Wade Barrett is a lot of things, but he certainly is not a loser.
The fact is, there's a ton of opportunities out there now for professional wrestlers which, when I was coming through, weren't really there. The only game in town realistically was WWE, and it was very, very difficult to see yourself working anywhere outside of that.
I think when I left WWE, Vince blocked my phone number so he never wants me calling him again.
Many people don't realize just how dangerous professional wrestling actually is. People can get seriously injured and even paralyzed.
I left WWE because I was utterly miserable wrestling at the time and I needed to get away from the business.
If you go back in time to the '60s, the '70s, probably the early '80s, British professional wrestling was the most respected region of professional wrestling on the planet, and somewhere along the way that got lost and wrestlers were forced to America or Japan or even Mexico to make a living.
I wrestled for 14 or 15 years. I've got a bunch of injuries, I'm tired, I'm getting old, I'm getting some grey hair now.
By the time I got to 2015, I was sliding down the card. I was getting opportunities that I thought were kind of wasted. Like, I became the King of the Ring, which sounds like it should be impressive, but what it was followed up with was zero rises.
To me, OVW was one of my favorite periods in my career. I felt like I was on the greatest adventure of all time. I was there five months before WWE developmental moved down to Florida.
I try as much as I can to bring out my own British flavor.
I think the biggest difficulty from transitioning from professional wrestling to the acting world is generally toning down your performance.
There is nothing more terrifying than lying in the ring and feeling that your hand has gone numb.
When you're with WWE, you are operating within very fine boundaries that you cannot step outside of.
Maybe I need a catchphrase. Maybe I need a t-shirt that'll be a big sell. Maybe I need to do more with my in-ring skills. There was always something in my head like, 'I can improve this and I can improve that.'
I think Bad News Barrett was a lot of fun.
If you look back at people like The Rock there are times when earlier in his career he was doing heel stuff and he was so entertaining that people cheered for him. The natural thing to do was turn him babyface.
I remember when I was younger and seeing guys like The Rock cut these promos telling the world how terrible they are. How they are a bunch of losers and stuff like that. He was so funny when he did it that you couldn't wait 'til he came out and started insulting you.
I think there was an opportunity as Bad News Barrett to turn me in to a babyface. I am not saying that I would have gotten to the level The Rock got to but it was certainly a chance for me to do something different and keep me motivated and stimulated by what I was doing on the show.
I've always worked out very hard, very intensely, with a lot of free weights.
With my genetics, you have to be careful of doing too much cardio. I'm an ectomorph and you can lose a lot of size quickly if you overdo it on cardio.
