The Barrage that had begun five years ago saw an exhausted and slow smothering till it was finally extinguished on May 6, 2016. Wade Barrett brought bad news to the WWE Universe by relinquishing his ‘Bull Hammer’ for a career in a completely different direction, bidding farewell to wrestling till “the time is right”.
While there had been some conjecture about Bennett reinventing himself in rival promotion Total Non-Stop Wrestling, or even New Japan Pro Wrestling, as several former WWE stars have done, word from the man himself has put such rumours to rest.
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Following his release from the WWE, the former bare-knuckle boxer from Preston has been involved in a movie project where he plays the protagonist, ‘John Gold’. “Vengeance”, a revenge thriller directed by Ross Boyask, will have Stu Bennett (Barrett) essay the role of a former soldier turned mercenary who uncovers a deadly conspiracy while investigating the murder of his best friend. Pitted against retired kick boxer Gary Daniels, who plays the lead antagonist ‘Hatcher’, Bennett will be seen in an explosive part not quite unlike the charismatic persona of a classic action hero. Produced by London-based production company Evolutionary Films, this project has been on the floors since the 25th of July, 2016.
In a video posted by RetroWrestling.com on YouTube, Bennett hints at his indefinite departure from all wrestling ventures with an address, “… and I will, fingers crossed, see you in a ring, in the future shall we say…”, after running through a list of his wrestling monikers for the benefit of his immediate audience, even stopping to self-reflexively mock one from his UK days, ‘The Pinnacle’.
As a response to Cody Rhodes’s tweet about the wrestlers he would want to go up against once he has departed WWE, Bennett uploaded a photo of his list of opponents which included, quite hilariously, one single name : Papa Shango. Stu’s tweets about running into Papa Shango in the most unlikeliest of places, where the latter always disclosed, quite falsely, his in-ring return at the Royal Rumble of that year to him, is a popular annual gag. Bennett’s tweet is an obvious reference to this joke, which perhaps reveals what he intends to do once he is released, i.e., stay away from a squared circle.
Bennett had also taken to twitter as a medium for conveying his disgruntlement with the way in which his career curve had turned out. He had tweeted about not renewing his WWE contract once it would expire in June 2016. A permanent change of his twitter handle to his real name from his ring one, which he said was “dead and buried”, seemed a way to get around a part of himself he did not particularly like and start afresh.
The decision to forego his in-ring names while billing himself, thus losing a significant amount of marketability, was a resonating one. Perhaps he intends to take a sabbatical from all-things-wrestling for a period while he picks up other interests, namely, cinema.
An injury prone career and a push which could not have come at a more inappropriate time had led Barrett to undergo numerous gimmick changes as a means of staying afloat. The five-time Intercontinental Champion could never have secured a top card sport, particularly with the likes of The Shield and Dolph Ziggler getting their moments of glory around the same time. Yet, there was never any gimmick, as a singles performer, which rubbed audiences the wrong way. ‘Bad News Barrett’ was always his most overwhelmingly received one.
The wrestler behind the act was still the hardened brawler from the streets of Preston, whose shot at success had reached an abrupt halt due to unfortunate injuries and overshadowing by better-booked superstars. By the time he had been crowned King of the Ring, his momentum had all but disappeared.
The final straw that broke the camel’s back was the utterly pointless run of a foreign heel stable comprising erstwhile champions.
To conclude, here is a tweet with Stu Barrett on set, looking more menacing than ever :
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