WWE's main problem with the Bad News gimmick, and the reason it was cut back, was that it was just too popular with the crowd. Barrett was supposed to be a heel: he couldn't have people cheering the thing that was intended to get him heat. Given this, there were two moments where fans were convinced that Bad News Barrett should have made a surprise appearance. The first was at the Royal Rumble in 2014. Barrett had debuted the Bad News persona eight weeks earlier, and it was catching on with the WWE Universe in a big way. When it became obvious that crowd favourite Daniel Bryan wasn't going to appear in the Royal Rumble itself, after having been defeated by Bray Wyatt earlier on in the card, the fans in attendance in Pittsburgh went nuts, roundly booing the #30 entrant, perennial sweetheart babyface Rey Mysterio. The crowd had been incredibly hot for Bryan the whole night, and WWE could easily have called an audible. Had Bad News Barrett come out to Daniel Bryan's music in the #30 spot and then announced that he had some Bad News for the fans - Daniel Bryan wasn't in the Royal Rumble... he would have had so much heat that you could have fried chorizo on his broken nose. For a change, the WWE learned from this missed opportunity. A few weeks later WWE were faced with a definite, gargantuan crowd hijacking in Chicago after their hometown hero CM Punk dramatically quit the company the night after the Rumble. The original plan for the opening segment of the March 3rd Monday Night RAW was for Punk's music to open the show... and then for Bad News Barrett to come out and do his thing, to instant nuclear heat. The moment was written into the script for that night's show and stayed there until about thirty minutes from the beginning of RAW, when It was decided to take the moment and give it to Paul Heyman, who was running the mic on the Lesnar side of the moneyspinning Undertaker/Lesnar feud heading into WrestleMania. It ended up being the best possible decision, as Heyman expertly played the crowd's emotions, telling and retelling the CM Punk story, until he somehow managed to spin his way around to plugging Brock Lesnar vs. the Undertaker at Wrestlemania XXX. It was a masterclass in the art of the promo - Bad News Barrett simply wasnt in a storyline position to even attempt doing anything like that.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
