WWE Superstar Wade “Bad News” Barrett recently spoke with Busted Open Radio. Here are the highlights:
What made you decide to take a chance on the Bad News character and how do you anticipate the character evolving?
At the time when I came up with it, I wasn’t really doing anything too much on the show, I was on the low, cold matches and I wasn’t really
involved in any program or anything, so I felt like I wanted to do
something different. The guy at WWE.com suggested that they use me in
some way on the JBL and Cole show, so I had to think about it and Cody
Rhodes came up with the idea originally where I would just keep giving
bad news to everyone in somewhat of a reflection of my personality in
the locker room. Thankfully, it seemed to work in the form we were using it at the time and people responded to it and we took it from there. In terms of how it
will evolve, that’s very difficult to predict. I wasn’t expecting
people to be cheering me at the Hall of Fame when I came out to give bad
news and the response I got later, the kind of baby face response where
people were looking forward to hearing my bad news, it wasn’t something
I anticipated. So, it’s something I’ll just go with the flow and see
how people respond and that really dictates how a character will evolve.
What Would It Be Like Winning The IC Title This Sunday?
You know it’s always good to be on a pay-per view in WWE, that’s never a
given. So first of all, you have to work your way on to a pay-per view,
then to be put into a title match is pretty cool, especially after how
long I’ve been out of the ring, I think it was back in November I
disappeared off TV for a while then came back and just started talking.
Hopefully, fingers crossed, I’ll beat RVD tonight at Raw then go on to take on Big E at Extreme Rules, so that’s what I’m hoping for.
What are your feelings of tournaments in professional wrestling and would you like to see the King of the Ring tournament make a return to WWE?
Personally, I love tournaments and I think American sports in general have that sort of playoff format for championships where you need to beat a team to get to the next round and obviously World Cup Soccer is set up that way too, so for me tournaments are great. It gives the fans a reason to be invested in something, it’s not just a series of cold matches, and I think with each match having something at stake is the key. It drives fans’ interest in the matches that we’re putting on and it certainly means something when someone can get to a final with the champion because you have to work pretty hard to get there. So hopefully that means fans are more invested in it, and I think it provides some good entertainment. And to what you said about the King of the Ring, I was a big fan of that when I was younger, so if that comes back, I’d be very happy about that.
With Winning The IC Title 3 Times Before, Do You Think You Are On The Path Of Being WWE World Heavyweight Champion?
I think any time there’s more focus on a particular title, the better it is for the title holder. I think with the reduction in the number of titles and now with the combined World and WWE Championship titles, I think it definitely puts a lot more emphasis on the Intercontinental Championship. Also, considering the fact that The Shield have had the U.S title with Dean Ambrose carrying that for a while and hasn’t been defending it at all. I can’t remember the last time he defended it. I think about six months or so since he last defended it, so I think that puts even more emphasis on the intercontinental title as the main secondary title in WWE. So definitely, I’d like to get my hands on it and pick up that IC title once again.
