4 Ups & 5 Downs For WWE Wrestlepalooza 2025 (Results & Review)

4. WWE Mocks Its Fans Again

For a company that strives for and touts its social media dominance, WWE can’t help but mock its terminally online audience as being uninformed geeks tapping furiously on their keyboards from their parents’ basements.

Triple H has made references to that mythical fan repeatedly through the years. Saturday, it was Michael Cole’s turn again to take a swipe at the dreaded “internet” (read: a handful of outlier accounts) that run wild with a rumor that Wade Barrett was being canned a while back.

For background, it was announced earlier this month that Barrett would be off SmackDown for the next few weeks. The news came on the heels of a perceived kerfuffle between Wade and Nikki Bella for his comments about her during Clash in Paris. Some fans ran with speculation, only for Barrett to clarify that this was planned time off. Announcers took a swipe at the rumor mill in the immediate aftermath.

Saturday, Cole welcomed Barrett to the desk by remarking that “the internet said you were fired and you’re here tonight.” Commence eyeroll.

It’s really a small, minor thing, but it’s yet another example of WWE taking the comments of these fringe accounts and painting it as the wild rantings of online fans, as though there’s some mass movement of deranged fans. Quips like this say more about how the company views its fans (in addition to being human ATMs) than anything else.