Wade Barrett is still teasing a potential return to the ring.
In a new interview with PWMania.com, the WWE SmackDown color-commentator once again spoke about a potential in-ring return with Drew McIntyre.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview sent to us by PW Mania where he touches on this topic and more.
On an In-Ring Return with Drew McIntyre: “Absolutely it would be Drew McIntyre. He’s someone I go way back with and very close friends with the guy over the years. He did talk a little smack to me a few weeks ago on Raw and I haven’t forgotten about that. I’m not going to make a major deal of it, but he’s lucky he stopped where he did. Let’s just put it that way because if he did take one more step forward, the old bull hammer would have come out, boom, knocked him on his ass, and perhaps that in-ring comeback would have happened by now, but I’m not clamouring for anything like that.”
On Triple H’s Impact on WWE’s Creative Direction: “I love the fact that today, I don’t know who’s going to be in the main event of the next premium live event. I have absolutely no clue what the card is going to look like. I don’t know if Cody Rhodes is going to be anywhere near the card, he might be left off and he’s one of the biggest stars we’ve ever seen. I don’t know if Roman Reigns is going to be there, CM Punk might be back, I have no clue. That to me is really, really exciting and I think that one of the key factors in the success of Triple H is his ability to keep the audience guessing and not be so formulaic.
“I love that as a fan of professional wrestling. It keeps me excited and keeps our fans intrigued, and to me, that’s the biggest difference of all of it. This question mark that pretty much every weekly show has. You have no idea what’s going to happen next week.
“I think Triple H is really good at tying up loose ends too. I think in the past, there were times when storylines would seemingly end halfway through and never be mentioned again, Triple H is really good with the continuity aspect of it.
“I think he has a real respect for the need to tie up loose ends and call back things that maybe happened a year ago that everyone forgot about”
On His Perspective Shift Moving to Commentary: “The big change when you move from being an in-ring guy to a commentator is the show is no longer about you. The show is about enhancing everybody else who arrives on the TV. It’s every character, every storyline, anything you can do to add a little sprinkle of sugar on every minute of the show is what you’re trying to do. It’s no longer about trying to get myself over or trying to be the big star anymore. And in terms of my appreciation for the industry, so say you’ve got a two-hour show or a three-hour show. Historically, Wade Barrett may have been on that show for 10 or 15 minutes. He might have had a match or a promo, whatever it was. That was really all I cared about. That’s all I’m focused on. The important part of this show is the bit that I’m on. I have to go out and make this as good as I can. The difference now is I have to have a complete understanding from start to finish of this roller coaster ride, everybody’s storyline, and how they all fit together.
“That has given me a totally different appreciation for our creative team, the management, and the kind of decisions that have to go into this. Whereas I was always annoyed because why aren’t I winning? Why aren’t I in this spot? Why aren’t I getting that opportunity? Now I understand, “Hey, this guy’s really good. This guy we have losing in segment three, he’s really good, but guess what? We can’t have him win here because the plan for next month is to put this match and this match together and this guy’s not going to fit in there. So, we kind of need him to make the other guy look good”. My understanding of putting together a two or three-hour TV show multiple times a week, especially if you’ve got a premium live event, and my appreciation of how the mental gymnastics that management and the creative team have to go through to try and make this all fit together and make cohesive sense and be intriguing for the viewer, I have a whole new appreciation for that.”
Check out the complete interview at PWMania.com.
