King Barrett

Wade Barrett is a Villain in the WWE

Backstory

Wade Barrett would be competing on the first season of WWE NXT, with Chris Jericho as his storyline mentor

On the 7 June episode of Raw, Barrett was at the forefront of an attack by the NXT rookies, as they interfered in the main event match between John Cena and CM Punk, attacking both competitors, the announce team, and the ring announcer, before they destroyed the ring area and surrounding equipment. On the next episode of Raw, Barrett and the other rookies demanded full-time contracts from Raw General Manager Bret Hart, who instead fired Barrett and had the rookies removed from the building. Later in the show the rookies attacked Hart and gave him until the Fatal 4-Way pay-per-view to decide on their contracts. At Fatal 4-Way, the rookies interfered in the main event for the WWE Championship, costing John Cena the championship in the process. The following night on Raw,Vince McMahon fired Hart and announced that a new 'anonymous' General Manager had been hired and the seven rookies received contracts. The group of rookies continued their path of disrupting main events, as they attacked both Cena and McMahon, who had been acting as the referee. The following week, the group was named The Nexus. On the 12 July episode of Raw, The Nexus competed in their first match together and defeated John Cena in a six–on–one handicap match. The following week, Barrett made his singles match debut on Raw by defeating Mark Henry. The Nexus continued to feud with Cena and the Raw roster, resulting in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match at SummerSlam. Barrett was the final member of The Nexus but submitted to Cena, causing The Nexus to lose the match. The Nexus faced Cena, Edge, Randy Orton, Sheamus and Jericho in a five-on-five elimination match on the 900th episode of Raw on 30 August. Barrett won the match for his team by last eliminating Orton. Barrett received his guaranteed championship match at Night of Champions, where he was unsuccessful in a six-pack challenge match for the WWE Championship. The feud between Cena and The Nexus continued at Hell in a Cell on 3 October, when Barrett defeated Cena to force Cena to become a member of The Nexus. The following night on Raw, Barrett won a battle royal to determine the number one contender to the WWE Championship, when Cena eliminated himself on Barrett's orders. Barrett received his championship match at the Bragging Rights pay-per-view. After ordering Cena to help him win, Cena interfered in the match causing Barrett to win via disqualification, which meant that Orton retained the championship. The following night, Barrett was granted a rematch at the Survivor Series pay-per-view, and allowed to choose a guest referee. He chose Cena, stating that if Barrett won the match, Cena would be allowed to leave The Nexus, but if Barrett lost, Cena would be fired. At Survivor Series, Barrett was unsuccessful in winning the WWE Championship from Orton after Cena pushed him into an RKO by Orton. As a result, Barrett received a rematch for the championship the following night on Raw, but was attacked by Cena, who had been fired, costing him the match. After Cena attacked several members of The Nexus over the next few weeks, they demanded that Barrett re-instate him, or be exiled from the group. On the 13 December episode of Raw, Barrett agreed and rehired Cena. As a condition of his rehiring, Cena had to face Barrett in a Chairs match at the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view, which Barrett lost. Barrett made his first appearance since the TLC pay-per-view on the 3 January 2011 episode of Raw, where he confronted CM Punk who had taken over the leadership of The Nexus in his absence. Punk gave Barrett the opportunity to regain the leadership stating that if he won a three-way steel cage match to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship, Punk would give up the leadership. During the match however, Punk came down to ringside and took off Barrett's Nexus armband, symbolically removing him from The Nexus, and Barrett went on to lose the match. At the television tapings of the 7 January episode of SmackDown the next day, Barrett made his SmackDown debut by attacking The Big Show. The following week he was joined by Ezekiel Jackson and his former Nexus stablemates Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, who had left the group the previous Monday. The following week the group was named The Corre. Barrett later qualified for the Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship, but came up short after being the first man eliminated by The Big Show. On 22 March, at the tapings of the 25 March episode of SmackDown, Barrett defeated Kofi Kingston to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. At WrestleMania XXVII, The Corre were defeated in an eight-man tag team match by the team of Kingston, The Big Show, Kane, and Santino Marella. Barrett went on to successfully defend his championship against Kingston on the 22 April episode of SmackDown.