What on earth is going on with Wade Barrett? The once promising leader of the Nexus and former five time Intercontinental Champion is now no more than a glorified jobber. Rumoured to be potentially the first British World Heavyweight Champion some years ago Barrett’s momentum has slowly been eroded away by WWE’s inane booking of the talented Englishman.
First introduced to the WWE audience in February 2010 as the protégé of Chris Jericho on the original version of NXT, Barrett was straight away the standout competitor, so much so he actually went on to win the show in June. Wade obviously had something that made him standout, he had the height, looks, promo style and he could work when he stepped in the ring.
As we all know Barrett was the original leader of the Nexus, who had an amazing debut on Raw in June 2010 however that complete storyline was scuppered at SummerSlam when the Nexus were not allowed to defeat the ‘indestructible’ John Cena. Personally the gimmick was a washout as soon as the Nexus were denied the victory and I also think Barrett wasn’t 100% ready for the role he was given.
Barrett’s inaugural feud was with John Cena which lasted the majority of 2010, their confrontations were mediocre and slow, back in 2010 their styles really didn’t mix together so the matches never delivered. John was untouchable in 2010 so Barrett really never had much chance from the get go, the Nexus and Randy Orton were pulled into the feud but it really went nowhere and in December of that year Barrett was easily defeated by John Cena at the TLC PPV is dramatic fashion. That heralded the end of Barrett’s main event run and his commandeering of the Nexus faction. The stewardship oft the Nexus passed to CM Punk while Wade moved to Smackdown is early 2011.
His run on Smackdown wasn’t that memorable, he had mediocre success in capturing the Intercontinental Championship and he also reimagined the Nexus of sorts when he formed the Corre with Ezekiel Jackson, Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel. The faction were short lived and quietly disbanded after only a few months. It was never really going anywhere and Barrett was earmarked for bigger things.
He entered into the MITB ladder match of that year and although unsuccessful he engaged in a rewarding feud with Daniel Bryan which culminated in an entertaining match at SummerSlam which Barrett won. He then went on to feud with Sheamus who I think he has great chemistry with, the matches were hard hitting but he lost out to the Irishman on three separate occasions.
The ever resilient Englishman again resurfaced in the November on the blue brand and began his “Barrett Barrage” this again was another reworking of the Barrett character, which although promising never managed to get going. The highlight of Wade’s latest gimmick was his highly entertaining feud with Randy Orton which yielded excellent matches on TV and at PPV. His work with Orton was just what Barrett needed, Randy an established main event star and in my opinion one of the best workers on the roster managed to get the best from Wade and both men benefitted from it massively.
Randy was ultimately the successor in the feud but it made Barrett look like a proper player within WWE so therefore he was on a roll as he entered the Elimination Chamber match in February 2012, however this is where once more his career stalled as the next night on Raw he suffered a partial dislocated elbow. He wouldn’t resurface on WWE TV until August of that year.
Once more WWE repackaged Barrett of sorts when he returned to his roots with a bare knuckle boxer inspired gimmick, with a new look and attitude surely this was his time, injury free and looking to get ahead nothing was getting in his way. The new gimmick seemed to work well for Wade, he went on a winning streak and his matches were always hard hitting and entertaining.
It seemed that WWE had plans for Wade as he won his matches convincingly and he was pitted against established main eventers, his work also seemed to improve ten fold as he was successfully competing in stand out matches. Personally I’ve also thought Barrett it a really good worker, he’s very smooth in the ring and every move is carried out with conviction. 2012 ended well for Barrett as he took part in a traditional Survivor Series elimination Chamber match and captured the Intercontinental Title from Kofi Kingston.
Barrett started off 2014 in the same vein but at the Royal Rumble PPV he began a TV feud with NXT’s Bo Dallas after the younger NXT star eliminated Barrett from the Rumble match. This yielded a few TV matches and then their final encounter happened at Full Sail with Barrett making the trip to NXT to finally defeat Dallas in his defence of his IC title.
The upcoming extravaganza that was Wrestlemania 29 proved a very interesting one for the Brit, scheduled to defend his title in the now sought after Wrestlemania pre-show bout against the Miz all signs pointed towards Barrett retaining at the Superbowl of wrestling……however on the night things went wrong for the proud Englishman.
Although his match was well received against The Miz, the bigger celebration came the night after WM at Raw when Barrett defeated and regained the IC title from the Cleveland native in a ultra heated match in front of a very Barrett friendly crowd. It was an amazing atmosphere but it did make you question why WWE bothered to take the title off him in the first place?? This is turned out would only be the beginning of the crazy booking of the man from Preston.
The rest of the spring consisted of Barrett defending and finally losing the title to Curtis Axel in a triple threat including the Miz at the Payback PPV. This most recent loss of the title was because WWE had aligned Axel with Paul Heyman and were attempting to get him over, Barrett again was the fall guy.
Barrett then went on to compere in that years MITB match and then moved onto a mini feud with Daniel Bryan at the behest of Vince McMahon, this produced as always some good matches between the two competitors. This feud of course was just a warm up for Bryan before his epic showdown with Cena at SummerSlam in August. Shortly after his most recent run Barrett quietly disappeared from our screens, his fans wouldn’t see him again until December.
This was another setback for him as he was absent due to work visa issues which was another hindrance to what should have been up this point a thriving career. He first appeared to the WWE Universe on the JBL and Cole show and debut a very entertaining new character “Bad News Barrett” The good news was that the higher ups and the fans really warmed to Barrett’s new gimmick, played for serious laughs the character got over well.
He slowly started debuting the character on Raw and PPV’s to a great response, Barrett really hammed up his promos and delivery, his now infamous “I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news” became a sensation with even non wrestling fans quoting the now famous line. Barrett was over so much that his appearance at one point was becoming one of the reasons to tune into Raw.
Now known as Bad News Barrett he finally made his return to the ring on Raw the night after Wrestlemania 30, on his return he faced and defeated Rey Mysterio in another well received match in front of a Barrett friendly crowd. The Raw debut and the treatment he received was a great way to get his new gimmick over on TV, so much in fact that the week after Barrett was placed in the IC title No. 1 Contenders tournament which he won and then went on to face Big E at Extreme Rules.
The match against Langston was another feather in the cap of the Englishman as he became on that night a four time IC champion. Quite an achievement for Bad News, however more bad news was about to be delivered as on the June 24th Smackdown taping when Barrett was on the receiving end of a rough Jack Swagger throw. Wade separated his shoulder as he was thrown into the barricade by the American patriot. Once more Barrett’s promising run was ruined by another injury. He was pulled from the following PPV and vacated the title on June 30th. This was obviously another hindrance for Wade and many fans starting to question was the man from Preston injury prone??
Bad News Barrett finally returned to action on the last Raw of 2014 in a winning effort against Cesaro, WWE it seemed wanted to get Bad News back to where he was so Kane scheduled a two out of three falls match between defending champ Dolph Ziggler and Barrett on an episode of Raw, Barrett again captured IC gold and became a five time champion. This is where the IC title Barrett’s career started to become a joke…….but unfortunately it wasn’t his doing.
Heading into the Fastlane PPV Dean Ambrose became the latest challenger to the IC title, in what started as a promising feud which should have produced stand out matches from two very accomplished competitors descended into chaotic mid card hilarity. Barrett won the match at Fastlane but Dean decided to steal the title, this it seemed was the theme right up until Wrestlemania 31.
In the build up to WM Stardust, Dolph, R-Truth, Bryan, Ambrose and Luke Harper all gained possession of the belt and more or less all of them defeated Barrett on TV. Theses defeats and loss of the IC title completely robbed Barrett of any momentum he managed to gain and rendered the once revered Intercontinental Championship to nothing more than a mid-card joke.
The IC title was defended in an eight man ladder match at Wrestlemania 31, Daniel Bryan was the obvious winner of the match as WWE wanted to make the title relevant again…..yeah right they’d damaged it for months and they were handing it to Bryan because everyone else was bad!!! Give me a break. This turn of events did nothing to change the fortunes of Barrett as his career seemed to go from peak to trough week to week.
Barrett was originally scheduled to face Bryan in a rematch at Extreme Rules but due to Bryan’s injury the match was cancelled and Barrett faced the newcomer from NXT, Neville on the EC pre-show in another losing effort for the Brit. The defeat didn’t really damaged Barrett but it was just another setback for a man who required some direction.
WWE’s next plan was to have Barrett win the reintroduced King of the Ring tournament on a WWE special on the Network, on his way to becoming King Barrett he defeated Dolph, R-Truth and Neville in the final. All three matches were excellent contests and Barrett came out of it looking and feeling reignited. He was now christened “King Barrett” and surely new challenges were on the horizon……one can dream of course, Barrett got himself deliberately disqualified against Neville at Payback and then lost inside the IC title Elimination Chamber match, he was actually the first to be eliminated by R-Truth.
Most recently Barrett was beaten once more by R-Truth on the Money in the Bank pre-show, and unfortunately this is how King Barrett is now booked by WWE. Wade Barrett is no doubt one of WWE’s better workers, he has the height, looks, promo style and he can work a decent match with just about anyone on the roster……so therefore what is it that is preventing WWE from pulling the trigger on Barrett, the man you could say has all the attributes WWE likes or did like, you could ask with WWE’s recent signings are they starting to favour the smaller more aerial, technical workers of ROH and the independents?
Times are certainly changing in WWE but Barrett has the qualities to remain relevant surely. Whatever is the plan in WWE they can no longer allow Wade Barrett to be buried and jobbed out just for the sake of getting someone over, more so if he’s jobbing to R-Truth, am man who is no longer relevant or will ever be placed in a prominent position on the card. Right now it feels that King Barrett is once more falling towards another dip in his career, they question is though how many more times can he survive and take the embarrassment of being humiliated in a WWE ring, and how much longer will the fans take him seriously?
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