WNS Column: A Look At Wade "Bad News" Barrett's Career

Although Wade Barrett was never able to capture the WWE Championship, he did manage to force John Cena to become a member of The Nexus against his will at one point, resulting in Cena being contractually obligated to obey Barrett's every command. However, as fearsome as The Nexus was, it slowly died out. One by one, members left The Nexus. Eventually there was a "New" Nexus on Raw led by C.M. Punk, although this new version of the group only had one original member in David Otunga. Meanwhile, Wade Barrett jumped to the SmackDown brand alongside Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel and formed a new faction called The Corre along with the last-ever ECW Champion, Ezekiel Jackson. Barrett quickly captured the prestigious WWE Intercontinental Championship after joining the SmackDown roster.

 

The Corre did not last very long however, as the faction eventually imploded after just a few months. This resulted in Ezekiel Jackson defeating Barrett for the Intercontinental Title. After losing the I.C. strap, Barrett became something of a rebel without a cause throughout the rest of 2011 until he was sidelined with an injury in February of 2012. In late 2012, WWE began to air vignettes hyping the return of the former Intercontinental Champion. These vignettes showed Barrett "returning to his roots" so-to-speak in bare-knuckle, underground streetfighting. Barrett returned to the WWE ring with a much more vicious and aggressive attitude, knocking his opponents unconscious with a stiff elbow strike to the head originally called "The Souvenir" but later renamed to "The Bull Hammer".

 

Barrett would go on to recapture the Intercontinental Championship on two occasions throughout 2013, but disappeared from WWE programming in the later part of the year. He did however make frequent appearances on WWE's YouTube channel, more specifically, The JBL and Cole Show starring WWE commentators John "Bradshaw" Layfield and Michael Cole. It was on The JBL and Cole Show that Barrett began to portray a new character, a bearer of bad news. The three-time Intercontinental Champion would now be known as Bad News Barrett.

 

Bad News Barrett started to appear regularly on Raw and SmackDown in the early months of 2014, though hardly ever competing in matches. He would appear simply to deliver bad news to various WWE Superstars, as well as to the members of the WWE Universe. However, Bad News Barrett recently returned to action for the Intercontinental Championship Number One Contender's Tournament and would go on to not only win the tournament, but to successfully defeat Big E to become a four-time WWE Intercontinental Champion.

 

Since returning to action, Bad News Barrett has been getting cheers from many members of the WWE Universe, despite being a heel (bad guy) character. The WWE fans seem to enjoy Barrett's "Bad News" persona. After years of gimmick alterations, new theme songs, and various rivalries, it seems as though Wade Barrett has finally found his niche as Bad News Barrett.

 

Bad News Barrett, much like The Wyatt Family and The Shield, could be a new character that will add a breath of fresh air to WWE programming. Barrett has spent his entire WWE career as a heel, but now it seems as though a babyface turn could be imminent. Wrestling these days almost seems to be overrun by heels at times. Bad guys are the new good guys. It's hardly uncommon anymore for a live audience to start rooting for the heels as opposed to the babyfaces (good guys). Bad News Barrett seems to be yet another heel that the fans enjoy rooting for. This usually results in WWE officially turning a heel into a babyface.

 

Perhaps Bad News Barrett could be one of the next big babyface stars that WWE officials are always reportedly searching for. Or maybe it would be best to just keep him as a heel and just let the fans root for whoever they want, regardless of who is a babyface and who is a heel.

 

Whether or not Barrett will officially turn face or remain as a heel is not yet known, but the British brawler certainly appears to be on a wave of momentum. The former Bare-Knuckle Champion has not been on a hot streak like this since the days of Nexus. It very well could be that Barrett's time to shine has finally come. In any event, judging by the crowd reactions that Barrett has been receiving lately, it appears as though Bad News may in fact be good news for the WWE Universe.