Even before his injuries started to become prevalent, WWE generally did a poor job of handling the ongoing career of the winner of the first ever NXT competition Wade Barrett. He definitely had his moments, but for a guy who carried himself like a star from the beginning, WWE screwed the proverbial pooch on how to utilize his obvious talent.
It seems that when June comes and his contract is expired, so will Barrett’s time with WWE. He’s being the utmost professional about the entire situation, and always has. No matter the role he has always appeared to be putting his all into whatever WWE had him do. Whether it was as the fearless leader of The Nexus before they were revealed to be nothing more than an elaborate vehicle to make John Cena look like the hero and savior of WWE or portraying the short-lived movie star, Barrett has never slacked.
One big shame is that while his career has indeed been plagued by injuries, none of them have directly affected any sustained push. That’s mostly because he hasn’t really had many periods of sustained backing. He’s been Intercontinental Champion for what seems like a hundred times and instead of being a career boost he just loses a bunch in non-title matches until someone beats him for the belt. Then the process begins again. When he won the King of the Ring tournament last year it looked to be the start of a brand new chapter, but it was no different than when he won the IC Title.
Before that, the Bad News Barrett character was really taking off. It started as a way to keep him on TV while injured, and by the time he was cleared to wrestle it had gotten over to the point that WWE could have used him as a heel or a babyface and kept that momentum going. What did they decide to do instead? Have him lose a bunch of times.
He’s on TV now, for some reason dressed in full ring gear even though he can’t wrestle, and he’s barely had the chance to look at a microphone let alone speak into one. He’s the best talker in his group, so why not put him in a suit and let him be the mouthpiece? The other guys are all good talkers as well, but they can also get in the ring. Barrett can’t. He’s being used as ineffectually as a pawn stuck between its king and the opposing queen.
If Barrett is truly set to leave WWE when his contract is up, he will be another guy WWE held onto with no intentions of using for the benefit of anybody. He may not wind up finding the kind of success of guys like EC3, Drew Galloway and Trent Baretta, just to name a few, but if he decides to move forward on wrestling he would be a worthwhile addition to the roster of any promotion.
