Name: Wade Barrett
Stuart Alexander “Stu” Bennett (born August 10, 1980) is an English professional wrestler, currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment under the name Wade Barrett. After honing his skills in their developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling, Wade Barrett went on to win Season One of WWE NXT in May 2010. Barrett rose to power, notoriety, and dominance as the founding leader of the Nexus for the latter half of 2010 and in early 2011 moved from Raw to SmackDown to form a new alliance, the Corre.
Professional wrestling career
Debut
Bennett was trained by Jon Richie and Al Snow. He made his professional debut in June 2004 as a surprise entrant in a 30-man battle royal held by NWA Hammerlock Wrestling under the ring name “Stu Sanders”.
World Wrestling Entertainment
Developmental territories
In October 2007, Bennett was signed to a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment and was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) under his Stu Sanders ring name, where he was defeated by Ace Steel in a dark match. He later formed a tag team with Paul Burchill and began competing in several matches against the Major Brothers. On January 2, 2008, Sanders and Burchill defeated Colt Cabana and Charles Evans in a tournament for the Southern Tag Team Championship. Sanders and Burchill would hold the title for nearly two months before losing it to Los Locos (Ramón and Raúl) in a four-way match also involving The Insurgency (Ali and Omar Akbar) and The Mobile Homers (Ted McNaler and Adam Revolver). After WWE ended their relationship with OVW as a developmental territory, Sanders, along with several WWE-contracted talents, were moved to Florida Championship Wrestling.
On May 6, 2008, Sanders and Drew McIntyre, collectively known as The Empire, defeated The Puerto Rican Nightmares (Eddie Colón and Eric Pérez) to win the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship. They lost the titles back to the Nightmares at FCW’s first TV taping on July 17, 2008. The team broke up after the loss, and he began wrestling under his real name before changing it to Lawrence Knight at the October 9, 2008 FCW television taping. In August 2009, Bennett was renamed yet again, this time to Wade Barrett. After Josh Mathews and Byron Saxton were brought up to WWE’s main roster to perform as commentators for the ECW brand, Barrett began working as color commentator alongside Dusty Rhodes.
NXT
It was announced on February 16, 2010 that Barrett would be competing on WWE NXT, with Chris Jericho as his storyline mentor. He made his debut on the inaugural episode of NXT on February 23, introducing his mentor Jericho, before Jericho’s match with Daniel Bryan. Barrett made his in-ring debut on the following episode of NXT, defeating Bryan. On the April, 12, 2010 edition of NXT Bennett won the “talk the talk” challenge and won his own custom made entrance theme.
On 11 May, Barrett was ranked in first place in the Pros Poll. On the June 1 episode of NXT, Barrett won the overall competition, and a WWE contract, by defeating David Otunga and Justin Gabriel in the season finale.
The Nexus
On the June 7, 2010 episode of Raw, Barrett was at the forefront of an attack by the NXT rookies, as they interfered in the main event match between John Cena and CM Punk, attacking both competitors, the announce team, and the ring announcer, before they destroyed the ring area and surrounding equipment. On the next episode of Raw, Barrett and the other rookies (minus Daniel Bryan) demanded full-time contracts from Raw General Manager Bret Hart, who instead fired Barrett and had the rookies removed from the building. Later in the show the rookies attacked Hart and gave him until the Fatal 4-Way pay-per-view to decide on their contracts. At Fatal 4-Way 2010, the rookies interfered in the main event for the WWE Championship, costing John Cena the championship in the process. The following night on Raw, Vince McMahon fired Hart and announced that a new ‘anonymous’ General Manager had been hired and the seven rookies received contracts. The group of rookies continued their path of disrupting main events, as they attacked both Cena and McMahon, who had been acting as the referee. The following week, the group was named The Nexus. That same week, Barrett was written out of the show as his work visa had expired and he had to return to the United Kingdom to apply for a new one. With his visa situation cleared up, Barrett returned the following week On the July 12, 2010 episode of Raw, The Nexus, sans Darren Young, competed in their first match together and defeated John Cena in a six–on–one handicap match. The following week, Barrett made his singles match debut on Raw by defeating Mark Henry. The Nexus continued to feud with Cena and the Raw roster, resulting in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match at SummerSlam. Barrett was the final member of The Nexus but submitted to Cena, causing The Nexus to lose the match. After Darren Young was exiled from the group and Skip Sheffield was injured, The Nexus faced Cena, Edge, Randy Orton, Sheamus and Jericho in a five-on-five elimination match on the 900th episode of Raw on August 30, 2010. Barrett won the match for his team by last eliminating Orton.
Championship Run
Barrett received his guaranteed championship match at Night of Champions, where he was unsuccessful in a six-pack challenge match for the WWE Championship. The feud between Cena and The Nexus continued at Hell in a Cell on October 3, 2010 when Barrett defeated Cena to force Cena to become a member of The Nexus. The following night on Raw, Barrett won a battle royal to determine the number one contender to the WWE Championship, when Cena eliminated himself on Barrett’s orders. Barrett received his championship match at the Bragging Rights pay-per-view. After ordering Cena to help him win, Cena interfered in the match causing Barrett to win via disqualification, which meant that Orton retained the championship. The following night, Barrett was granted a rematch at the Survivor Series pay-per-view, and allowed to choose a guest referee. He chose Cena, stating that if Barrett won the match, Cena would be allowed to leave The Nexus, but if Barrett lost, Cena would be fired. At Survivor Series 2010, Barrett was unsuccessful in winning the WWE Championship from Orton after Cena pushed him into an RKO by Orton. As a result, Barrett received a rematch for the championship the following night on Raw, but was attacked by Cena, costing him the match. After Cena attacked several members of The Nexus over the next few weeks, they demanded that Barrett re-instate him, or be exiled from the group. On the December 13 episode of Raw, Barrett agreed and rehired Cena. As a condition of his rehiring, Cena had to face Barrett in a Chairs match at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view, which Barrett lost.
From Raw to SmackDown
Barrett made his first appearance since the TLC pay-per-view on the January 3, 2011 episode of Raw, where he confronted CM Punk who had taken over the leadership of The Nexus in his absence. Punk gave Barrett the opportunity to regain the leadership stating that if he won a three-way steel cage match to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship, Punk would give up the leadership. During the match however, Punk came down to ringside and took off Barrett’s Nexus armband, symbolically removing him from The Nexus, and Barrett went on to lose the match. At the television tapings of the January 7 episode of SmackDown the next day, Barrett made his SmackDown debut by attacking The Big Show. The following week on the January 14 episode of SmackDown Barrett was joined by Ezekiel Jackson and his former Nexus stablemates Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, who had left the group the previous Monday, in a post-match attack on The Big Show.
The Corre
At the television tapings of the 7 January episode of SmackDown the next day, Barrett made his SmackDown debut by attacking The Big Show. The following week he was joined by Ezekiel Jackson and his former Nexus stablemates Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, who had left the group the previous Monday. The following week the group was named The Corre. Barrett later qualified for the Elimination Chamber match, but came up short after being the first man eliminated by The Big Show. On 25 March episode of SmackDown, Barrett defeated Kofi Kingston to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. At WrestleMania XXVII, The Corre were defeated in an eight-man tag team match by the team of Kingston, The Big Show, Kane, and Santino Marella. Barrett went on to successfully defend his championship against Kingston on the 22 April episode of SmackDown. On the 6 May episode of SmackDown, Barrett, Gabriel, and Slater attacked Jackson, removing him from the group. On the 13 May episode of SmackDown, Barrett then challenged Jackson to a match for the Intercontinental Championship at the Over the Limit pay-per-view, and Jackson accepted. At the event, Gabriel and Slater attacked Jackson during the match, causing Barrett to lose by disqualification, but Barrett retained his Intercontinental Championship. He would then have to defend his Intercontinental Title against Jackson again on the June 3 episode of SmackDown. During the match, Jackson threw Barrett out of the ring, resulting in Barrett losing by countout, but Barrett still retained his Intercontinental Title as a title cannot change hands via countout. Barrett then instructed the Corre to attack Jackson, but then abandoned Gabriel and Slater, whom Jackson fended off. On the June 10 episode of SmackDown, Barrett, fleeing from Jackson, again walked out on Gabriel and Slater during a six-man tag match against Jackson and The Usos, resulting in the Corre losing the match. Following the match, Slater and Gabriel confronted Barrett and they declared that the Corre was done thus leaving Barrett to defend his Intercontinental Championship by himself at WWE Capitol Punishment. At the WWE Capitol Punishment PPV, Barrett lost the Intercontinental Championship to Jackson. He invoked his rematch clause against Ezekiel Jackson for the Intercontinental Champion on the June 24 episode of SmackDown, but lost again.
The Barrett Barrage; feud with Randy Orton (2011–present)
On the 1 July edition of SmackDown, Barrett was announced to be one of the participants for the SmackDown Money in the Bank match at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, facing Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Kane, Sin Cara, Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes and Sheamus, but the match was won by Bryan. On the 22 July edition of SmackDown, Barrett faced Sheamus and both men were counted out. The following week Wade Barrett came to talk about how he was deserved to be Mr. Money in the Bank, Daniel Bryan came out and put him on the LeBell Lock. The week after, he was commentating in Bryan’s match. Then on the following week on the last episode of SmackDown before SummerSlam, he attacked Bryan after the latter’s loss to Alberto Del Rio. At SummerSlam, Barrett defeated Bryan. He then had a short feud with Sheamus, where he lost on three occasions. On September 23rd edition of Smackdown, Barrett defeated another former Nexus and Corre teammate, Justin Gabriel.
On the October 21 edition of SmackDown held in Mexico, Barrett dismissed his past alliances with a “legion of parasites”, claiming that the only person he needed for him to succeed was himself, and he vowed that “The Barrett Barrage” was beginning. Barrett followed this announcement by beating Daniel Bryan. The next week, he would obtain wins over John Morrison on Raw and Trent Barreta on SmackDown.
Barrett’s winning streak continued as Barrett and Cody Rhodes defeated the WWE Tag Team Champions Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston on the October 31 edition of WWE Raw and continued on the November 4 edition of SmackDown when he defeated Sheamus, with a little help from Christian in the process, and again the next week, against Randy Orton. Barrett’s winning streak was broken on the November 14 edition of Raw (Raw Gets Rocked) when he was defeated by Orton via disqualification after Team Barrett attacked Orton. At Survivor Series Team Barrett defeated Team Orton, with Barrett and Cody Rhodes being the sole survivors in the match. On the November 25 edition of SmackDown, Wade competed in a Fatal-4-Way match which also invlovled Rhodes, Orton and Daniel Bryan, to determine the #1 Contender for the World Heavyweight Championship. Barrett was unsuccessful as the match was won by Bryan after Rhodes submitted to a crossface. On the November 28 edition of Raw, Barrett continued his feud with Orton when the latter distracted Barrett in his match with Kofi Kingston, despite the distraction, Barrett won the match. On the November 29 edition of SmackDown, Barrett attacked Orton during a Miracle on 34th Street Fight match against David Otunga which Orton won. On the December 5 edition of Raw, Barrett continued his feud with Orton during his match with The Miz distracting him causing Orton to chase him which made him lose by count out. A frustrated Orton headed back to the ring after the match but was attacked by Barrett yet again. On the December 9 edition of SmackDown, Barrett and Orton were put in two Time to Beat the Clock Challenge matches, with the winner choosing the stipulation for their match. Barrett defeated Ezekiel Jackson in 7:53. However, Orton pinned Dolph Ziggler in 7:51 and chose a Tables match.
Personal life
As a child, Bennett was a fan of “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith. Before becoming a professional wrestler, Bennett was a bare-knuckle boxer.
Bennett has two tattoos. The first is a barbwire tattoo on his left deltoid. He later expanded it to cover the entire deltoid. The second is a tribal design directly underneath the former tattoo. Recently on 5th of December Raw, he sported a new tattoo that represents his home town of, Preston, Lancashire, England, with lyrics taken from the Manic Street Preachers song, “Little Baby Nothing”.
Credit: Wikipedia