During his interview with Chris Van Vliet, Stu Bennett revealed that it was Cody Rhodes who originally came up with the idea for the Bad News Barrett character. Here’s what he had to say:
That started on something called ‘The JBL and Cole Show’, which was JBL, Michael Cole, Cody and a couple of other people who had been doing this quirky Internet show for a while. Cody, notorious liar in the locker room, and I say that with all respect because he’s not mean about it, but he likes to tell bulls–t stories about people.
One day, I walked into the locker room, and he was telling all the guys in the locker room that when was a kid, he used to watch me wrestling. I was wrestling as a character called ‘Bad News Barrett’ who would walk into the ring and say, ‘hey guys, I got some bad news. The show’s cancelled.’ That was Cody’s running joke.
You can listen to the interview below:
Credit: Chris Van Vliet. H/T WrestlingInc.