Wade Barrett says WWE's product keeps him guessing.
Wade Barrett previously had a memorable run as an in-ring competitor in WWE during the Vince Mcmahon regime, and he returned to the company as a commentator in 2020. Barrett first joined the NXT commentary team before he moved to SmackDown in October 2022. After a brief run on Raw, Barrett returned to SmackDown. During his second run with the company, Vince McMahon retired in July 2022, and Triple H took over as the WWE Chief Content Officer.
Speaking with AceOdds (via The Ring Report), SmackDown commentator Wade Barrett was asked to comment on the biggest difference that he has seen since Triple H took over.
"Well, I've noticed that and I'll compare my time as a commentator to my time in the ring. I think there are a lot more surprises these days. We'll call it the Triple H era, the Paul Levesque era, whatever it's being called now. I think something we're really good at and it reminds me of being a fan back in the late 90s in the Attitude Era, you can't miss a show at the moment. It feels as a fan and even as a commentator when I'm at home watching the other shows, I feel like I cannot miss it because something big is going to happen every week," Barrett said.
Barrett then brought up his time as an in-ring competitor in WWE and noted that there was a stretch when the show occasionally felt a little formulaic. He explained that the product now feels more important and exciting.
"There was a time when I was an in-ring guy during the kind of early 2010s when the show at times felt a little formulaic. It felt a little obvious that these two guys are going to be feuding with each other for the next four months and we're going to have six different rematches between them. We're going to have different variations of how the match ends, but I know what's going to happen. If I miss an episode, it's probably not going to be that important. Now it feels like if you miss even one 15-minute segment between commercials, you could miss something massive. We watched Raw last night and the Wyatt Sicks stuff, every time there is a show over the next few months, there is going to be a big development in that storyline," Barrett said.
Barrett also highlighted The Bloodline storyline and noted that it feels like something massive is going on every week. He stated that this dynamic keeps him guessing, and it keeps him motivated. He also shared his belief that management was taking the company in a good direction, and the rewards were evident.
"The same with the bloodline stuff on SmackDown. It feels like every week there is something massive going on. That's really exciting to me as a commentator. It keeps me guessing, it keeps me motivated and excited. I think you can probably see from our viewing figures and the people attending the live shows, we're constantly selling out at the moment. I think it really has people hooked in and it's keeping people guessing and being hyper-creative with our script writers and the people who are working behind the scenes on stuff. So, I'd say the management is currently taking us in a really good direction and the rewards are there for everyone to see," Barrett said.
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