7 Wrestlers WWE Punished For Getting Over
5. Bad News Barrett
Cody Rhodes was always ahead of the curve. Years before shaking up the business with his All In and subsequent AEW ventures, he was making it on his own with a WWE sanctioned act of defiance.
In 2013, The JBL and Cole Show - a WWE YouTube platform for underutilised talent to showcase themselves - quickly became the Cody Rhodes Show. Exhibiting an embryonic preview of his future Being The Elite persona, Rhodes entertaining skits far surpassed anything he was being told to do on actual programming. If they weren't going to use him properly, he'd do it himself.
Others caught on to the idea. His chief sidekick was Wade Barrett, mostly meandering since the miserable dissolution of Nexus. Riling the roster under the alias 'Bad News Barrett', the Brit - and his catchphrase - earned admirers, and the gimmick was soon promoted to Raw.
As it had on YouTube, Bad News Barrett's pristine delivery got over big time. Apparently, Vince McMahon had never seen an episode of The JBL and Cole show; this had not been the intention.
With crowds increasingly cheering his appearances, WWE had some bad news of their own for Barrett: he had to tone the schtick down because it was simply too popular. It subsequently vanished altogether, the gavel replaced with a sceptre for a 'King' gimmick more akin to a court jester.