Best known in WWE as Wade Barrett, Stu Bennett began his wrestling career on the UK indy scene in the summer of 2004 after an extremely eventful bare-knuckle boxing career.
Like many wrestlers from the UK, a match that inspired him to enter wrestling was the SummerSlam 1992 Intercontinental title match from Wembley Stadium.
We’re back with the 3-Count Spotlight where we put the spotlight on a superstar’s three bright points and see if it was enough for them to go beyond being a “superstar”.
Mic Check Passed
On the mic, Wade Barrett is damn good. Before that, he has always had the natural charisma and mic know-how but he wasn’t given good material to work with on the mic until his “Bad News” Barrett phase.
Mind you, “Bad News” Barrett was the best Wade Barrett—never mind The Corre, Nexus, or The League of Nations. No, this is a guy who should’ve arrived on the main roster as a solo act and the microphone should’ve been put in his hand on day one.
By now, he’d likely be one of WWE’s microphone masters.
Wade Barrett Looked Like a Star
This is the main reason for a Barrett push. The guy looks like a superstar. When he debuted on WWE television in early 2010, you could see that he was the one WWE had their hopes on. He’s 6’4 and had a good look for either a dastardly or badass heel or a hard scramble, hard fighting babyface.
The guy was marketable. Of course, Daniel Bryan would end up being the biggest success of the original NXT experiment but they had something off the bat with Wade Barrett. If you look up “hoss” in the wrestling dictionary, one of the names that pop up is Wade Barrett along with Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, and the like.
BNB Had Ability in the Ring
I would put Barrett—in his wrestling prime—up there with fellow UK scene WWE superstars Drew McIntyre and Sheamus. All are hoss-class threats on any roster and had a level of athleticism and toughness that allowed them to deliver good matches and do a lot in those matches even with a pretty limited arsenal of moves.
A part of the credit for this goes to pre-NXT developmental which focused on getting a lot done without doing too much or with very little. Barrett was made for slobber-knockers like Sheamus vs. Drew from earlier this year. However, this action usually eluded him.
Potential: Pretty High
I want to say that the main thing working against Wade Barrett is his age but older wrestlers have received full pushes and brushes with the top titles on the main roster. In some cases, they won the belt.
Mind you, they got the title opportunity because they were well established in WWE. They put in the work at high levels and left an impression on fans. Barrett’s time in WWE was cut short and he’s been pretty much doing just commentary.
A juicy storyline and a concrete run on the main roster would probably entice BNB to put the trunks and boots back on. At that point, it’s a hoping game that he isn’t so rusty that he sucks.
I can see Wade Barrett being a major threat in the Intercontinental and U.S title pictures. As for the World titles, there’s an adequate chance that he could have more brushes with the gold.
With the right writing, his in-ring return could be big—especially as Bad News Barrett. After all, when Lashley and Drew left WWE, they weren’t the highest on fans’ minds. Of course, both of them returned to WWE with no ring rust.
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