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Report: Wade Barrett Leaving WWE Once Contract Expires This Summer

By Mark McAllen • Published 16th February 2016
TJR Wrestling

I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. Former Intercontinental Champion and 2015 King of the Ring Winner Wade “King” Barrett has reportedly given his notice to World Wrestling Entertainment and will not be signing a new contract once his current deal expires. This is according to ProWrestlingSheet.com. It is understood that his current contract will expire in June.

Barrett has been with WWE for nine years and has been on the main roster for the last six years. He’s also been suffering from a bad neck injury for a while now, which is the reason he has not been competing in matches.

Barrett is reportedly unhappy with what his role has been in WWE and wants out. Barrett’s post-WWE plans are unknown at this time. It is also worth noting that Barrett has recently changed his Twitter name to his real name, Stu Bennett.

king-barrett

Here’s a Ryback tweet commenting on Barrett’s impending departure. It was likely done as a joke.

Mark’s reaction: This is sad for me because I always liked Wade Barrett/Bad News Barrett/King Barrett/whatever you want to call him. I think he’s always just had a tough go of it and was very unlucky throughout his career. Aside from his initial run with The Nexus, every time he was in line for a push of some sorts, he’d get injured.

Another example of the bad luck would come in the form of his Bad News Barrett character. The gimmick was really getting over with fans, which in Vince’s eyes naturally means the plug should be pulled on it entirely. Makes total sense, right?

I remember Wade being interviewed a couple months ago saying how he’d love to get in on the tag team division. I think a Barrett/Neville team could have been really cool and a way to really utilize two very underutilized wrestlers. They’re both from England and their styles offset each other nicely, so I thought it was a match made in heaven. Instead we got The League of Nations, which pretty much speaks for itself.

I’m not too sure about Barrett’s health status. Since he still hasn’t been competing in matches I’d assume he’s still out of commission. I hope it’s not another Daniel Bryan situation where he actually can never wrestle again.

Are you upset about this news? Were you a fan of Barrett? What do you think the biggest problem with his WWE run was? Leave any of your thoughts in the comment section below.