Wade Barrett Names WWE Star Who Could Bring Him Out Of Retirement

While he's very much happily retired from in-ring action these days, WWE's Wade Barrett has named Austin Theory as someone who could potentially entice the one-time Bad News out of retirement.

The topic of a possible return to the ring for Barrett came up during a recent interview with the Daily Star (via WrestlingNews.co), with Wade noting how Theory is the sort of young talent he'd like to face should he indeed one day lace up his boots again.

"There are so many youngsters coming through right now that I've been really impressed with. I'm going to cherry-picked one that I worked with a bit in NXT. He's young, up and coming, and I think he's got a great future, and that's Austin Theory."

Interestingly, Wade's not entirely ruling out some sort of return to action, even if it's not against the current United States Champion.

"I'm not ruling it out. Maybe one day it will happen. I'd be surprised if I ever got to a point where I wanted to do it full-time like a Sheamus or a Drew is still doing it. But on a part-time basis or a spot match, if the storyline made sense, it's not something I'd rule out."

Barrett did reiterate how he 100% sees his future being as a commentator, and that he's having more fun in his present-day role than he has at any prior point in his career.

As of this writing, Wade Barrett last wrestled on the 4 April 2016 edition of WWE Raw. There, he and League of Nations cohort Sheamus came up short against Big E and Kofi Kingston for the New Day's Raw Tag Team Titles.

The Englishman would bring an end to his WWE tenure one month after that tag bout, which in turn ended a run with WWE which dated back to 2006. After departing the market leader, Wade - under his real name of Stu Bennett - made appearances for WhatCulture Pro Wrestling/Defiant Wrestling, World of Sport Wrestling, Lucha Underground, and carved himself out a nice spot calling the action for Billy Corgan's National Wrestling Alliance. August 2020 would see Barrett return to WWE as part of the NXT commentary team, and he these days finds himself sat at the SmackDown announce desk alongside Michael Cole.

At 42 years of age, one has to think there's plenty left in the tank should Wade Barrett indeed allow himself to be coaxed out of retirement, though it obviously remains to be seen whether the five-time Intercontinental Champion will at some point do just that.