Wade Barrett Discusses the Nexus' Role in Shaking Up WWE’s Stale Roster

Former WWE Superstar Wade Barrett recently sat down on the Even Stronger podcast to discuss the impact and significance of his Nexus faction in WWE history.

Barrett looked back at a pivotal moment in WWE during the late 2000s. He stated, "I think there was probably an era from about 2002 until about 09-2010 where I think the show got stale because it was the same seven or eight top guys at the time who had been running the show for the duration of that. So I think the company was starting to realise, ‘Look, some of these guys that we’ve had holding this down for years now, they’re starting to get aged out. We really, really need fresh stars because the next 10 years are not looking good unless we start building them now.'"

He spoke highly of his contemporaries, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre, noting that they were hired on the same day. "We all got caught up in this wave of ‘Look we need new talent. We need new guys. We need fresh stars.’ So I was fortunate that my rise through the developmental ranks came at that time, which meant the company was actively looking for new stars.”

Barrett shared that Nexus was an awe-inspiring journey for all involved. "Nexus for all of us who were in the group was just a mind-blowing experience. It’s something that even though I think it died prematurely, it’s something that people still want to talk to me about this day. It probably only lasted six months really Nexus but people still to this day want to talk about the time we ripped up the ring, the time we attacked John Cena. The time we beat up Vince McMahon and ran the company."

He concluded by stating that Nexus might have been the prototype for other successful groups like The Shield. "They knocked it out of the park so maybe we were the catalyst for some of that."