WWE personality Wade Barrett spoke with PWMania.com for an exclusive in-depth interview (via AceOdds.com). During the discussion, Barrett commented on WWE’s new era, commentary, a potential showdown with Drew McIntyre, and more.
You can check out the complete interview below:
You’ve been quite vocal about your love for wrestling. Given the right opportunity and storyline, do you see yourself making an in-ring return? What kind of match or opponent would make a comeback feel worth it?
Yeah, I think we all know the answer to that. Absolutely it would be Drew McIntyre. He’s someone I go way back with and very close friends with the guy over the years. He did talk a little smack to me a few weeks ago on Raw and I haven’t forgotten about that. I’m not going to make a major deal of it, but he’s lucky he stopped where he did. Let’s just put it that way because if he did take one more step forward, the old bull hammer would have come out, boom, knocked him on his ass, and perhaps that in-ring comeback would have happened by now, but I’m not clamouring for anything like that. Let me be clear. I always say this. People want to talk about it all the time. I hype it up a little bit here and there. If the opportunity arises, obviously it’s something I would consider and think about and think, could I deliver something here but similarly, I’m absolutely thrilled with my role on commentary. It’s not something I’m looking to step away from. I don’t have some itch to scratch like a lot of the older guys have when they talk about comebacks. I’m really, really satisfied with what I’m doing right now. I love contributing in any way I can on the desk. But like I say, if the magic is there and it happens and it’s the perfect storm, maybe those tights will be pulled out of storage, have to make sure the moths haven’t eaten them or I may have to pay for a new pair, we’ll see. There’s always a tiny, tiny chance, but don’t hold your breath.
How has your perspective on wrestling changed since moving into commentary? Are there parts of the sport you’ve come to appreciate more now that you’re watching it from the outside?
The big change when you move from being an in-ring guy to a commentator is the show is no longer about you. The show is about enhancing everybody else who arrives on the TV. It’s every character, every storyline, anything you can do to add a little sprinkle of sugar on every minute of the show is what you’re trying to do. It’s no longer about trying to get myself over or trying to be the big star anymore. And in terms of my appreciation for the industry, so say you’ve got a two-hour show or a three-hour show. Historically, Wade Barrett may have been on that show for 10 or 15 minutes. He might have had a match or a promo, whatever it was. That was really all I cared about. That’s all I’m focused on. The important part of this show is the bit that I’m on. I have to go out and make this as good as I can. The difference now is I have to have a complete understanding from start to finish of this roller coaster ride, everybody’s storyline, and how they all fit together.
That has given me a totally different appreciation for our creative team, the management, and the kind of decisions that have to go into this. Whereas I was always annoyed because why aren’t I winning? Why aren’t I in this spot? Why aren’t I getting that opportunity? Now I understand, “Hey, this guy’s really good. This guy we have losing in segment three, he’s really good, but guess what? We can’t have him win here because the plan for next month is to put this match and this match together and this guy’s not going to fit in there. So, we kind of need him to make the other guy look good”. My understanding of putting together a two or three-hour TV show multiple times a week, especially if you’ve got a premium live event, and my appreciation of how the mental gymnastics that management and the creative team have to go through to try and make this all fit together and make cohesive sense and be intriguing for the viewer, I have a whole new appreciation for that.
With Triple H now taking the reins of WWE’s creative direction, what differences have you noticed compared to Vince McMahon’s style? How has Triple H’s influence changed the environment or storytelling in WWE, in your view?
It’s the unpredictability of things. When I was in-ring, it often felt like there was stagnation at the top of the card. Okay, I’ve seen this guy in the main event of premium live events for the last 10 years. I already know every move this guy is going to do in this exact order and I know how this match is going to flow. I pretty much can guess how it’s going to end. So that stagnation would often kill me. I love the fact that today, I don’t know who’s going to be in the main event of the next premium live event. I have absolutely no clue what the card is going to look like. I don’t know if Cody Rhodes is going to be anywhere near the card, he might be left off and he’s one of the biggest stars we’ve ever seen. I don’t know if Roman Reigns is going to be there, CM Punk might be back, I have no clue. That to me is really, really exciting and I think that one of the key factors in the success of Triple H is his ability to keep the audience guessing and not be so formulaic.
I love that as a fan of professional wrestling. It keeps me excited and keeps our fans intrigued, and to me, that’s the biggest difference of all of it. This question mark that pretty much every weekly show has. You have no idea what’s going to happen next week.
I think Triple H is really good at tying up loose ends too. I think in the past, there were times when storylines would seemingly end halfway through and never be mentioned again, Triple H is really good with the continuity aspect of it.
I think he has a real respect for the need to tie up loose ends and call back things that maybe happened a year ago that everyone forgot about. Oh no, we’re bringing that back now. Whereas in the past we would act like certain things have never happened. We would ignore them. After Nexus ended in 2010, I don’t think Nexus was mentioned on WWE TV for probably seven or eight years. It was never brought up. I was the guy who was maintaining all these premium live events in the second half of 2010, destroyed the company, yet even in my matches in 2012 2013 2014, the fact that this guy was the leader of Nexus and how WWE to ransom for this long was never once brought up because it wasn’t supposed to be mentioned. We had to forget about that which to me at the time I thought was stupid. To this day I think it’s stupid. I think Triple H’s philosophy is like no there’s equity in that. Why wouldn’t you bring that up? You know, we’re not going there again. We’re not going to bring the Nexus back but this guy, he might be losing right now, but this guy’s a serious player when he wants to be. He’s a constant threat. And I think things like that that we are allowed to keep bringing up on commentary and mentioning are really important to the viewer. It kind of ties together different eras of our show and like I say, the continuity, I think, is better now than it ever has been.
You’ve branched into acting and other projects since stepping back from full-time wrestling. Can you share a bit about your favorite non-wrestling projects and any new ventures fans might be surprised to see you pursue?
I’d say probably my favourite non-wrestling projects have been the two I Am Vengeance movies that I’ve done. Really unique situation for me to do that. I’ve done a bit of acting before. I have been in either of those movies, but I was for the first time pretty much portrayed as the hero in these movies and a very dark brooding kind of anti-hero. But like I say, for the first time, it put me in a position where I was the number one guy. I was the Roman Reigns or the Cody Rhodes of this thing. It was a really good experience. I loved working with the crew, Evolutionary Films who did those.
To answer the second part of your question, I do have something in the pipeline with that same group. It’s a little more difficult now that I’m back with WWE on their weekly TV programming, trying to find a good window to get something filmed there. I’ll probably need about a four-week window to go away and shoot with them. But that’s been in the pipeline for a little while and we’re kind of just looking for the right moments in the calendar for all the ducks to align and try and get ourselves shooting that. It’s something I’m still passionate about, and still really enjoy doing. Like I said, at some point in the future, I think we’ll be doing a little more of that.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit PWMania.com with an h/t to PWMania.com for the transcription.
