Wade Barrett

I'm afraid he got some BAD NEWS

Stuart Alexander Bennett (born August 10, 1980 in Preston, England) is an English professional wrestler working for WWE under the name Wade Barrett. He currently wrestles for the Smackdown! brand, and is best known as the winner of the inaugural season of WWE NXT and, more importantly, as the original leader of one of recent Pro Wrestling's iconic power stables, The Nexus.

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Wade Barrett provides examples of the following tropes:

• A Father to His Men --> It's All About Me: If Wade approaches you about forming a unit and he promises you equal status with him, do not listen. He'll appear to be all for equalism at first, but in truth his biggest flaw is that he just cannot give a shit about anyone but himself. He got kicked out of Nexus and the Corre was disbanded because of it.
  • Details. Seemed at first to genuinely care about the welfare of the other Nexus members, risking his own contract and title shot to secure contracts for them, but this eventually came to only apply if you were loyal to him and lived up to his standards. Darren Young and Michael Tarver were obvious weak links, and were brutally excommunicated for their trouble. David Otunga fancied himself The Starscream and was forced to lay down and surrender the tag titles to Gabriel and Slater. Also, Barrett was prepared to let the other Nexus members all keep falling victim to sneak attacks rather than bring John Cena back…until they made it clear they would desert him for it. Thus began his Humiliation Conga.
  • The same pattern repeated itself with the Corre. He was again the main speaker for the team, but he seemed to have accepted that it wasn't all about him, even going out of his way to declare his fellow Corre members his equals. But then a world heavyweight championship battle royal came into play with all four members as participants, and Barrett fell right back into the same old habit starting from there. You'd think he'd know better, but at this point he just doesn't freaking care.
• Arch Enemy: At first, the WWE management due to how they where treated during NXT, then John Cena and now Randy Orton.
• Badass Longcoat / No Shirt, Long Jacket: Wears one around his shoulders to the ring.
  • Coat Cape
• Badass Beard: In recent years, he has grown one.
• Big Bad: Subverted, see Disc One Final Boss.
• Break the Haughty: Once he got carried away in wanting the WWE Championship and torturing Cena to get it, to the point of making the Nexus become all about him and forgetting all the aspects that made the group synonymous with its theme song, he ended up gradually but certainly losing the Nexus - to the point he found himself reaching to CM Punk for help in keeping them. CM Punk, by the way, who showed a clear intention to replace him. Naturally this didn't end well for Mr. Barrett.
  • He seemed to have learned his lesson, however, as he ushered in the Corre, but claims he's not even taking a leadership position in that group. But then came the #1 contender battle royal on April 15th. He was the first Corre member to declare that the others would be helping him win that night, and just went on to become more monolithic to the point of alienating Jackson, who he had violently expelled rather than let walk away, then Slater and Gabriel as well. The latter two ended the Corre then and there.
• Bullying a Bunch of Dragons: Say this about Barrett - he has no issue whatsoever going after the biggest dogs in the yard. In the year or two since he's been in WWE, his main targets have been as follows: John Cena, The Big Show, Ezekiel Jackson (Capable of suplexing 400-pound men without too much difficulty), Sheamus, and Randy Orton.
• Characterization Marches On: When he first appeared he was a cynical, greedy, charismatic British thug, now he's become a scheming, manipulative, brutal war leader.
  • Inverted during a 7/29/11 promo on Smackdown where he said that he had come to the United States to make a lot of money, but had gotten sidetracked in the past 12 months. He announced that we were going to see a return of basics for Wade Barret, stating that greed is terribly underrated.
• Compressed Hair: Every now and then during a match, his gelled-back hair actually gets disheveled, and you get to see just how voluminous and curly it actually is.
• Continuity Nod: One of his signature moves is a spinning side slam called "The Winds of Change" - in reference to a Catch Phrase he used as the leader of The Nexus.

"The winds of change are blowing."

• Demoted to Extra: The man went from being a major threat with The Nexus on Raw and The Corre on Smackdown, to having a brief feud with Daniel Bryan, to not appear on television much at all.
  • Subverted later on, including a victory at Survivor Series over Randy Orton's team.
• Disc One Final Boss
• Establishing Character Moment: Maybe more of a 're'-establishing character moment, but the promo where he talked about getting "back to basics" and stated that "greed is terribly underrated" definitely counts.
• Evil Brit
• Expy: His English background, powerfully built body, natural villainous charisma, and 'gentleman brawler' persona make him a near-dead ringer for a young William Regal.
• Fan Nickname: Woi Barrah, a mangling of how he pronounces his name.
  • Not really a mangling; his accent does seem to be that thick (although he might be exaggerating it to score a few Foreign Wrestling Heel points.)
• Finishing Move: The Wasteland, a modified rolling fireman's carry.
• Foe Yay: He's done a lot to get John Cena to work for him.
  • One of his orders included having Cena wash his back.
• Genius Bruiser: Has a degree in Marine Biology and spent his youth as a bare knuckle boxer.
• Genre Savvy
• Greed/Only in It For the Money: Has always been the central component of his character, going all the way back to his developmental days.

"Greed is terribly underrated."

• I Did What I Had to Do: Feels completely justified doing what he did to get himself and the rest of the rookies contracts.
• Informed Ability: Played with. Anytime one of the announcers mentions his backstory, they'll usually mention that he was a bareknuckle fighter in Britain. But Barrett's wrestling style seems to involve a lot of power moves as opposed to the strikes and punches you think you would see.
• Insistent Terminology: A possible inversion. He insisted on not being called the leader of The Corre, as it was an alliance of "four equals." Unfortunately, his It's All About Me attitude led to the Corre splitting.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: He's achieved all of his initial objectives, now he's just in it for the money and the power.
• The Kid with the Remote Control: Between Hell in a Cell and Survivor Series in 2010, John Cena had to obey Wade's orders to remain employed. This seemed at first like heaven for Barrett, Nexus, and smarks worldwide alike. But then it worked out terribly.
• Kent Brockman News: His BNZ reports
• Meddling John Cena: Why he's not The WWE Champion.
• Noble Demon: He's even apologized for attacking John Cena and Bret Hart.
• Pec Flex: He does it in the Season 1 finale of NXT. Shown here.
• Put on a Bus: Is out for up to 4 months due to his injured elbow being in far worse shape than originally thought.
• Satisfied Street Rat: His first gimmick on NXT, he was a greedy, bare-knuckle brawler who grew up rough and was damn proud of it. Also a bit of a William Regal Expy.
  • Shades of this character still exist. Particularly his greed. This eventually ended any chance of his successfully leading Nexus or Corre, to which he simply responded that he was getting "back to basics".
• Saved From Development Hell: In April 2010, Barrett won an NXT challenge, awarding him own theme song. Apparently Barrett was never pleased with the themes given to him, so he would delay it, sending it into Development Hell while he used "We Are One" (The Nexus theme) and "End of Days" (The Corre theme). It took him one year and 9 months, but Barrett finally got his wish with "Just Don't Care" in January 2012.
• Smug Snake
• Still the Leader: Said this pretty much verbatim after CM Punk took over The Nexus. Punk would respond to this by costing him a shot at The Miz's WWE championship--and ripping Barrett's Nexus armband off as an exclamation point.
• Tall, Dark and Snarky
• Took a Level in Badass: Two years ago, he was a developmental talent in FCW. Then the NXT Riot happened.
  • Then, after his Power Stable (s) split, he was relegated to the mid-card again for a few months. Ever since he started the "Barrett Barrage", though, he's been running roughshod over most of his competition - including tossing Randy Orton off a staircase.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: On the NXT Season finale, he and David Otunga had 60 seconds to deliver one of these speeches to the other. Otunga would spend that time making fun of Wade's appearance, specifically his lanky body and crooked nose. Wade would deliver an epic retort centering on David's inability to wrestle, stating that The Great Khali moves around with more balance and poise than Otunga does. He would then cap off the rant blasting Otunga's "It-Factor" tag line stating that the only reason WWE promoted that is because he had absolutely no tangible qualities whatsoever, and that he could add two more letters in front of it to understand what Wade really thought of Otunga.
  • Thus the friction between the two men during the Nexus run suddenly makes total sense.
• Troll: A number of WWE.com videos have revealed he likes being one backstage, usually by hijacking the websites' cameras and bugging his coworkers with silly or inane questions.

Barrett: Hey Zack Ryder!
Ryder: Hey, what's the deal, man?
Barrett: I got a question for you. How does it feel to have the second-most popular WWE web show?

Ryder: Second? Who's number one?

Barrett: Wade Wade Wade, you know it!

• Underwear of Power: He seems to be the WWE Superstar who wears those tighties ALL THE TIME. Even during backstage segments. However, he does wear a formal type of clothing whenever he is on the commentary.
  • In an interview with WWE Magazine, he said he prefers trunks because that's what guys like Steve Austin & The Rock wore.
• Xanatos Gambit: Positioned John Cena as special guest referee in his title match against Randy Orton. If Barrett leaves as champion, Cena's freed from Nexus. If Orton does, Cena is fired.
  • However, Cena Out-Gambitted him. Orton won and Cena was fired, but that merely allowed Cena to assault Nexus on a weekly basis. On top of that, Nexus already turned the security against them and when it looked like Cena was cornered by Barrett's trap, Cena revealed he had an army of RAW superstars who hated Nexus as much as him ready to help him out. Then Cena proceeded to set up a The Dog Bites Back moment by tricking Barrett into pretty much saying he valued his own safety over that of Nexus, causing them to abandon him to Cena and force Barrett to hire Cena back.