In 2010, a group called the Nexus descended onto the WWE causing havoc and chaos and being the most dominant force in WWE. And this group was spearheaded by Preston's own Wade Barrett. Barrett was the leader of The Nexus and had all the tools to go far in WWE. Great in-ring presence and mic skills that were on par with some of the best heels at the time, including Chris Jericho and Edge. You'd think that Barrett would amount to success quick right? Well as it just happens, Barrett has become bombarded with a string of bad luck over the years. However, his first major drop in momentum was not really down to luck as it was to him being shafted by WWE in the search for a fresh young heel up-and-comer to battle Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 27 by Alberto Del Rio. WWE somehow believed that Del Rio was in the better position to fight for the World Title then Wade Barrett. I mean nothing against Del Rio. I'm a big supporter of him and my first WhatCulture! article was on Del Rio. But Wade Barrett had been the biggest heel in the biggest storyline of 2010 with the Nexus angle. Del Rio, while good, had only amounted to, at this point, a feud with Rey Mysterio. Personally, I believe Barrett should have been chosen to fight Edge. But that didn't happen. Barrett was instead part of the Corre group that were dismantled at Wrestlemania 27 by Kane, Big Show, Kofi Kingston and Santino Marrella. Quite a drop down from competing for the WWE Championship at Survivor Series 2010. Barrett had been the Intercontinental Champion throughout this period but Barrett had barely been in actual title feuds throughout his reign with the Corre. Regardless, when the Corre split up WWE were beginning to realize that Barrett had been reduced to a great sense of irrelevancy in WWE. So the push seemed to be on again for Barrett. While he didn't win the 2011 SmackDown! Money In The Bank Ladder match, he engaged in a short-feud with the actual winner of that match Daniel Bryan and beat him at Summerslam. Barrett's victory meant he held a victory over someone that would eventually become World Champion soon. That must have meant something, and it eventually did. After a couple of months going nowhere, Barrett got to feud with one of the biggest faces in WWE starting from November 2011... Randy Orton. It started with a victory over Orton in the Survivor Series match between the two. Not a bad start when getting the winning fall in the Survivor Series match. And while he lost to Orton in a tables match the following month at TLC, Barrett was still looking good in this feud and the intensity of it made it one of the best things going in WWE at the time. And even when Randy Orton picked up an injury, Barrett's momentum was not really affected by it. With Orton out of action, Barrett claimed the bragging rights of being the one to take Orton out and that was important. In WWE over the last couple of years, the heels were being heavily decipted as cowards and there were few badass heels that were just mean and nasty guys that beat the hell out of everyone. Barrett was showing himself to be one of those guys by taking out Orton. Barrett was riding high in WWE at this moment rolling into Wrestlemania. But then, tragedy struck. In a ridcioulous battle royal the night after the 2012 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Barrett was one of the entrants in the match. Barrett was firstly eliminated from the battle royal itself but was then was the recipient of a flying Dolph Ziggler who was thrown onto Wade by the Big Show. And unfortunatley, the weight of Ziggler landed right on Wade's arm and flat out broke it.
This was a disaster. If you believed the wrestling reports at the time, Wade was in line for a title reign as the Money In The Bank holder. So an injury like this was a huge blow for Barrett and WWE. And unfortunately, it turned out to be more of a blow to Barrett than he realized... Despite, amazing promos hyping up Barrett's return in September 2012 and hyping him up to be this bareknuckler boxing hard-case, Barrett was reduced to being nothing more than a glorified jobber to the main event talent of WWE. That was something I hated to see because at one point Barrett was the biggest thing in WWE and now he's been reduced to a mid-card heel with literally no direction. There has been talk about Barrett returning to WWE repackaged with the #BadNewsBarrett gimmick from JBL and Cole YouTube Show. And I'm sorry but Barrett had tonnes of potential when he returned in 2012 but as usual WWE dropped the ball. WWE needs more heel wrestlers that is flat-out a badass and Barrett fits the role perfectly. Alberto Del Rio is doing a good job as an aggressive heel World champion right now and Randy Orton is slowly being reverted back to his old "viper" self from 2009 but none of them have the promo skills that Barrett has to build himself up and the smash-mount rough offense to back it up. Barrett has been very unlucky over the years with his injuries and with WWE's constant repacking of him, but right now is a great time to have Barrett make an impact. Barrett has been lost in the WWE deck and his return to the main-event scene should be a huge priority right now with Wrestlemania a while away and with few mega-stars in WWE right now with RVD and Chris Jericho doing other things. The Barrett Barrage has hit a roadblock but it can be salvaged if the WWE give Barrett the tools to go far. Otherwise, it'll end up actually being bad news for Wade Barrett.