Following his loss to John Cena at 2010's WWE TLC pay-per-view, Wade Barrett disappeared from television, leaving CM Punk to take charge of The Nexus in his absence. Upon Barrett's return to Raw on January 3, Barrett demanded ownership of the group but Punk agreed only to hand over the reigns to the faction if Barrett were to win that night's Triple Threat Steel Cage match main event. During the contest, Barrett ascended the steel structure only to be met with a boot from Punk. Barrett jumped ship to the SmackDown brand shortly thereafter where he formed The Corre (made up of Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Ezekiel Jackson and himself) to rival The Nexus. The two met in singles competition for the first time ever on the January 24 edition of Raw, but the bout ended in a double disqualification after both competitors shoved special guest referee John Cena. Barrett appeared to be set for super stardom in 2012, but an injury sidelined him action and kept him off WrestleMania 28. There was hope that Barrett would return to feud with Punk over the WWE Championship that summer, but no such luck. It wasn't until September of that year that Barrett made his highly anticipated comeback, floundering for a few years before finally finding his footing just recently as Bad News Barrett. He is the current Intercontinental champion after defeating Big E for the gold at May's Extreme Rules event. Dating back to his NXT days, Barrett has always been known to cut a great promo. His current gimmick may disallow him from being serious more often than not, but he is more over now than he's ever been in his entire WWE career. Punk feuding with Bad News Barrett may not have seemed possible a few months ago, but now that Barrett is on a hot streak, it may not be as illogical as you'd think. The promos between them would be great, but the matches would be just as great. As the self-proclaimed best wrestler in the world, Punk can carry anyone to a good match, but with Barrett already being a solid in-ring worker, there's no telling how awesome of a matchup they could have together. They still have unfinished business from their Nexus days and regardless of whether that fact was to be brought up in their feud, it'd still be an entertaining rivalry that would prove why Barrett is worthy of a world title run at some point soon.
Since 2008, Graham has been a diehard pro wrestling fan and, in 2010, he combined his passions for WWE and writing when he joined Bleacher Report. Equipped with a master's in journalism, Graham has contributed to WhatCulture, FanSided's Daily DDT, Sports Betting Dime, and GateHouse Media. Along the way, he has conducted interviews with wrestling superstars like Chris Jericho, Edge, Goldberg, Christian, Diamond Dallas Page, Jim Ross, Adam Cole, Tessa Blanchard, Ryback, and Nick Aldis among others.
