All WWE NXT season winners: Where are they now?
The original concept for NXT was entirely different from the show we all know and love today. While we now get former independent stars like Bobby Roode and Finn Balor putting on signature matches over the coveted NXT Championship, fans were more accustomed to arm-wrestling competitions and pointless promo segments just a few years ago. The show actually started out as something resembling reality TV where somebody would leave every week before a winner was crowned.
After a few years of seeing a similar format play out, fans soon began losing interest, and a wise business decision was made to axe the show in favour of a more serious developmental wrestling sub-faction which now has a home on the WWE Network on Wednesday nights.
Looking back over the recent past of WWE is a pretty baffling experience at times, especially when we consider all of the wasted potential the company has seen slip through their fingers over the years. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the careers of the former NXT Season winners. Here is a look at where those superstars are today:
#1 Wade Barrett (Season One Winner)
Becoming the inaugural champion of NXT, back when the show resembled more of a reality TV format, had so much promise attached to it. The winner would be guaranteed a WWE Championship match, and considering how strongly the company were pushing the show at the time, we all expected the winner to be an instant main event star.
The accolade went to Wade Barrett, an English bare knuckle fighter managed by Chris Jericho. Being on the same roster as Independent scene legend Bryan Danielson meant Barrett went into the show as an unlikely winner. However, his promo work and the way the man carried himself during matches, did endear a large portion of the audience to him. Things started well enough for Wade, becoming the leader of Nexus – a destructive heel faction made up of all the NXT competitors who were bent on taking over the WWE collectively.
The popularity of the storyline meant that Wade’s championship match would take a backseat, but the heat he was building for himself as leader of the group was a pretty good distraction. However, the problems for Barrett would start as soon as John Cena became involved.
After the debacle that was the main event of Summerslam 2010, in which Cena and his team went over the Nexus, Barrett’s career would start a downward trend that he never really recovered from. The championship match he was promised actually came in the form of a six-pack challenge, which he failed to him. He was then buried by Cena in a subsequent feud, both metaphorically and literally when Cena once buried Wade with multiple chairs during a match.
Barrett’s singles career was never able to break into the main event scene. His best shot came when the ‘Bad News Barrett’ gimmick was given to him, but injury and poor booking soon put an end to that as well.
Barrett’s time in the ring now appears to be over. He is currently spending most of his time pursuing an acting career but has spoken about a return at some point. You may have seen Stuart Bennett (his real name) appear in films such as Dead Man Down, Vengence and Eliminators, mostly in cameo roles.