Wade Barrett will definitely go down as one of WWE’s biggest missed opportunities in the past few years. He came in with a huge wave of momentum, starting off with The Nexus angle, and there seemed to have been big plans sketched in for him in the future.
He was even considered to be one of Undertaker’s potential opponents at Wrestlemania 27. However, The Nexus angle lost steam by Summerslam, and from then onwards, for the majority of his WWE run, he was either met with injury or creative laziness. Many believed Barrett had the potential to be a world champion.
Barrett had given his notice much in advance, having claimed that he decided to leave a year before he did and eventually left by the end of May this year. One gimmick that picked up steam for Barrett was the Bad News Barrett gimmick, which got extremely over with the audiences, for which he would get heavily cheered despite being a heel.
In fact, Barrett himself in an interview with Nick Hausman of Wrestlezone Radio said that the decision not to turn him face during the Bad News Barrett run was a missed opportunity. He said:
”I think Bad News Barrett was a lot of fun. It was probably something that wasn’t supposed to get over to the degree it got over. Fortunately, a few things clicked and it worked. I actually agree that at that point I should have been turned babyface. That was the natural progression. If you look back at people like The Rock there are times when earlier in his career he was doing heel stuff and he was so entertaining that people cheered for him. The natural thing to do was turn him babyface.
That’s what they did. I agree that at that point that was something that I do regret. The decision to keep me as a heel. I think it was just something that people were entertained by. It was so quirky and different and people react to that stuff. If the performer is good and the presentation is good and the people are enjoying it. Even if you are going out telling people that they are about to have heart attacks. If you deliver it with a certain panache and charisma then they are going to look forward to seeing that act on the show.
I remember when I was younger and seeing guys like The Rock cut these promos telling the world how terrible they are. How they are a bunch of losers and stuff like that. He was so funny when he did it that you couldn’t wait ’til he came out and started insulting you. That’s what turned him into the babyface he became.
I think there was an opportunity as Bad News Barrett to turn me into a babyface. I am not saying that I would have gotten to the level The Rock got to but it was certainly a chance for me to do something different and keep me motivated and stimulated by what I was doing on the show. I think it was a missed opportunity, to be honest with you.”
