5 booking mistakes WWE made with Wade Barrett
Huge things were expected of Wade Barrett in WWE when he burst onto the scene in 2010 as the winner of NXT season 1.
The Englishman soon emerged as the leader of the villainous Nexus faction and he was even touted as a possible WrestleMania opponent for The Undertaker after competing in several pay-per-view main events early on in his career.
The man who later became known as Bad News Barrett and King Barrett ultimately had a successful six years on WWE's main roster, as proven by his five Intercontinental Championship reigns, but why didn't he reach that next level and ever become WWE champion?
In this article, we take a look at five booking mistakes that WWE made with Barrett’s character.
#5 The end of The Nexus
If you look back at the most shocking moments on Monday Night Raw over the last 10 years, The Nexus’ surprise debut and attack on John Cena almost certainly springs to mind.
Everybody knows that the heel faction should have gone on to defeat Team Cena at SummerSlam 2010, but WWE still had a chance to keep The Nexus relevant when they split the group into two stables, The Corre and The New Nexus, a few months later.
Wade Barrett, the original Nexus leader, joined forces with Ezekiel Jackson, Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel to form The Corre. However, despite winning Intercontinental and Tag Team gold, the four-man group were shadows of their former selves and Barrett’s booking was particularly disappointing.
Towards the end of 2010, he had been involved in five PPV main events out of a possible six. Just four months later, at WrestleMania XXVII, he wasn’t even tagged in during a 92-second match which saw The Corre lose against The Big Show, Kane, Santino Marella and Kofi Kingston.