The Corre The Corre was a professional wrestling stable in the professional wrestling promotion , World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE ) , that competed on its " SmackDown " brand . History . Formation . The group had its roots as The Nexus on " Raw " . Wade Barrett , who was the leader of Nexus , was essentially exiled following losing a triple threat steel cage match to determine the number one contender to the WWE Championship on January 3 , 2011 . New Nexus member CM Punk had interefered by feigning to assist Barrett , but then ripping off Barrett ' s Nexus armband and kicking him off the cage as he was attempting to climb over the top and win the match . Punk then declared himself as the new leader of the group . The following Friday ( January 7 ) on " Smackdown " , Barrett made his debut on the brand , attacking The Big Show while Show was wrestling in a fatal four way match to determine the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship . On the January 14th edition of " SmackDown " , Barrett compared himself to Julius Caesar , saying he got so powerful on " Raw " , that everyone was conspiring against him , thus his exile from both Nexus in particular and " Raw " in general . Barrett then explained he targeted The Big Show because he wants to go after the biggest and the baddest , and everyone else wasn ' t worth his time . During Barrett ' s match with The Big Show that evening , former Nexus members Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel ( who refused to participate in their initiation into CM Punk ' s new version of the Nexus — Punk had wanted them to hit one another with Singapore canes — and were thus thrown out of the group ) came from the back and attacked Show , resulting in a disqualification . The attack ceased once they spotted a returning Ezekiel Jackson standing on the apron . " Big Zeke " would then join in the attack ( including body slamming the near 500 lb . Show ) and forged a new group aligning himself with Barrett , Slater and Gabriel . Barrett officially dubbed his crew as The Corre on the January 21st episode of " Smackdown " , attacking World Champion Edge in the process . Wrestlemania and beyond . The Corre were scheduled to face Santino Marella , Vladimir Kozlov , Big Show and Kane at WrestleMania XXVII ( 27 ) . They ambushed Kozlov beforehand , leading to Kofi Kingston to replace him . The Corre lost . The Corre then ambushed John Cena and the Rock the following Raw , where they were trounced and used as dummies for the stars to show off their power moves . The following Smackdown , a Wrestlemania rematch occurred again with Kofi filling in for Kozlov , where the Corre were once again defeated . The following Raw , the Corre appeared on Smackdown and Wade Barrett lamented being unable to defeat Cena and Rock . He blamed the other Corre members for not holding up their end of the bargain , and warned that the group may not work out . This caused anger from Justin Gabriel , who claimed his 450°Splashes took out more superstars than anyone else in the group ' s finishers , and pointed out his 3 - time Tag Team Championship record . Heath Slater , not wanting to be ignored , also pointed out he had the championship as many times . Ezekiel Jackson was also angered : " I know you ' re not talking about me ! " and pointed out how he ' s the most dominant person in the group and had slammed The Big Show . The infighting between Corre members was interrupted by Santino , who had brought along Daniel Bryan , Evan Bourne and Mark Henry with him . He announced the formation of a new group : APPLE . A match then ensued and Corre was victorious with Slater pinning Santino . On the May 6 Smackdown Jackson defeated The Big Show , but refused to celebrate with the other members of the group . Barrett , Slater and Gabriel attacked him in retaliation , kicking him out of the group in the process . The group dissolved after Barrett ditched Slater and Gabriel during a six - man tag team match on the June 7 taping of SmackDown .