The Curious Case of Wade Barrett

[Rhodes2TheFuture3313]

We all know Barrett's story. He came in with great promise as the Leader of Nexus. Then, went to Smackdown and formed the Corre which utterly failed. Then, he got hurt and came back w/his bareknuckle brawler gimmick only to get jobbed out. Then, he won the IC title and was injured again. He returned to WWE TV with the Bad News gimmick which really took off, but management seemed to be hesitant to push him all of the way. Then, he got hurt again. Barrett returned with a strong showing winning the once prestigious King of The Ring Tournament out of the blue; only to be jobbed out repeatedly. He was saddled with an R-Truth feud over who the "real" King was and nobody cared. Finally he gets thrown into the Stardust/Neville feud and becomes the COSMIC KING. The Cosmic King takes the pinfall at SummerSlam only to have Stardust turn on him at RAW in effect writing him off of TV. Many are clamoring for a return to the Bad News Gimmick. I wouldn't be against it and Wade really seemed to enjoy it as it allowed his personality to really shine. However, I'm proposing a different take on Wade Barrett. One we've never seen before. I mentioned somewhere on the site about having the Miz Hollywood gimmick being taken a little more seriously w/him ditching the ridiculous getups and having him come to the ring in designer suits, sunglasses and a scarf. Well what if this time Wade Barrett returns as a legit STUNTMAN? He's dressed in a Black muscle tee and black Khakis. He can mix some of his Bad News into the gimmick and he starts off helping the Miz win matches and reclaim some status of respectability in the WWE. Barrett cuts a promo saying how his career was at an all-time low as the Cosmic King and that the Miz called him and got him a role in "The Eliminators" and he's been getting a lot more calls thanks to The Miz. What do you guys think?

 

[ComeOnVince]

I don't get the whole Barrett thing. He's perfectly capable in the ring and above par on the mic, but the E has pissed on him and so many others for so long that I have to wonder if caring matters. I'm not enamored by Barrett in any of his incarnations (thought BNB was my favorite among them), but I'm of the mind that I want EVERYbody to be booked well, because that makes the whole show more interesting and fun to watch. No, of course, not everyone can be booked STRONG, but everyone can be booked WELL. But as we all know, that ain't happening for the undercard.

As for being paired with Miz, look how that worked out for Sandow, who legitimately got over with the crowd in that stupid-ass gimmick only for the payoff of the tension between the two to fizzle at the Royal Rumble and Sandow to be relegated to playing a caricature of the Macho Man. WTF?! That was a Wrestlemania match (even pre-show!) plated up and waiting to be served. And it would have been one of the more entertaining matches on the card (to me, anyway). But E refuses to big-build mid card feuds, and it makes it ALL less exciting to me.

 

[H33LTurn]

Barrett works best when he's an arrogant heel. I think the king gimmick distracted from his abilities in the ring and his potential on the roster. I actually didn't mind him being tossed in the Neville/Stardust feud.

Barrett is a great talent and one should remember he has feuded with some of the biggest names in the company such as Cena and Orton before injuries sidetracked his career. He's unlikely to ever make it back to the main event scene, so gimmick matches like the one at SummerSlam are his best chance at staying relevant.

I don't agree with you Hollywood gimmick idea. He is making a movie so you can have some sort of superstar gimmick, but I'd much rather him be a pompous badass than a slippery heel alongside The Miz. I do, however, think that he's shown some promise working in teams and stables in the past. WWE would be smart to capitalize on that ability now that the tag division is starting to slow down.

 

[RKO920]

I for one would like to see Wade when he comes back join in with the Authority. They need to grow besides just having Seth be the only active wrestler in the group. Have Wade come in and be the mid card guy in the group, win the US Title (I don't see Rollins keeping it forever). Then because of his pull within the group Triple H gives him the European Title instead of the US Title. This will then bring out that cocky side in wade as he can say how much better European wrestlers are than American wrestlers. This wouldn't start a whole US vs the world thing like Rusev did but just more specific to the actual wrestling style between the two. He can change his cape when he comes out to being red as a nod to the British army wearing red coats. Overall still be the same Wade Barrett that we know just with some tweaks. Eventually he could feud with Seth as the Authority would have to crumble from the inside at some point.

 

[Prince Vee]

I'm a huge Barrett fan (It's pretty obvious from my signature isn't it?) But at this moment I wouldn't want Barrett to try something new out of the blue and start from the scratch. His matches used to be overwhelmingly enjoyable irrelevant of who his opponent it. It'll be rational if he drops the King gimmick and turn back into his Bad News Gimmick.

I really hope he would return as a fan favourite after his movie production and feud with Stardust.

Cheers!!

 

[MizMark11]

I think that even though he won King of the Ring, he should never have become King Barrett. From the time between when Nexus disbanded to when he got his Bad News gimmick, Barrett literally did nothing memorable. The Corre was awful, his bareknuckle brawler gimmick showed promise, but went nowhere, and he was also injured a handful of times.

When he became Bad News Barrett, he started getting over with the crowd again. Whether they were booing him insulting their city or speaking his lines along with him, the crowd enjoyed what Barrett was doing and it seemed like he genuinely enjoyed it as well. Then the mic time started to go away followed by him becoming King Barrett, which has been terrible so far. I mean, it could have been better if he went all the way with it, maybe got his own surrounding of "knights" and form a new stable, but instead he jobbed out to R-Truth and everyone else in between. While I didn't mind his addition to the Amell/Stardust/Neville feud, it still feels like Barrett should be somewhere better.

I just feel like Barrett is better at leading a stable. When he led Nexus, I could take him more seriously despite him being a rookie. Hell, the most believable time he could have been WWE Champion was when he was in Nexus. Even though the Corre was complete shit, he still seemed more comfortable leading them. I'd say reunite the Nexus, but that's pretty much impossible. Ryback and Daniel Bryan are way too over as singles stars to be in Nexus, especially consider they're both face. Husky Harris is no longer with us. Darren Young is busy with PTP and Justin Gabriel is out of the company. That leaves David Otunga, Heath Slater, and Curtis Axel. I suppose A few guys could be added from NXT to keep with the idea of the group, but I don't know. Neville could fill the Gabriel role and someone like Baron Corbin (even though he's green af) could fill the Skip Sheffield role. Or maybe I'm crazy.

Anyway, the most realistic hope is that Wade comes back as Bad News Barrett and just rolls with it, leaving the king garbage behind.

 

[Terry Gyimah]

It is better he just goes back to being Bad News Barrett or better yet the WWE should give Barrett a push again but the only way of doing that would be to reform Nexus but how to go about it though? Now that is the million dollar question now isn't it?

 

[ASKane]

I think Barrett just simply needs to be booked strong if they want him to succeed. He has never failed as a result of talent or gimmick, he has always failed because of not winning the key matches or injury

Nexus - Cena (enough said)
IC Titles - Injury or Constant Defeats
KOTR - Losing to R-Truth
Cosmic King - Losing to Stephen Amell

His career is plagued with key losses and every time he gets a scrap of momentum he then takes a key loss and its gone. If WWE ever wants to make a success of him they simply need to make him look strong and give him the big win, if they don't want to push him or keep making him lose he will be stuck at the bottom of the card until his contract is done.

But if we are talking about potential gimmicks, as I think he is now away for a movie why not team him with Miz on his return and they do a gimmick where they think they are superstar A listers and just act arrogant despite their acting careers just being straight to DVD films

 

[xRob13x]

I feel that if he comes back from whatever hiatus he's on, bringing back his 'bad news' gimmick and working as a face, he'll be over big-time. When he first returned from injury he was getting face pops, despite still technically being heel, and he was actually booked fairly strong, getting clean wins over people like Sheamus. They could easily do that again, and build him up as a strong mid to upper-midcard face, which is what I'd personally like to see. And yeah, setting up the obvious feud with Stardust would be a good start to that.

 

[timothy26]

He can cut a great promo at times but I think he's just been around too long in the mid - lower card to regain any credibility now, I can't see creative making him a focus when they have too many fresh talents to work with. I think he's more someone they tend to keep around because he can give a decent match to fill time on tv or a house show

 

[Radical]

Barrett should come back as Bad News because, other than his early days as pompous Nexus leader, that has been his best gimmick.

I think he should be a heel as Bad News. I know the crowd kind of loves him when he says "I'm afraid I've got some BAD NEWS!" but if he is ALLOWED to be a heel in the ring and out then the fans should respect that, kind of like how they know Kevin Owens is a heel and they boo when he says and does heelish things but they also can cheer him or be impressed by his in ring actions.

When Barrett gets back, I think he needs a feud where he can look good, EVEN if he doesn't win, he should look good and then he can be in IC or US Title feuds and then maybe go for the WWE title in a multi-man match of some sort and see how that goes and how the fans react.

 

[whoopin' ass]

Barrett's issue comes down to 2 things - bad booking and injuries, both at the wrong time. There have been times where it looked like he was getting a good push only to get hurt and be on the shelf for a number of months. That creates 2 issues - first is your momentum stops so it is sometimes hard to get going again. Secondly is wwe starts to view you as fragile. Look at Ziggler - a couple concussions and he is is no longer World Title material even though he still can wrestle just fine. Barrett has had more than a couple injuries so wwe might not be willing to push him as hard since last thing they want is him getting hurt as they build up to a Mania main event with him in it.

Second is poor booking almost from the get-go. The whole end of the Nexus didn't help him out any and I think hurt him in the eyes of a lot of wwe fans(not wrestling fans, wwe fans). After that, he was never considered a real threat for Cena so that kept him away from the main event somewhat. And then they just kept booking him poorly at the wrong times. Put them together and you have Barrett - bad angle but just as it starts to get better, he is out with injury, comes back and starts rebuilding but they start giving him a bad angle again ...