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Wade Barrett has been known by a number of names throughout his WWE career, from King Barrett to Bad News Barrett and at one point he was even the leader of The Nexus when the group debuted back in 2010.
The former Intercontinental Champion allowed his WWE contract to expire back in 2016 and walked away from the company. Recently Barrett has made his surprise return to WWE but this time he's behind the commentary desk on NXT.
Barrett may only be rumored to be the temporary replacement for Mauro Ranallo, but he could make his return as an in-ring star down the road, and here are some interesting facts to get every fan caught up on the man behind The Bull Hammer.
#5 Wade Barrett is a qualified Marine Biologist
Wade Barrett was born in Preston, in the United Kingdom before moving to Wales with his family when he was six years old. The star went on to pursue a career in wrestling because of his inspirations like Davey Boy Smith and Bret Hart but he decided to earn himself a degree before starting to train.
Barrett earned a degree in Marine Biology at the University of Liverpool, before then working in a science laboratory whilst he was training to be a professional wrestler.
The 2015 King of the Ring winner is one of the smartest Superstars in WWE at present, and it's interesting that Barrett hasn't decided to step back into that career in the years that have followed or when he took a break from wrestling. Even so, Wade Barrett has ensured that when his wrestling and acting careers finally wind down then he definitely has a career path out of the spotlight waiting for him.
#4 Wade Barrett left WWE to pursue an acting career
Wade Barrett was part of The League of Nations alongside Rusev, Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio back in 2016 before it was made public that the former Intercontinental Champion had opted to allow his contract to expire so that he could pursue a career in acting.
In recent years, Barrett has been part of several movies, WWE Studio's film Eliminators where the star portrayed George "Bishop" Edwards was released back in 2016 just after Barrett requested his WWE release. He has since been part of two hit movies called I Am Vengence which was released back in 2018 and I Am Vengence: Retaliation, which was released earlier this year. Barrett portrayed John Gold in both movies.
Wade Barrett went on to receive a lot of praise for his portrayal of John Gold with Variety writing the following:
"Bennett has sufficient comic chops to occasionally undercut Gold’s macho with self-parody."
It's unknown as to whether or not Barrett will continue to pursue a career in the acting industry when his current stint with WWE comes to an end.
#3 Wade Barrett supports Preston North End
Wade Barrett was born in Preston before he moved to Wales with his family a few years later. The former Champion supports his local football team and has made it public that he is a huge fan of Preston North End.
Many wrestling fans outside of the United Kingdom won't be aware of Preston North End since the English football team have spent most of their existence in the Championship.
Preston were originally members of the First Division and were founders of the Football League when it was formed back in 1888 but after their relegation in 1961, the team has been unable to find their way back to what is now the Premier League.
Despite growing up in Wales around a number of other football teams including Swansea and Cardiff who have both recently seen Premier League Football, Wade Barrett has remained loyal to the team that he was born closest to and continues to pray that the team finds a way back into the top flight of English Football.
#2 Wade Barrett has been on commentary in WWE before
Wade Barrett made his surprise return to WWE earlier this week when he appeared on commentary as part of NXT. The star has already been reported to be part of the commentary team again next week after what seems to have been an impressive display.
Of course, this isn't the first time Barrett has had a stint on commentary in WWE, back in 2009 when Barrett was still in developmental as part of FCW, the former Champion suffered a back injury where he tore his Latissimus dorsi muscle and required surgery.
This put Wade Barrett on the shelf for a number of months and rather than keeping himself away from the action, the star joined Dusty Rhodes on commentary. Barrett remained on commentary from February through until December when he was able to resume his in-ring activities.
Barrett has also been on commentary for World of Sport in the United Kingdom and most recently was part of the broadcast team at National Wrestling Alliance back in December.
#1 Wade Barrett was once stabbed
Interestingly before Wade Barrett made his way to WWE, the 2015 King of the Ring winner worked as a bare-knuckle fighter in Europe and throughout the United Kingdom.
His bare-knuckle fighting took him to Budapest at one point where Barrett was able to defeat quite a strong challenger and win a substantial amount of money. Of course, there were a few people who saw him walk out of that sketchy place with the money, and on his way out of the alleyway, he was stabbed.
Barrett had earned 20k for the win and his mugger was attempting to take the money but didn't expect Barrett to fight back. The star may have been stabbed deeply across the back, but he was still able to fight off his attacker and make it out of the situation alive.
Barrett went on to state,
“ If I’ve ended up with a 12-inch scar on my body, just imagine how the other guy ended up looking."
Wade Barrett now has a huge scar from his upper back to his right tricep which only added to how badass many fans believed his WWE character was.
