The NWA has found its new color commentator as Jim Cornette is out and replacing him will be none other than Stu Benett aka Wade Barrett.
It was revealed at the end of the latest episode of Powerrr that Bennett will be joining the NWA commentary team at Into the Fire as he’ll be calling the pay-per-view with Joe Galli.
Cornette and the NWA parted ways after Cornette made a racially offensive comment a few weeks ago on Powerrr when Trevor Murdoch was battling NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis in a match.
The former “Bad News” Barrett, Wade Barrett, recently appeared onInside The Ropes.
During their conversation, Barrett would recall how WWE Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar, carried himself backstage, behind the scenes.
“Brock was a strange one because, first of all, he never really did the live events,” Barrett said. “I know you guys mainly see the stuff that’s on TV which is RAW and SmackDown, but on top of that, we’re doing four, five, six—if we’re on tour—events per week. So the majority of wrestling we do and the majority of time that we spend around WWE, and the locker room, and the guys is on the non-televised stuff, also known as the ‘house shows’.”
Barrett continued, “He wasn’t at any of those [live events], and even the TV stuff, he’d be there like ten weeks a year or something like that, so he wouldn’t be around very often. So we didn’t spend much time around Brock. When he did get to the arenas, he’d have his own private bus that he would hang out on. And maybe you’d see him for like thirty minutes before he went out for his match, or his promo segment or whatever, but he didn’t really hang around with the guys too much… He wasn’t really a member of the locker room, in that respect. Always a cool guy, but very much kept himself to himself.”
Fan Following
Barrett then regaled the audience with a story about a fan interaction with Brock that took place in a gym.
He explained that he and a few other Superstars were just finishing their workout when Lesnar entered. The entire gym apparently stopped, with people gawking at the size of “The Beast Incarnate”.
One of those people was apparently a big fan of Lesnar and proceeded to follow him around the gym.
“Brock walks into the changing room, and he looks at us and goes, ‘This kid keeps following me around every time I go to a machine! He’s next to me every time I go to a bench, he always comes and sits next to me! He’s really pissing me off.’ We go, ‘Oh okay, see you at the building, Brock, whatever,’ And then Brock walks past us and goes into the back room, the toilet area of the changing room. He goes around the corner.
“Anyway, we’re finishing up and then suddenly, this nervous, sixteen-year-old, nerdy kid pops his head around the locker room,” Barrett continued. “[…] He’s sneaking around, he’s looking past us, and then suddenly, he spots the toilet area which was just around the corner from where we’re at. This kid kind of stumbles past, walks around the corner, and disappears. A small part of me wanted to tell this kid, ‘No, this isn’t the day.’ But another part of my brain thought, ‘Ya know, the boy has to learn.’ So I didn’t say anything; I just kind of looked at Bray Wyatt and he kind of shrugged his shoulders. We all knew that something bad was about to happen. We were just waiting; we were frozen in time. Suddenly, all you hear is, ‘Are you trying to see my f*****g penis?!’ Followed by this terrified sixteen-year-old running out of there, through the door, never to be seen again.”
Seeing Superman
Barrett justified that, for the teenager, it was akin to seeing Superman. A real-life hero that he wanted to be close to, forgetting any sense of personal space in the process.
He added that this incident became a running joke backstage in WWE for a while, explaining that “If you’re using the bathroom and Bo Dallas walks around [the corner], ‘Are you trying to see my penis?!’ Or whatever it was.”
Wade Barrett was miserable for a long while before leaving WWE. Barrett had begun his professional wrestling career back in 2004. WWE signed him to a deal in 2006 and he’d subsequently go through two of their developmental territories. Those two territories being Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) and Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW).
Upon his call-up to the main roster, Barrett led a memorable “Nexus” faction and had a rather successful singles career. The Englishman captured five Intercontinental Titles and won the 2015 King Of The Ring tournament. He was subsequently released from the company in May of 2016 after refusing to re-sign with the company.
Despite taking a step back in wrestling, Barrett has done work for both Defiant Wrestling and World Of Sportsince leaving WWE. Speaking recently on The Sam Roberts’ Podcast, Barrett revealed that he was “miserable” for a long time before finally leaving WWE:
“I was miserable for a long time for the last few years I was in WWE,” Barrett said. “I have no beef or hate for them, but it was just how I was feeling at the time.
“Once upon a time if you go back to the early 2000s all the way to 2014 all I cared about in life was being a wrestler, going on the road, performing in front of crowds, getting big, climbing the ladder. But then at some point around 2015 it took a giant U-turn and thought to myself, ‘wait a minute? What am I doing here? This isn’t the direction that I want.’”
WoS General Manager Stu Bennett recently called out a former WWE Superstar to appear on the show.
We reported over the weekend that Neville is no longer contracted to WWE. The former Cruiserweight Champion now appears to be a free agent and everyone wants the Geordie, including NJPW’s Will Ospreay.
You can now add Stu Bennett to that list. The WoS General Manager took to Twitter to state “Yo Neville. I’ve got a bunch of lads at@WOSWrestling who are asking to fight you.. Check it out on @ITVat 5pm today & you can pick your opponent.”
Whilst the likelihood of the former WWE showing up in a pre-taped show is very unlikely there’s certainly scope for him to join the ranks of WoS down the line. There has been no official word on whether the show will be renewed and the ratings are still up for interpretation success wise.
Change to 4:30pm
It has also been confirmed that WoS will now be airing at a new time-slot as of September 1st. The show has been moved to the 4:30-5:30pm block. Whilst the numbers haven’t been stellar at the 5pm block the show has been gaining over the last few weeks. Whether the change in time slot will affect ratings remains to be seen.
Wade Barrett has reflected on his WWE run as well as working with former WWE Champion CM Punk. The former WWE star spoke with TV Insider to talk about various topics.
WWE Run
Barrett talked about his run with the company by stating that he went from being a complete nobody to a main event guy in 2010 where he was battling all the top stars like John Cena and Randy Orton. He noted that at that time, there were fans who asked him if he felt the pressure of being in the top spot and he always responds by stating no. “The pressure I felt in my wrestling career was when I was the guy who wasn’t known and had to try and build a name for myself and build a career for myself.”
Hosting Ultimate Beastmaster & CM Punk
Barrett also discussed being the UK host of Ultimate Beastmaster and working with CM Punk briefly on the show where he stated that it’s a cool thing to have Punk being one of the US hosts as fans get to see them interact on camera again and was good to see him again. “I haven’t seen him in a few years. He is doing great for himself and seems to be enjoying his life away from WWE. I was happy to reconnect with him and see what he is doing.”
What are your thoughts on Barrett’s comments? Sound off in the comment section.
WoS Wrestling general manager Stu Bennett/Wade Barrett has set a challenge for MLS star Wayne Rooney. Bennett appeared on TalkSport’s Alan Brazil Breakfast show and issued a challenge to the England footballing great. Barrett stated: “This is a message for Wayne Rooney. I’m watching you out in the MLS and I see you’re doing amazing things. I suggest you stay out there as long as you can cause the second you’re retired you’re stepping in the ring with me, Stu Bennett in WoS Wrestling. I assure you that you’ll have some very, very, bad news.”
Bennett and Rooney previously appeared together during a 2015 Smackdown taping in the UK, at the time Rooney was signed to arguably the biggest soccer (football) team in England: Manchester United. The segment gained huge traction in the UK with mainstream outlets airing the ‘slap’ that Rooney gave Bennett.
Opinion: Rooney is now based in the United States playing for DC United in the MLS. Unfortunately the mainstream appeal of the former England International is nowhere near what it once was. If WoS can somehow get an appearance or acknowledgement from Rooney for a potential Bennett match then that could be huge for the ITV brand.
Former WWE Superstar Wade Barrett was recently a guest on Chris Jericho’s podcast, Talk Is Jericho, to talk about several professional wrestling topics. As for why he left WWE; Barrett named numerous reasons including being burned out from the road, his frustration with creative, and issues with some in WWE management positions:
“I was kind of burnt out on the road as [Jericho] said. I mean, when you start on the road, everything’s new and everything’s fresh. You don’t care that you’re not home 275 nights a year, and you’re constantly exhausted, and beat up, and even if you’ve got bad booking or something like that, it’s all fine because you’re living this amazing experience.
“After I had been up there for several years, I kind of got to the point where even the little things were irritating me, and the travel was really killing me, and I’d get to the arena, and it seemed that every RAW and every SmackDown, every Monday and Tuesday, I’d get to the arena and be so disappointed when the script for the show came out. And every week, there would just be something where I’m like, ‘man, I don’t want to do this.’
“And I’d kind of plead my case with the people in the creative or in management about doing something different or tweaking it this way, ‘hey, how about moving the story this way?’ and just whatever I was doing, I was just banging my head against a brick wall. And it got to the point where it felt like Groundhog Day. And my contract was running up and I’d signed a pretty long contract after the Nexus deal and stuff like that.
“They got me on a pretty long contract and that was just coming to a head. So they had approached me a couple of times about re-signing, and extending, and coming up with a new deal, and stuff like that. And it hadn’t even got to the point of negotiating with them. I just explained to them, ‘look, I need to get out.
“This is just killing me and I need to go do something else for a while and get away from pro wrestling,’ which is essentially what I did.” Barrett added, “and there [were] other things. It wasn’t just in terms of the creative I wasn’t happy with. There was some stuff behind-the-scenes.
“I had fallen out with a couple of people kind of in the talent relations and management department. I’m not going to get into specifically what that was about, but it was, ‘okay, this is all coming together now to show that, with my contract coming up, I should just get away.’ And that’s really how it kind of all shook out.”
Barrett revealed that he knew his time with WWE needed to end when he couldn’t even phantom signing a new three-year deal with the company:
“I’d already got to the point where I knew I was moving on and the thought of signing the new three-year deal that they had for me at that point, when I felt that way, nothing good would come out of it.” Barrett professed, “A) I was miserable being around wrestling, and being on the road, and stuff like that.
“And B) for me to not even have the fight in me to not even try to make the improvements I could try to make or try to make suggestions, that told me look, ‘if I did re-sign here and take whatever money they’re offering me, financially, it might make sense, but in terms of what I’m going to be putting out of it, it’s going to be bad and things are not going to improve around there at all,’ so that for me was like, ‘yeah, whatever happens to me, I have to leave and reground. And we’ll see where the future takes me.”
He then revealed a heated argument he got into with talent relations on his last day with WWE:
“I went into the building that day and I knew I was kind of tying up loose ends at this point and there was this one big issue that I’d kind of been banging heads with talent relations about for a long time and it kind of came to a head there that day. So we get there at 2 o’clock or whatever it is, and around about three or four o’clock I’m having this big kind of blow up with talent relations there, which looking back it was all really silly, but we have this blow up, I get really angry, they get really angry.
“I’m not on the show anyway, so at that point, I’m like, ‘do you know what? I’m just going to grab my bags and go home. I’m done.’ So this is me basically leaving WWE, so it was obviously a really stressful moment. I was angry, I was mad, this, that, and the other. I grabbed my bags, I went straight to my car, slammed my bags in the car, started the engine up, and started driving up the ramp, and in my head, I’m still angry about the blowup we’d just had. All I’m thinking about is, ‘wow, that’s me done with WWE! I’m finished! That’s it! Here today.’
“And it was pretty crazy considering I spent the majority of my life thinking about working there, and how great it was, and stuff. So as I’m heading up the ramp, all I see is the top of the tunnel to the outside and I’m thinking, ‘as soon as I’m over there, that’s freedom!’ And there [are] a bunch of fans there and stuff. So I get to the top of the ramp and just as I’m about to burst out into freedom, and light, and this whole new world that might be ahead of me, a car pulls across in front of me and stops me in my tracks.
“I’m like, ‘who the f–k is this?’ I look up and it’s [Jericho] and [Jericho is] turning up at the building at four [o’clock]. And I’ve got a face like thunder and I look at [Jericho], we lock eyes [Jericho] flip[s] me the bird, and [Jericho] kept driving down the tunnel.” Barrett recalled, “that was my big goodbye to the WWE, getting flipped off by the guy who brought me in storyline-wise and sent me off into the sunset. Looking back that actually makes me laugh.”
You can listen to Barrett’s interview on Talk Is Jericho by clicking this link here.
DEFIANT Wrestling has announced that Christopher Daniels will be taking part in their ‘Magnificent 7’ match as part of the ‘Lights Out’ PPV on March 19th. The show will be taking place from the O2 Academy in Leeds, England and tickets are available to purchase via the tweet at the bottom of this article.
The Magnificent 7 match originated in DEFIANT’s previous incarnation WCPW. DEFIANT sent out the following press release confirming the return of the gimmick bout on March 19th:
Following the chaos of the five-on-five main event at Chain Reaction, Stu Bennett had plenty of business to take care of at the start of Defiant #10. After declaring that Austin Aries would defend his Defiant Championship against Martin Kirby at Defiant #11 on March 2nd, the GM noted that a new number one contender would be required to battle whichever of the two men emerged victorious.
Bennett then revealed the Magnificent Seven briefcase – looking somewhat worse for wear after the battering it took from former holder El Ligero – and announced that the Magnificent Seven match would return at Light’s Out on March 19th. The winner of that match earns the briefcase, which contains within it a contract for a Defiant Championship shot.
You can check out the first ever Magnificent 7 match via the YouTube video below:
Former WWE Superstar Wade Barrett recently did an interview with SPORTbible to talk about several professional wrestling topics. One topic of discussion was former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville and what it was like to work with him inside of the ring. In fact, Neville is one of Barrett’s favorite opponents of all time:
“Neville for sure is in my top three opponents of all-time. When I saw my name against him, it was almost like I knew I could go asleep during that match because everything he does is amazing. I think a lot of people look at Neville think, ‘Oh he’s that high-flying guy who does all the flips’, but literally everything he does, from even the most basic stuff, locking up, tying up, the way he moves around the ring; the way he reacts to anything I do to him and sells my stuff is always incredible, so, he’s one of the best in-ring guys ever.”
Barrett also explained how WWE doesn’t have enough space at the top of their card and how they misuse a lot of talent:
“They [WWE] misuse a lot of guys, there’s a lot of guys you could do more with but at the end of the day they pick the guys they want to go with and go with them. I don’t think they purposely sabotage, I think there are limited spots to be at the top of the card or the highlighted guys – there are probably seven or eight guys where it’s like, ‘Ok these are our main guys going forward for the next six to twelve months’ and they need to be the guys getting the biggest reactions, being involved in the biggest storylines and stuff like that.
“So if there’s a guy who is getting bigger reactions than them, then I think there is an attempt to, I’m sure, make that reaction transfer on to the guys they are going with – the guys they want to push. There are just a limited number of spots, that’s the issue. You can’t have everyone in those spots.”
You can read Barrett’s full interview with SPORTbible by clicking this link here.
Former WWE Superstar Wade Barrett was recently a guest on the Buzzards Wrestling Podcastto discuss several professional wrestling topics. During the interview Barrett discussed the debut of his Nexus stable on the June 7th, 2010 episode of RAW; which includes the reaction from people backstage afterwards, and how they were treated differently following their debut. Here are the highlights:
How the locker room reacted to The Nexus debut:
“But then when we got to the back, we were kind of given a standing ovation by the locker room and all the guys that were working there and people were kind of blown away by what they’d seen. Then they started showing replays of crowd reactions and stuff and that’s when it started to sink in that, ‘Woah, this was pretty big’ and then we realized afterwards, ‘Wow’, you know for us as young wrestlers, we’ve put up and taken down rings a million times by that point. That’s kind of part the breaking into the business, that’s what you have to do, you put up the ring, you know what it looks like when it’s taken apart”
How much different they were treated afterwards:
“Yeah, that was a really cool thing because up until that point, we’d kind of been treated as second-class citizens really and that’s not to knock anybody on the roster for doing that. We’d been put in that position, we’d been treated as rookies because that was just the nature of how we were breaking in there, so we weren’t even allowed in the locker room at that point.
“We had to change in corridors and stuff like that, so to come to the back and have these people actually show us that respect and say ‘Hey, you guys are going to go somewhere with this’, that was really cool and it was a huge weight off our shoulders and to be honest with you, all 8 of us that were in The Nexus at that point, we’d all scratched and clawed for years in Independent Wrestling, getting beat up, driving 300 miles to be paid £30, which wouldn’t even cover your petrol money and we’d all fought really hard to get to that point.
“It almost felt like a huge weight off our shoulders that no matter what happened here, we have now made a mark in the world of professional wrestling. We didn’t know where it was going to go from there, we could’ve been fired in four weeks anyway, who knew, but at least we will always have this thing that we have managed to achieve in this company that we grew up loving and wanting to be a part of”
You can listen to Barrett’s interview on the Buzzards Wrestling Podcast by clicking here.
WCPW/Defiant Wrestling General Manager Stu Bennett (formerly Wade Barrett) was recently interviewed for the What Culture YouTube channel. He talks at length about WCPW’s rebrand to Defiant Wrestling and how he felt when he was announced as the GM for the new venture.
If you hadn’t yet heard of WCPW’s rebrand they released the following statement detailing the change to Defiant:
On Monday, December 4, What Culture Pro Wrestling (WCPW) is to be relaunched as Defiant Wrestling.
WeAreDefiant will be broadcast live on PPV on December 4 via a brand-new on-demand service, Access Defiant, as well as the FITE app. The show will be held in the O2 Academy Newcastle. Tickets will be on sale to O2 priority customers from Wednesday, October 4, and general sale from Friday, October 7.
A new dedicated subscription service for Defiant Wrestling will be launching as Access Defiant ahead of the WeAreDefiant PPV event on December 4. Historical WCPW broadcasts will all be available via the new service, as well as many new features, including: behind the scenes documentaries, ticket/merchandise discounts and community forum.
WhatCulture Extra will be incorporating brand-new content from across the WhatCulture spectrum, while continuing to house exclusive wrestling lists and documentaries. Exclusive written content will also be featured, while ad-free browsing will continue to benefit subscribers. The price point for WhatCulture Extra will be reduced to $4.99 starting November 1, with all WCPW content moving to Access Defiant on December 1.
Wade Barrett belongs to the long list of stars who at one point appeared to have a promising career in WWE but then lost their momentum due to wrong creative decisions and then never recovered from it.
During his recent interview with SPORTbible Barrett openly talked about his time in the company and revealed how he was unhappy with the creative direction of his character. Below are some of the highlights from his interview:
If he wants to get back in the ring:
“I have my good days and bad days. There’s days where I think I don’t miss it all and then there’s days like yesterday [at Refuse to Lose on October 2] where you see the kind of reactions the guys were getting and get that desire to get back in the ring. I’m 99 percent certain I will wrestle again at some point, I just couldn’t tell you when. I have those days where I’m like ‘No, everything hurts, I don’t ever wanna get back in a wrestling ring again’ – but I have days where I feel great and can’t wait to get back in. I know at some point I’ll be wanting to get back in, so if the right opportunity comes along we’ll get it done.”
On leaving WWE:
“I didn’t really ask to be released. My contract was coming to an end, I’d been there just over nine years at that point – I was not happy with the way my creative had gone and not happy with some stuff behind the scenes, and the way I’d been treated by certain people there, so in my opinion it was time to move on and do something else, at least for a while. I’d been offered a new contract by them, I didn’t want to sign; I told them, I was upfront with them. I don’t think they were thrilled about it but there’s not a lot you can do – I felt that I was wasting my time there.
On not being happy in the company:
“There’s a lot of guys who are not happy with their lot there, I wasn’t happy with my lot there for several years but always believed I was capable of getting to the next level through my work or through my performances, and my ability to get over. It got to the point where I didn’t believe I was getting the opportunities to get to the level that I wanted to and I think once I’d seen the writing on the wall from that perspective, it was a very easy decision for me to leave and I’m guessing it was the same for guys like Ryback, guys like Del Rio, guys like Cody, who perhaps, like me, decided it was best to move on too.”
The downfall of ‘Bad News’ Barrett:
“The problem with Bad News was that I was getting a babyface reaction. It was one of those things where it was supposed to be a heel thing but I think people were so entertained by it that they started cheering it and look forward to it, even though I am insulting them. Vince never wanted me was a babyface, he thought I wrestled like a heel and I was English. He didn’t want me to be a babyface at all, which was fine and I was happy being a heel. But I think sometimes the crowd dictates things and even though Vince wants me as a heel, you can’t put me as a heel and the only way we could really turn me back into a heel, and stop them cheering for me, was to take away ‘Bad News’. At that point, I was just a guy who had nothing, so I was coming out, I wasn’t allowed to do the catchphrase or anything like that. I was just a very bland guy. So they gave me King of the Ring as something to do, I suppose, but doing a King of the Ring in this day and age just doesn’t work. It might have worked in the 80’s but I think wearing a crown and scepter in this day, to me, it doesn’t work.”
What Culture has announced that their new GM will be none of than former WWE Superstar Stu Bennett/Wade Barrett.
The company were on the lookout for a new General Manager after several What Culture employees staged a mass exodus earlier this month, including then GM Adam Blampied.
Bennett has previously worked as a Color Commentator and Special Guest Enforcer for the company but this will be his first full time role for What Culture. Bennett will be opening proceedings this Monday as part of the Refuse To Lose PPV event, and he has promised that there will be changes…
Former WWE Superstar Wade “Bad News” Barrett will be using a new gimmick when he appears at WrestleCon in Orlando during WrestleMania 33 weekend.
Since leaving the WWE, Barrett been using his real name, Stu Bennett, when making wrestling-related appearances. For WrestleCon, he’s being billed “Fake News” Bennett. H. The new moniker is an ode to his former WWE gimmick with a mix of the “fake news” business that’s been in used by certain political figures in recent months when discussing the mainstream media.
WrestleCon takes place on March 31st and April 1st. Here’s the advertisement:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRB_ZhdF7ez/
Stu Bennett Returning to Wrestling?
Bennett and the WWE agreed to end his contract a year early in the summer of 2015, as he had aspirations of pursuing an acting career. Since then he’s had bit roles in a couple of movies that were released in 2016.
When Cody Rhodes initially left the WWE he tweeted out a list of things he would like to achieve in wrestling. Bennett answered back in a way that made it clear he and Cody have different goals in the wrestling business.
Former WWE Superstar Wade Barrett (Stu Bennett) recently spoke with Sports Illustrated about his time with the company and what led him to walk away. Barrett is now pursuing a career in acting, which he says offers him much more freedom than he had in WWE.
“When you’re with WWE, you are operating within very fine boundaries that you cannot step outside of,” he said. “Now I have offers for movie roles that are completely out of what you would expect for me, and that’s really exciting. The opportunity to go away from WWE and be myself and become Stu again is exactly what I needed.”
Barrett had grown frustrated with his role in WWE. He’s had a lifelong obsession with pro wrestling, but came to the realization that he was putting his health at risk for something he was no longer in love with.
“Unfortunately, in 2015 and again in 2016, I was asked to play a character and perform storylines that I found thoroughly uninspiring,” he said. “After making repeated attempts to change my career trajectory and having those efforts turned down, my passion for playing the role of a WWE Superstar went away.”
It was an incident back in November 2015 that spelled the beginning of the end for “Wade Barrett.” During a match, one of his arms went completely numb for a minute or so. “That’s when I came to the realization that I didn’t want to put my body on the line doing something that wasn’t inspiring me, and I decided to move my career in a different direction.”
Barrett’s new movie Eliminators was just released, and he’s got two more (Vengeance, Fanged Up) coming out next year.
As for a future in pro wrestling, he does expect to compete again and revealed he’s spoke with “quote a few wrestling companies” regarding an eventual return to the ring. “I’m very much open to acting, but also to wrestling. I’ve spoken with quite a few wrestling companies about some opportunities that might be coming up.”
– RAW General Manager Mick Foley is having second thoughts about putting the entire cruiserweight division on the line this Sunday at Survivor Series. Check out the latest Survivor Series Betting Odds to find out who is favored between Brian Kendrick & Kalisto and which brand is most likely to feature the division moving forward.
– Former WWE Superstar Wade Barrett (Stu Bennett) has some “bad news” — for vampires. He tweeted these photos from the set of his latest movie, Fanged Up.
Here's 'Victor' working on his lines in Kingston Prison, Portsmouth. I'm shooting with some awesome peeps on the set of #FangedUp. pic.twitter.com/H2fgYGzO31
– Monday’s Labor Day RAW had 175,000 tweets with 31,000 unique authors on Twitter and 238,000 Facebook interactions with 151,000 unique authors. Both of these are down from the previous week. RAW still ranked #1 among series & specials for the night in Nielsen’s social media TV ratings.
– Ring of Honor star Prince Nana tweeted this photo of Wade Barrett yesterday, teasing a ROH debut for the former WWE Superstar:
– Today’s wrestling birthdays include New #1 contender Dolph Ziggler (36) Triple H (47), Shannon Moore (37), Manny Fernandez (62) and Greg Gagne (68). The late Matt Osborne (“Doink the Clown”) would have been 57.
– Former WWE star Wade Barrett started filming his first post-WWE project this week in London, a new film titled Vengeance. Below are comments from Barrett and a photo with co-star Sapphire Elia:
Wade Barrett’s first post-WWE project has been announced.
The former WWE Intercontinental Champion will star in the lead role of John Gold in a new UK action movie titled Vengeance. Filming kicks off later this month. Below are comments from Barrett and the full announcement:
STU BENNETT AND GARY DANIELS JOIN THE CAST OF ‘VENGEANCE’
London based production and international sales company Evolutionary Films are delighted to announce that global wrestling superstar Stu Bennett has joined the cast of their forthcoming feature film VENGEANCE in the lead role of John Gold and will be pitted against THE EXPENDABLES and FIST OF THE NORTH STAR martial arts legend Gary Daniels who has been cast as his nemesis Hatcher in the movie.
Vengeance starts shooting 25th July.
Director of VENGEANCE, Ross Boyask, said, “As a long-time action movie fan – and filmmaker – I’m very excited to have Stu Bennett and Gary Daniels on board for Vengeance. Stu is the perfect actor to play our lead role of John Gold – he has the charisma of a classic action hero, as well as the physical abilities to back it up, and I know that his legions of fans around the world will be cheering him on as he takes on the villains in the film. As for our lead villain, Gary Daniels is now a very established action star, both as a hero and more recently a villain in movies like The Expendables and Tekken. I know that action fans will be positively salivating over the idea of a final fight sequence between a hugely successful wrestling icon and one of the most established action stars of the past twenty years.”
VENGEANCE is a fast paced, action-packed revenge thriller that kicks off when ex-soldier turned mercenary, John Gold learns of the murder of his best friend and sets off to find the killers. What he discovers is a sinister conspiracy, and he sets about taking down those responsible one by one.
VENGEANCE will be produced by the Evolutionary Films team of BAFTA nominated producer Diane Shorthouse and CEO John Adams who said, “Vengeance is a thrilling project for Evolutionary Films to greenlight as our second feature film of 2016. We’re very excited about the huge potential of this title and believe that the hard-hitting cast we’re assembling will appeal to mainstream international buyers as well as satisfying the traditional hardcore action audience.”
About STU BENNETT:
Stu has spent the past 9 years performing in front of a global audience of millions for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Wrestling under the ring name of Wade ‘Bad News’ Barrett, Stu won the first season of NXT in 2010 and subsequently rose to prominence as the leader of The Nexus faction. He headlined five WWE pay-per-view events during the remainder of 2010, challenging for the WWE Championship in three of those. Between 2011 and 2016, Stu won the Intercontinental Championship on five separate occasions and performed on numerous Wrestlemania events. In 2015, after becoming the 20th King of the Ring winner, Stu changed his ring name to King Barrett. He decided to leave WWE in May 2016 and take a sabbatical from the wrestling world in order to pursue other interests, including acting.
During his time with WWE, Stu also made his film debut opposite Colin Farrell in DEAD MAN DOWN before playing the lead villain in the forthcoming ELIMINATORS with Scott Adkins and James Cosmo.
About GARY DANIELS:
Gary has performed in over 50 films since his start as an extra in an episode of the 1980s television series MIAMI VICE. He is best known for playing Kenshiro in the live-action version of FIST OF THE NORTH STAR. He is also known for his roles in the Jackie Chan film CITY HUNTER, and as Bryan Fury in the 2010 live-action film TEKKEN, based upon the popular fighting game series. He also starred in the Sylvester Stallone film THE EXPENDABLES as Lawrence “The Brit” Sparks.
– WWE has announced that Chromecast support is coming soon for the WWE mobile app.
– Last week, Cody Rhodes revealed that he’ll be wrestling for EVOLVE on August 19th from Joppa, Maryland. Late Friday night, NXT star Johnny Gargano revealed that he will be Cody’s opponent at EVOLVE 66. Cody will be available for pictures and autographs prior to the event, which will be broadcast at WWNLive.com on live iPPV.
#BlackFriday continues, as former Intercontinental Champion “King” Wade Barrett has announced his departure from the company.
Barrett has been off WWE television since the League of Nations turned on him the night after WrestleMania.
In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, Barrett reveals that he and WWE came to terms on dissolving his contract a few weeks earlier than it was set to expire. He is taking a break from the wrestling industry, but says he’ll be back when the time is right.
It looks like Wade Barrett isn’t the only wrestler leaving WWE in the near future. Bryan Alvarez reported on Friday’s edition of the Bryan and Vinny Show that another member of the WWE roster officially gave his notice this week.
The name of the wrestler was not revealed on the show, but Alvarez did say that some people will be “thrilled” to hear about it.
Dave Meltzer commented on the story, saying he hadn’t heard confirmation from his sources yet. Dolph Ziggler was previously rumored to be leaving, but he recently signed a new contract with the company.
Update: Wade Barrett has responded to the reports that he has ‘given notice’ to WWE and will be leaving the company when his contract expires in the next few months. He tweeted late Tuesday night:
I unexpectedly received a lot of very nice messages from people today. Thank you to everyone who took the time to write some kind words.
Original Story: “King” Wade Barrett has given WWE notice that he will not be signing a new contract when his current deal expires around June-July, as first reported at ProWrestlingSheet.com.
The League of Nations member reportedly told WWE officials that he’s no longer enjoying his role with the company and feels it’s the right time to move on with his career.
Barrett has been a mainstay on WWE television since his NXT debut back in 2010. After winning the first season of NXT and leading the hot Nexus invasion storyline during his rookie year, he’d go on to capture the Intercontinental championship five times.
Next Sunday, the WWE will dust off the tables, ladders, chairs, and apparently stairs for its annual hardcore spectacular. This year’s event will be held in Cleveland, Ohio and will be the sixth incarnation of the pay-per-view.
This will be only the second TLC pay-per-view to not feature a WWE Championship match, as Brock Lesnar is still sitting at home collecting a paycheck. In the past, the WWE has used this event to lay the groundwork for the Road to WrestleMania while providing a sense of finality to various feuds with the hardcore element. With that said, here is a look back at the first five TLC pay-per-view events.
