Wade Barrett Credits Vince McMahon For Bringing Former Gimmick To WWE TV

Recently promoted "WWE SmackDown" commentator Wade Barrett has spent nearly two decades in pro wrestling as both a voice at the announce booth and a talent inside the ring. Arguably his most memorable run after leaving The Nexus came when he introduced the "Bad News Barrett" persona to the WWE Universe. On a recent episode of "Out of Character with Ryan Satin," Barrett looked back at the origins of the gimmick and the role "The American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes had to play in it all.

"The idea to bring it to TV was actually Vince's, I think, so I've been doing the character for a little while on something called the JBL and Cole show ... Cody was on there, I think Renee [Paquette] was on there, there were just various people darting in and out of the show ... Cody, for a couple of years, had been telling stories about how I was this really old guy. Cody's a real BS'er in the locker room, and he'd been telling everyone stories about how he used to watch me when he was a kid, and I was on TV wrestling Hard Boiled Haggerty. And I would always come out and give bad news, and I was called 'Bad News Barrett.'"

Coincidentally, an episode of "The JBL and Cole Show" was set to feature both Barrett and Cody at the same time, so the five-time Intercontinental Champion brought the "Bad News" gimmick to life for the man that first came up with it. JBL was so amused that he took it straight to Vince McMahon, who adored the presentation so much that he immediately green-lit it for television. "That seemed to then catch fire and take me in a whole different arc of my career," Barrett recalls.