Wade Barrett should have been a Superstar!
 

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Yeah but Vince doesn’t like accents.

They dropped the ball so fucking badly with him multiple times. Nexus got mismanaged, he was made to look like a chump before 2010 was said and done.

And then years later they reinvented him with weeks of vignettes depicting him as a badass bareknuckle fighter and he was promptly running scared from R-Truth.

Lol Cena

Wade Barrett is no Bad Bunny

Never underestimate the creative team's ability to make the term 'creative team' a fucking joke.

For some reason, this always makes me think of Brodus Clay. He went from "I WILL DESTROY ALL YOUR HEROES!" to dancing for the kids almost overnight. It was a jarring and stupid direction for someone they were building as the next monster.

Unless it’s a southern “hick” one. Then he wants you to do it and if you can’t you’re on the outs with him.

I used not to like Wade Barrett early on. But he grew on me and I realized he had super star potential and was actually pretty awesome, especially on the mic. They really dropped the ball hard with him. He should be in the WWE main event scene to this day and still doing the bad news gimmick. That gimmick was fucking fire and I can not think of anyone who would have played it better than him. I always hold out hope that he will show up in the Rumble one day and become an active rassler for a few years again. Or maybe even just have an active run in NXT again. Much closer to happening now that he is on commentary in NXT instead of out of the company. At some point him and Joe both have to rassle again don't they?

Eh, he can talk and was alright with some size. The League of Nations sucked, but he would have gotten a chance if he stuck around.

I bring this up whenever Barrett comes up. He probably would have never been a huge star but remember when he was returning from injury and they ran vignettes promoting him as a bad ass underground street fighter? Great way to build up a potential main event heel.

Then his first night back in a ring, a face (can’t even remember who) ran in and he ran away like a pussy immediately making the vignettes completely pointless.

And that’s WWE in a nutshell.

He had a good look, good in-ring skills and a great talker. Should have been a top level heel but yeah... WWE happened.

Bad News Barrett was getting over massively with face reactions so that squashed that... WWE happened again.

Ah well.

Didn't help that they got rid of his sweet scissor lift thing due to "budget cuts."

Man, that Bad News gimmick was good.

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Coulda been really good man.

Seriously, why even go through the trouble of filming the vignettes?

Would have liked to have seen him get a run as a face. It would have been nice to see him become the lesser of two evils and cut promos that made him a bad-ass, but one with a possible hidden heart of gold creeping in. William Regal-style, but with Barrett’s voice.

The bare knuckle stuff was good, but man the bad news gimmick was getting really over. Thought he was hitting his stride in both look and work. Fucking shame he never made it far.

I agree with this to a large extent. While I agree that Barrett was a solid talent with potential, a wrestling company has to be VERY careful in terms of having their top star in the company doing a job for someone. While I agree that Barrett was a solid talent with potential, I also agree with management’s decision to have Cena going over Barrett and the Nexus. Why? Because - Barrett wasn’t ready to be a main event calibre star at the time and likely would have flopped in that role. So in essence, Cena’s job would have been in vain.

Outside of this however, I agree that Barrett was solid. Loved his Bad News stuff.

Dude he was so money . He had it all and they completely bungled it. He was one of the best talkers they had and he could go. And shit the dude was a legit tough guy

How do you fuck that up

Also his voice is amazing .

Agreed that Barrett was money but I’m not sure if he was ready to be THE guy in the WWE. That’s why I agree with management’s decision in having Cena going over him. To me, Barrett needed more time to develop. He was Intercontinental level at the time imo. I would have been interested in seeing him
Get a long run as IC champ (after having lost to Cena), and developing his character a bit before moving into bigger and better things. Agreed that the WWE should have used him better however.