8 Radical Ideas For WWE To Save Wade Barrett

By Jack Morrell /

3. Work A Storyline No One€™s Seen Before

There€™s nothing that wrestling fans love more than a performer absolutely acing an angle that€™s fresh, new and different. There are plenty of people who€™ll tell you that there€™s nothing new under the sun, especially in pro wrestling, but I don€™t believe that€™s true€ just because the business has a habit of repeating storylines that€™ve worked in the past doesn€™t mean that there are no new stories to be told between the ropes. Daniel Bryan and the Yes! Movement was a fresh take on the babyface underdog story that probably couldn€™t have been told a few years earlier. The initial Nexus storyline with the impartial disruption of the main event of RAW, the assault on ringside crew and the partial dismantling of the ring itself: that€™s something I don€™t think has ever been done before. Damien Mizdow€™s utterly bizarre, hilarious antics as the €˜stunt double€™ for Hollywood Mike Mizanin were completely innovative, and the crowd ate it up: and look at The New Day, legitimately the most entertaining thing on RAW for months€ a comedy heel stable based purely around the incredibly exaggerated acting out in public of private jokes between friends. As popular as it once was, reinstating the Bad News gimmick isn€™t going to be enough to properly differentiate this version of Barrett from previous versions. A compelling storyline that follows through feuds, on the other hand, is something else entirely. For so long, Barrett€™s been a beaten man on WWE television. What if his personal journey of redemption involved gradually working his way through a list of everyone who€™d ever beaten him in the past couple of years? The storyline would show Barrett turning up out of nowhere, barking €œyou€™re next!€ at them, and then (by hook or by crook) getting himself a match with them. Heel or babyface, undercard or main event - Barrett would work his way through the list in no particular order, and without giving a reason. He€™d ignore title opportunities except in cases where they could help his cause, fight friend and foe: and he€™d win. The idea is that it€™d harken back a little bit to Bill Goldberg€™s €œwho€™s next?€: only instead of pushing some open-ended winning streak angle (which never have a reasonable outcome for the person running them), Barrett would be resolving his own existential crisis by getting his win back on everyone who€™d pinned him during his personal long dark night of the soul. As the angle goes on and his tattered reputation is gradually restored, Barrett€™s gruff voice and beaming grin become a calling card, a catchphrase, a prophecy of doom, as he interrupts people to announce: €œI€™m afraid I€™ve got some bad news€ YOU€™RE NEXT.€ Some become increasingly paranoid that they might be on the list - that they might be next. Others try to reason with him, still more pre-emptively attack him. Nothing stops him: Barrett won€™t be bargained with, bought or beaten down. Like My Name Is Earl with a body count, nothing matters except the list.