WWE Championship Match: Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett (Special Guest Referee – John Cena)

MIAMI – “A little integrity is better than any career.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

For John Cena, that sentiment may prove to be his undoing. Despite the threat of termination, Cena, acting as special guest referee, refused to compromise his integrity in order to keep his job. Instead, he called the WWE Title Match straight down the middle, allowing champion Randy Orton to retain – and possibly ending his own career in the process.

For weeks, Wade Barrett, leader of The Nexus, had threatened Cena, reminding the group’s reluctant warrior that if he were to lose to The Viper, Cena would be terminated from WWE. The Legendary star, however, refused to forfeit his principles. In fact, so determined was Cena that he rejected an offer before the bout from R-Truth, who had volunteered to hobble Orton.

Once the match got underway, though, the Englishman appeared to hold his own against The Viper, despite the fact that The Nexus was banned from ringside. As frustration and fatigue crept in, however, Barrett’s focused his fury on Cena. When the Englishman shoved the special guest referee, Cena shoved back. Orton recognized the opportunity and quickly leveled the Nexus leader with an RKO. Although Cena appeared hesitant, fully aware of the consequences, he nonetheless remained true to his word, counting to three and raising Orton’s hand in victory.

In the wake of his win, the WWE Champion took a rare moment to acknowledge the selfless act of his longtime rival. As one man’s career continues to flourish, the other man’s may well be drawing to a close. And though Cena may no longer be a Superstar, he will always be a champion in the hearts of the WWE Universe.

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Wade Barrett is WWE.com’s Superstar of the Day for November 21st, 2010, which is just in time for his victory at tonight’s Survivor Series pay per view! Barrett has also been Superstar of the Day four other times this year – on October 25th, September 19th, August 2nd, and July 5th.

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Gallery: WWE.com > Superstar of the Day

Continuing a string of great recent interviews with various media outlets, Wade Barrett spoke once again to Tim Barnes of the Ottawa Sun about Sunday’s Survivor Series title match, his thoughts on his “bad guy” character, and the beneficial advice he’s received from veteran WWE Superstars.

Barrett says his WWE experience has been an awesome ride, learning from the best.

“If you want to be as good as you can be, you have to work with the best,” he said. “When you work with guys like John Cena, Randy Orton and The Undertaker, you learn. And when I was on NXT, I was fortunate to have Chris Jericho as my mentor.

“I stood behind the curtain on RAW (this past week), just before I went out and interrupted Piper’s Pit. And (Roddy Piper) delivered one of the best promos I’ve heard in a while — it was incredible the emotion he brought out.”

The article can be read in full here at Canada’s SLAM!Wrestling site.

Three different sites had the privilege of interviewing Wade Barrett about his successful year as a breakout WWE Superstar and his upcoming title match at Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per view. ESPN Video Games, the Baltimore Sun, and The Well Versed feature insightful conversations with the soon-to-be WWE Champion. Topics covered include Barrett’s life before the WWE, his predictions for Sunday’s show, and his thoughts on his rise to fame as a WWE Superstar. All articles are highly recommended reading!

Wade Barrett had a chat with Matt Fowler of IGN about his upcoming title match at Survivor Series, his bare-knuckle fighting background, and independent wrestling in the United Kingdom. The following excerpts are taken from the interview:

On bare-knuckle fighting: “It was something that wasn’t strictly legal. It was something that was under the cover of darkness, as it were. But it was something that I enjoyed at the time and I made some decent money out of it and it was something that I was quite successful at.”

On his finisher, the Wasteland: “I liked it because it was different and it was a move that I could use on the vast majority of people in a lot of different circumstances and in a lot of different areas in the ring. I could pull the move off from almost anywhere.”

On the success of the Nexus: “I think it’s a testament to the writing and the performances that we’ve managed to keep it fresh and keep ourselves relevant in the fans’ minds so that people are still enjoying it and it’s not something that’s gotten old quickly. I think that’s a testament to how hard people have work and how well we’ve been able to pull off the ideas that the creative geniuses have come up with. I think if it’s good TV then it’s going to keep on going and there’s no reason to stop it.”

On his childhood inspiration: “I remember seeing my first piece of WWE programming and I was completely hooked and it was the number one thing in my life immediately. My hero, as a young child, was “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith. He was definitely my favorite. He was the guy who I had the poster of on my wall and I looked up to. I loved the fact that he was the English guy in the WWE and he was the most muscular guy there. He was the strongest and I thought he had the best look and I was really proud of the fact that he was an Englishman.”

On independent wrestling in the UK: “A lot of the shows, you’re lucky to get a hundred people in there. And the quality isn’t so good over in the U.K. these days as well. Don’t get me wrong, there are some very good wrestlers out there, but there are also a lot of small time companies who just let anybody wrestle for them. Guys who have no business being in the ring. And unfortunately the public will go along and see a company like that who are putting on a really bad product for people and putting some really terrible wrestlers in there.”

Read the rest of this interesting interview in its entirety here at the IGN site!