WWE: 5 Reasons The Intercontinental Tournament Has Been A Good Thing

3. Bad News Barrett

One nice surprise that's come about due to the Intercontinental Tournament is the re-emergence of Wade Barrett. I've got to admit, I didn't see this one coming. When Barrett appeared on the scene a few years back as the leader of The Nexus, it was a white hot angle that catapulted him into the main event picture for months. But after coming up short in a feud with Cena and the quiet end of the Nexus/Corre storyline in 2011 (largely as a result of CM Punk's pipebomb overshadowing everything else) he fell to the lower midcard and has been kind of spinning his wheels ever since. Oh, he's had some success, he's won the Intercontinental Championship three times, but as we're establishing, the Intercontinental Title hasn't meant much for the past few years (that's sort of the point of the article. Keep up!) After a few gimmick changes, including one stint as a bare knuckle fighter (urgh....) he finally settled into the bemusing guise of Bad News Barrett, basically a heel who insults people from a podium. Despite being a non wrestling role at first, and despite coming across as quite daft to begin with, I'll be damned if it hasn't actually gone over with the crowd. And since stepping back into the ring, he's shown new life and has had arguably the best matches of the tournament so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdwcxG9A8UU More importantly, he finally has his own unique nuances to help him stand out. Granted, it's only a reversible elbow pad and a catchphrase, but sometimes that's all it takes. He's a promising talent who is still young (he's only 33) and seeing him stuck in the mire of the midcard for so long was a shame. It's definitely good news that he's got his second wind.