Defiant Wrestling General Manager Stu Bennett, aka former WWE star Wade Barrett recently spoke with The Buzzards Wrestling Podcast (via Sportskeeda); you can read a few highlights below:
Stu Bennett comments on his new role with Defiant Wrestling:
I’m loving it here. I came over in April to do my first couple of shows with them. I just did some commentary then and then they got in touch around September to ask me to get be involved with them in a GM capacity, which I grabbed with both hands. I was really impressed when I came over in April at the quality of the production and the calibre of the guys they’ve got in the ring here and the kind of show they put out, so it was great to get this opportunity.
Related: Austin Aries Revealed As Newest Roster Member Of Defiant Wrestling
Bennett comments on his NXT pro trainer Chris Jericho accomplishing something new by facing Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12:
I’m constantly amazed every time I turn on my Twitter or Instagram because he’s got something else up his self. This week he’s releasing a new album, next week he’s got a book coming out, next week he’s going on a cruise with wrestling fans on there and then he’s going to wrestle at the Royal Rumble and then he’s off to wrestle Kenny Omega and then he’s got a TV show coming out. It’s like, I’m at the point now where I’m not surprised because it’s Chris Jericho and I just expect him to do things like that.
“But yeah, I think it’s really cool. I think it’s amazing that wrestling is at that point now where he can go and do something like that because I don’t think even five or ten years ago that would’ve been on the cards. It’s cool that wrestling around the world isn’t just so focused on this one place, WWE. There’s stuff springing up everywhere and who knows, in five years time, there might be a company in the UK that could put on something similar with a top guy from WWE and say, ‘Hey, we know you’re on a little break, why don’t you come over here to Birmingham, we’ve got this huge show on, you can wrestle Marty Scurll, who’s the top name out here’ or whoever it might be at the time, and put on this huge kind of Wrestle Kingdom show out here in the UK, which would be incredible and let’s be honest, we have the talent to do it. It’s just a case of putting all the pieces in place together.
Kenny Omega Attacks Chris Jericho At NJPW WK12 Press Conference; Jericho Throws Table At Him (Video)
Bennett reveals why WWE ended the ‘Bad News Barrett’ gimmick:
I was specifically told the reason I wasn’t allowed to say my catchphrase ‘I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news’ anymore was that it was getting a positive response and they wanted me to be a heel. I personally didn’t agree with that philosophy. I felt ‘Look, if they are going to cheer for me, they like this, let’s go with it. I’ve never been a babyface before, let’s go with it.’
“The decision was made above my pay grade that that wasn’t going to be the case and then I was Bad News Barrett, a guy who didn’t cut promos and wasn’t giving out bad news, so that kind of instigated the transition into a completely different character and the King run at that point, so for me personally, like I say, I didn’t agree with it but it wasn’t my decision to make ultimately.”
