An Idea of how to make Bad News Barrett work

[ASKane]

I don't think I'm alone in the thinking that Barrett's new gimmick debut was terrible but I do think it can work. I think Barrett should do what he was doing on the JBL and Cole show and that is use his gimmick backstage only. A superstar should be shown backstage and then Barrett delivers Bad News possibly as a member of the Authority e.g. walk up to Bryan backstage and say I've got some Bad News for you, you are facing the Wyatt's in a 3 vs 1 match at TLC and then walk away before Bryan can comment. It would have been better than Kane's version and he would actually be providing some bad news unlike the stupid comments he made on Raw/SD to the crowd.

I also think another scenario where it could work is he could use it to tell people they are facing him in a match e.g. walk up to a superstar backstage and say I have some bad news for you, you have a match with me next, evil laugh and walk away.

Your Thoughts on the gimmick debut and my idea for how to make it work

 

[Softcore Holly]

Yeah the podium thing(while kinda funny) was a bad start. I think the slight problem with your idea is it goes back to being the kind of humor people will laugh at like in the JBL/Cole show, and that would be really useful if they wanted Barrett to be a face but it looks like they're keeping him as a heel, thus the podium.

I like the match idea though. For your idea it would start off with a jobber that usually never appears on Raw/SD like say Yoshi Tatsu, have Barrett talk to him backstage saying
"Hey Yoshi, I have some good news, and some BAD news. The good news is you get to wrestle on Raw for the first time in ages. The bad news is.......your opponent is me."

Not really funny I know but it gets Barrett a win in the ring and hopefully back on track to bigger things. Gets harder and harder to pull off as time goes on though.

The gimmick itself feels very limited on how far it can actually go, but hey least he's back on TV.

 

[hatehabsforever]

There's no way possible to make Bad News Barrett work. It's a terrible gimmick. It is going to either fail miserably and essentially finish Wade Barrett off as a WWE superstar. Or it is going to turn him into a comedy character which may secure his position in the company, but destroy any shot whatsoever as being viewed as a serious character, essentially reducing him to Santino Marella version 2.0. As I see it, Wade Barrett is not good enough or interesting enough to be a plausible WWE main event guy, but he definitely is better than this farce. Some gimmicks are just too awful to recover from (baby!!), and you can tell your momma that. Hopefully, they end the Bad News Barrett joke before he is woo wooing his way into oblivion. Ole!!

 

[rbv13]

Just went back to once again watch the segments involving Bad New Barrett. The backstage stuff was ok but the live audience interaction was pretty lackluster. His delivery is solid but he looks so awkward standing there at the podium. If they evolve this beyond a comedy act it has serious potential. Let’s hope it gets to the point where the “bad news” is a serious butt kicking.

The E seriously missed out on a great opportunity to reintroduce Barrett during their last tour of the United Kingdom. On RAW while Zeb Colter and the Real American are running down the audience Barrett emerges to confront the trio about disrespecting his home and its good people. Colter asks if Barrett wants a fight but unfortunately he doesn’t have a partner. Barrett replies it is funny Colter mentions that as he very well has someone ready to fight by his side. Barrett then introduces William Regal. Through SD! and the remainder of the tour Barrett and Regal are over like crazy. What heats up the feud is the reaction the teams get when they return to the states. Eventually phase Regal into the background and call up Adrian Neville as a replacement.

 

[NegativeFeedback]

The gimmick is lazy, but it's not the worst WWE has come up with. His delivery is great, his charisma is there, but the problem is in the content. His cheap heat statements are just lackluster.

Frankly, I think this gimmick will outwear its welcome pretty fast. It's "Hi, I'm Dolph Ziggler!" all over again. It's silly in an entertaining way for a few weeks, but then it's just completely stale and boring. He'll end up being a comedic jobber.

 

[L@RISANO]

Dont see much of a future for Barrett with this gimmick. It might work in the short run.
Sadly, I think with his mic work and his size, a better role could have seen him being a solid upper carder.He was promising with the Nexus thats for sure.
Pair him off with Sandow. They would get some good me thinks.

Barrett,Ziggler,Del Rio,Sandow, the Miz, Ryback should all have some roles where they flit between challenging for the WWE title and the IC title.

 

[rb286]

I doubt this gimmick will last long. Its giving him something to do which shows the WWE haven't totally given up on him although I admit, it could be alot better for Barrett at the moment.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I know it's early, and you have to give a new character time to develop, but going off my first impressions, I'm not a fan of Bad News Barrett at all. The breaking random bad news stuff is not funny or interesting to watch, and I get the feeling WWE is reducing Barrett to a meaningless filler role. And placing the hashtag/stamp logo for Bad News Barrett is beyond corny.

Honestly, I don't think there's any chance of salvaging this gimmick, and I don't see an upside for improvement by taking the podium away, and putting Barrett backstage to deliver bad news to superstars about unfair matches. You're just changing the setting, and putting Barrett backstage with this gimmick will only hurt him. When he's on the podium, and in front of a live crowd insulting people, he's guaranteed a reaction. You take him away from the live audience, and put him backstage, and you're taking a bigger chance of people not caring, while WWE relies on canned heat for Smackdown shows.

Again, I know it's early, but I see the Bad News Barrett gimmick as a steaming pile of shit. This gimmick has the potential to drive the nail into the coffin of Barrett's WWE career, because I don't believe he'll survive another character change.

Barrett's last chance never took off, with the video packages hyping Barret as street brawler. When it comes to characters, Barrett's been stuck in a backtracking phase for a while now. He went from the hot prospect on NXT, when the show was airing on SyFy, to leader of Nexus, to the awfulness of The Corre, to wandering around in no man's land for a while, to a forgettable reign as IC Champion, and now he's Bad News Barrett? Sorry, but I just see a stupid comedy gimmick with no real future behind it. Barrett's in a hole now, and with the way things are going, this character won't help him at all. If anything, Bad News Barrett is the beginning of the end for Wade Barrett.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The problem was that they never did the Fight Club thing right in that they HAD Tyler Durden basically. This was the guy who led the most militant faction the WWE had had, he has charisma when he is a leader and skills to back them up. Had he made Fight Club into a gimmick, with followers, initiations, rules then that would have gotten over... BUT they couldn't do it and remain PG with it so you now have the Wyatts with that same "bring down the system/Project Mayhem" vibe.

I think this could be building to something where he ends up with "I have some bad news" and just starts beating the shit out of people, making him more like the old Bad News Brown character. I'm just pissed off as hell at Ric Flair for fucking up, not only did he cost us JR but a Horsemen faction cos they have the perfect Enforcer in Barrett just sitting there.

 

[M]

As of right now it's pretty terrible, but if it leads to Barrett saying hilarious bad catchphrases like "Today's forecast: cloudy with a chance of PAIN" then I am more than willing to support this.

As for your idea, it would never end up working as a serious character, it would end up seeming awkward or old by about the third time - but as an over the top type serious it could provide a few laughs, like instead of the standard heel laugh after telling them the "bad news" going for more of a MWAHAHAHAHAHA..... HA.... HA... *slinks back into the shadows* type of crazy.

 

[Kris Benwa]

Did he have a laptop on the podium? Because it would be cool if walks up to someone all depressed looking and goes "I got some bad news..." WHACK! smacks them in the face with the laptop. "you just got your ass kicked by Bad News Barrett" and have him make a face at the camera. That would be pretty damn hilarious but either way I don't see this character making waves in the future. Hopefully it'll die out before Barrett does or if he's lucky this could become a legendary gimmick and he'll return at RAW 2000 old as hell and do it again to a chorus of cheers from the crowd.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

The problem was that they never did the Fight Club thing right in that they HAD Tyler Durden basically. This was the guy who led the most militant faction the WWE had had, he has charisma when he is a leader and skills to back them up. Had he made Fight Club into a gimmick, with followers, initiations, rules then that would have gotten over... BUT they couldn't do it and remain PG with it so you now have the Wyatts with that same "bring down the system/Project Mayhem" vibe.

I think this could be building to something where he ends up with "I have some bad news" and just starts beating the shit out of people, making him more like the old Bad News Brown character. I'm just pissed off as hell at Ric Flair for fucking up, not only did he cost us JR but a Horsemen faction cos they have the perfect Enforcer in Barrett just sitting there.

I think this is a great post. I don't see why WWE are emphasising the "Bad News" bit of the gimmick so literally, with Wade having to get on a shitty podium and deliver crappy news. Just have it as part of his name, and let HIM be the Bad News for his opponent, and deliver a beating in the ring. Barrett is constantly being repackaged and its ruining his career, there is only so many times a wrestler can fail before the creative team give up on them, and I think Wade Barrett is approaching that point.

As THTRobtaylor suggests, a real "Fight Club" style gimmick with initiations for potential recruits to suffer through would have been great, or as an enforcer in a modern day 4 Horsemen with Flair in the mentor role..shame Flair fucked up yet again!

 

[Trail_Blazin]

I don't understand why they're having such a problem with Barrett. Book him as a bar brawler. Or just a bad man in general. Give him a theme song that isn't awful. People don't like to believe it, but theme songs do help wrestlers out, and when your theme stinks AND your gimmick stinks, you're in a world of trouble.