Former WWE superstar and current NXT commentator Wade Barrett recently spoke to Metro Uk to talk all things pro-wrestling, including his thoughts on working with John Cena during the popular Nexus angle back in 2010. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Says he never felt on the same level as a peer:
Obviously, there was a huge disparity between where he was at career-wise and where I was at. There was never that level – I never felt like we were level as peers, when it came to putting the matches together or working on storylines or anything like that. ‘Whereas shortly after that, I would have programmes with Kofi Kingston who I very much saw as my kind of level at the time in 2011. We’d gone through developmental together and I felt much more comfortable working with him. ‘You just have to take those opportunities when they come, and I was very, very grateful to be in there with John Cena.’
How he was struggling to get by financially when he first moved to the Unite States:
You’ve gotta put it in perspective of where I was in life at the time. I’d been chasing this dream of getting to the top of WWE for a very long time. I’m not complaining about this, but really, I was struggling to get by financially when I first moved to the US. ‘Every apartment I had – I think the first five places I lived in the United States all had cockroaches in them. My car – I lived in Tampa, Florida – I had no air conditioning.’
Says he was appreciative to be inside the ring with Cena during the Nexus run:
No matter what happens, I’m now part of this huge storyline and what I’ve done here is going to live forever in the world of pro wrestling, and probably help secure at least my near-term future financially and career-wise. I’d seen so many of my peers from the indy scene in the UK or from the developmental system fall by the wayside and not get the opportunities that I got. ‘So, I was really appreciative that I got the opportunity to be in the ring with John Cena, get this spotlight on me and secure my career future through that.’
Feeling different from the 20-year veterans in the locker room:
Once you get to the main roster, Raw and SmackDown, you might have guys who’ve been on that main roster for 20-plus years in some cases, guys who are multi-millionaires, they’ve got Ferraris and these mansions. You just feel like, “I’m a world apart from this guy I’m wrestling tonight. We are nothing alike, we’re in the same environment and in the same company, but I’m not on a level with this guy in any way, in experience, ability, my lifestyle. There’s nothing I’ve got in common with him apart from this thing, which is pro wrestling”. ‘That nature of struggle and the thing you’re chasing, that unites a locker room and brings them together very tightly.