3. Bad News Barrett Was Cody Rhodes' Idea... Kind Of
The way Bennett tells the story, Cody Rhodes is hilarious, and frequently holds court in the locker room, ribbing his peers. One night, Bennetts age was the target of his wit, despite the fact that hes only four years older than Cody. The joke was that when he was a kid, he'd seen this guy called Bad News on television, and how he'd just come on, delivered a promo giving someone some bad news... and then walked off. The implication was that this guy back in the day was the supposedly ancient Wade Barrett, and everyone laughed: because that's what it was, a friendly joke at Barrett's expense. On the JBL & Cole Show, a weekly internet only skit show featuring various WWE personalities mugging to camera and running comic bits on each other, Barrett had been introduced in episode 35 where JBL was engaged in a feud with none other than Cody Rhodes. The way the skit ran, Rhodes had won the duel between the two and been presented with JBL's Stetson as the prize - however, unbeknownst to Cody, JBL had glued it to his head as payback for embarrassing him. Barrett had his own payback plan in place (try saying that seven times fast). In episode 37, as Cody ran around backstage trying to find someone to get the hat off his head, he encountered Barrett, who delivered his first ever piece of Bad News: https://youtu.be/sIj1o-KGDm8?t=2m6s It was good, but it wasn't yet on the level it would be on WWE television proper. However, the debut was made by Cody Rhodes raising his eyes heavenwards and uneasily muttering to himself, "Bad News Barrett..." And so a gimmick was born, Bad News Barrett delivering his trademark gruff Bad News pretty much every week from then on, followed by that uneasy mutter from his victim and the hashtag stamp #BadNewsBarrett splashing across the screen. It wasn't long before the idea translated to the main roster. Every other comment on the show's YouTube uploads was someone cackling about how awesome Bad News Barrett was, and JBL showed it to Vince McMahon, who loved it. Vince brought it up in a RAW creative meeting, insisting that Barrett be repackaged as Bad News Barrett from then on, and that was that At least, until the villainous Barrett began to get babyface pops for the sheer sh*teating gusto that he brought to the supposedly obnoxious character, and the gimmick was shelved.
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