Friday, March 29, 2024
EditorialRoyal Ramblings Meets Wade Barrett

Royal Ramblings Meets Wade Barrett

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One of the UK’s proudest sons, Stu Bennett is known the word over as Wade Barrett. A multiple-time champion, he not only proved himself as a top-flight entertainer but established an important legacy in the WWE for the British superstars that followed. His debut with the NEXUS set the company on a path which has led to a new era and the reinvention of the WWE brand. Stu, in London filming his soon to be released movie ‘Vengeance’ made time to sit down with us and discuss his past, present and future. For those film fans however that think he’s moved away from wrestling for good , I’m afraid we’ve got some bad news…. !

Al Snow told us that when transitioning from wrestling to movies was challenging because you have to focus instead of on fans in an arena, to a small camera. How have you found the transition?

It’s something that is definitely an issue. I think with someone like Al, he comes from the old school wrestling days where they probably did a lot less camera work. One of the differences between the era that I came up and Al came up in wrestling is that we were very much trained with WWE to work to the camera and not the crowd – which sounds a little bit strange considering you’ve got these packed arenas but the majority of the time we’re working to the camera. So the backstage segments but even when we’re out in the arena in front of a camera the way we’re trained to work is to the camera because you’ve got an audience of millions watching at home whereas in the arena it’s 15,000 or so. But I would agree with Al even then, you’ve have to take it down, take everything down a level once you get into movies and make things a lot more subtle, that’s for sure.

What will WWE or Wade Barrett fans like about the movie you have coming out?

Well I’ve actually got two movies coming out. The first is one I shot just over a year ago, it’s called Eliminators and I shot that with WWE studios. That was alongside Scott Adkins who’s a top British martial artist and James Nunn was the Director. I’ve just head that’s coming out in December. That will be a lot of fun, it’s me playing my typical bad guy role. I’m the lead villain in that one and I’m chasing Scott around. It’s an action film where I’m a hired hitman who’s out to catch and eliminate him. So there’s a lot of fight scenes showing off Scott’s martial arts and my wrestling skills to a degree, some shoot-outs, some car chases and it’s all set in the city of London, so it’s a pretty cool backdrop and I think they’ll like that one. Then there’s the film coming out that I just wrapped in London a few weeks back. It’s called Vengeance and I did it through a company called Evolutionary films. I’m playing the lead in that one so it’s a bit of a unique situation where you’ll get to see me playing the good guy and that one I’m alongside Gary Daniels who again is another top British martial arts guy. It’s a similar kind of thing, lots of fight scenes, car chases and shoot-outs. The Director was Ross Boyask, a great guy and I had a lot of fun working with him. That will be out in May. I’ve got a couple of things in the pipeline to come and I’ll keep you updated on my social media.

Have you watched WWE since you left and if so, what are your views on the brand split?

Actually, no I haven’t. That’s not a knock on WWE but I decided when I left the company that I wanted to take a break from the industry completely and I haven’t really been keeping up to date with the programming at all to be honest with you. Through my friends that I’ve still got over there I’m kind of aware of what’s going on and through social media but to be honest I haven’t kept up with it since I left and I decided to give myself a complete mental break from wrestling for a while.

That’s fair enough but we see you’ve been teasing a Ring of Honor appearance, you’ve mentioned Japan elsewhere. Is there a chance we might see you back in either?

Yeah, 100%. I’m going to wrestle again at some point I just got pretty low with it in 2015 and 2016 with WWE. I really wasn’t happy with the kind of creative I was being given and I simply wasn’t enjoying it anymore and so for that reason I made the decision to move on and do some other things for a while and give myself a break so that hopefully I’d be motivated to get back in the ring. I’d also at some point enjoy doing commentary. So whether my next move in the world of wrestling will be in the ring or on the headsets and doing some commentary I’m not sure, but I’ll definitely be back at some point.

That’s good to hear! Looking back over your career, what were the high and low points and why?

Well I think the natural thing to say about the high point would be the Nexus. That run was just so much fun. I think if you look especially at the debut night of the Nexus and the kind of reaction we got that night, it was a pretty magical time for us. Especially considering really we were a bunch of unknown guys at that point. So for guys who’d been dreaming about making it in the wrestling world and getting to WWE to go out and go from being complete nobodies to get to being these guys who were rampaging and taking on the world was pretty incredible. So that’s always going to be up there as a high point for me. Id says also being the winner of NXT season one. That was a huge pat on the back for me. I’d spent all these years really struggling to make it, living in cockroach infested apartments, being paid very little money, cutting myself off from my friends and my family and moving over the US and that was the moment it really paid off for me. I won season one and got the Raw contract and knew that – OK, all that sacrifice that I made, whatever happens from here, I made it to WWE and I did it. So that was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. In terms of a low point you could take all of 2015 and 2016. I really became kind of burned out with wrestling during that period. The quality of material I was being given wasn’t acceptable and I simply wasn’t enjoying working there any longer. Unfortunately, any storyline ideas that I put forward were getting shut down and, as a performer, my creative freedom had disappeared. The guys in the locker room know that we’re not always going to get the best material but you keep your eyes out for that moment when occasionally you get something really good that will re-motivate and excite you. Once I’d lost my optimism that those moments were coming around, it was a really rough time for me and subsequently a relief when I made the decision to move on and not sign a new contract. So those were dark days but I don’t allow that to cloud my WWE experience as a whole. For the most part I had a great time there, it was just those last couple of years that were pretty poor from an artistic point of view.

How did WWE change over the years you were there?

I think the biggest change is probably the development of NXT and the shift of focus on the style of wrestling and programming. When I first went up there it was very much focussed on storylines and characters whereas now I think it’s a lot more focussed on the in-ring aspect and the athleticism. What motivated me to watch wrestling as a kid and subsequently to be involved in it, was more the showbiz, the storylines and the drama. Of course I love the in-ring stuff too, but to me that was just one part of it and not the whole deal.

What’s the best rib [practical joke] that you played on someone or they played on you?

You know what, most of the things we did I wouldn’t want to talk about publicly. I’d say the best one played on me was played on all of the Nexus guys. After we debuted, we had to wear those yellow Nexus armbands with the yellow ‘N’ on. That was our calling card and whenever you saw me or the seven of us standing next to each other at ringside it looked pretty imposing, there was a sinister threat to it. But Vince decided that he wanted to kind of blur the lines between Kayfabe and real life and he told all seven of us that, no matter where we were, we had to wear them. So we had to wear these over our suits for probably 3 of 4 months. He had us travelling around, going through airports with these Nexus armbands on because he said we had to. We’d have people approach us and ask what it was all about, so we’d have to explain – “we’re a wrestling group”. Everywhere we went we’d end up being stopped every twenty yards just so we could explain what the yellow N was. So that was a rib on the rookies, I think, from Vince.

Have you followed the British scene, what are your thoughts?

I’ve spoken to a few British wrestling companies since I left WWE about possibly doing some stuff. I’ve not agreed to do anything yet but it’s been good to sound them out and see what’s going on out there. I know it’s a thriving scene right now. I started wrestling in the UK in 2004 prior to coming over to the US and it was a pretty sparse, barren scene. I was fortunate enough to get in with a guy called Brian Dixon who runs All-Star Wrestling. I did a lot of the holiday camps but he was really the only big promotor out there who was doing anything major. Now I look at what’s going on and there’s some pretty big companies out there – Preston City Wrestling, Progress, Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW), Five Star, RevPro. There’s quite a few big companies that do some exciting stuff. So I’m definitely keeping my eye on what’s going on. There’s a bunch of guys on the UK scene that I’ve been impressed with and it’s amazing to see that the British scene has been thriving so well. Funnily enough I was out in Finsbury Park recently when I shot the movie. I had a Sunday off and thought where shall I go? What’s near here? And I saw that Camden Town wasn’t far and I don’t know London too well but thought it sounded great and I knew it from the Madness song. I was up late as it was a day off and got out at Camden, wandered down the street, its packed and then all of the sudden I saw this huge line of what must have been about 500 wrestling fans at the side of the street. I had no idea they were going to be there but subsequently found out they were queuing for the Progress show which was apparently in town that day. To my horror a couple of people yelled out “Oh My God, there’s Wade Barrett!” So I quickly dived down some side street and sprinted away before I got mobbed but that was a bit of a surprise! But I’m glad they’re doing great business and it’s important that the wrestlers in the UK get the opportunity to perform in front of big and passionate crowds and fan bases that weren’t there when I was coming up on the UK indie scene. Hopefully through that some people will get opportunities to come out to the States and work with some of the big companies out here and work in Japan with New Japan out there.

You faced Finn Balor in your first match, have you got a view on him and the setback his injury will cause?

Yeah, I worked with him when he was Fergal Devitt in 2004 in my debut match. It was basically a royal rumble in a little community centre in Cardiff with about 50 fans watching us. He and I were the final two in the rumble, I ended up eliminating him and being winner for the night. So that was the first time I met him and it was great to see that after all his years of success on the independent scene that he’s had, that he finally came over to WWE. He always had the talent to come to WWE when he wanted and it was great that he did. I wrestled him in Singapore about a year ago in one of my final tours with WWE, we had a lot of fun and it was great to lock up with him after all those years. It’s very unfortunate, I heard he did have a pretty nasty injury. I think it’s inevitable, when you’re in an endeavour like pro-wrestling that injuries are going to happen. I had to have two surgeries in my time with WWE and I think every few years, unfortunately, it’s likely you’re going to get something that’s going to set you back. It won’t be the first time that Finn’s had a setback – he’s been wrestling for years and I’m sure he’s been through something like this before. It’s just a case of keeping your head down, going to rehab getting better slowly and surely and as soon as he is cleared, which will probably come in the next few months, I’m sure WWE will get the power of the machine back behind him and push him to the top again. He’s a very talented guy, nice guy and well liked and he deserves a ton of success.

Finally, you said previously you didn’t have the time you’d like to listen to bands you like – the Stone Roses and the Manic Street Preachers – are you getting some time now, will you be seeing them live?

Oh for sure! I’ll definitely check out their new stuff whenever it comes out. Part of the problem is neither band is particularly big here in the US! So if I do come to see them it’s got to be over in the UK. I spend most of my time out here, I’m living in Florida right now and saddling up and probably moving to a different part of the country in the next few months so I’ve got all of that to deal with at the moment. But I’d love to catch the Manics of the Stone Roses and see what they’re like live. I’ve not seen the Stone Roses before and it’s been over ten years since I’ve seen the Manics so it would be good to have a catch-up and see how they’re doing!

Luckily, it wont be years before we get to see Wade Barrett entertaining the masses again. Make sure to check out his two new films and follow him on social media for further updates!

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