fight us,” Otunga revealed. “They thought, ‘Oh my god.’ Seriously, they weren’t smartened up to it. They thought we really went crazy.”