Ive already been over that worthless King Of The Ring victory and his burial immediately afterwards at the hands of R-Truth, of all people. Before that waste of everyones time, this was a character so easy to humiliate that his last storyline as Intercontinental Champion saw him have his title belt stolen by each of the contenders for the championship in turn. It saw him lose non-title matches to four of those men in the space of a month. It saw him lose said title in a ladder match without even being involved in the finish. Finally, denied the traditional one-on-one rematch, the storyline saw him compete for the vacated title in the Elimination Chamber, but be the first eliminated by R-Truth. Right now, Barrett is notorious for losing - not only that, but Barrett is notorious for losing when its not really necessary, and to wrestlers whod normally be considered beneath him, or - worse - complete assclowns. Has the poor man spilled Vince McMahons pint or something? The name Barrett - Wade, King or Bad News - is currently synonymous with humiliating, swift losses and an emasculation so thorough that it almost has to be deliberate. To rehabilitate that name, he should not be taking pinfalls or submitting to anyone for a while. If he's in a tag match and theyre booked to lose, his partner needs to take the hit. In order for fans to believe in the character again, the memory of this complete loser needs to be flushed from their minds, and the only way to do that is to build up a run of solid wins and an avoidance of clean losses for a little while. If youre concerned that Barretts sudden rash of decisive wins will lack credibility after all the years of jobbing, you can explain it away by ramping up the emphasis on his pre-WWE bare knuckle boxing career again. After all, this is a character whos supposed to have been a champion in the UK and Europe, bloodily beating all comers to a pulp and emerging victorious - and even surviving a stabbing in an attempted mugging for his winnings after a supposedly notorious bare knuckle boxing match in Budapest. Thats all kayfable, obviously but its the story behind the man, its just that JBLs the only guy telling it on commentary (and no one believes a word JBL says). Barretts made a comeback before by refocusing on his background in viciously fighting for his life: this time, it should mean something. This time YOURE NEXT.
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.
