Bad News Barrett on Origin of Gimmick, Becoming WWE World Heavyweight Champion and More

In an interview with CBS-19 entertainment reporter Chris Van Vilet this morning, WWE Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett discussed a number of wrestling-related topics. The origin of his “Bad News” gimmick and if he thinks he can ever become WWE World Heavyweight Champion under the gimmick were all brought up.

Here are some of the highlights:

Where his gimmick came from:

It actually came from a joke. Cody Rhodes likes to tell a story that when he was a little kid he used to watch me wrestle. I’m slightly older than Cody, we’re talking three years or something like that, but in his head I’m really an old man. I once walked into the locker room and he was telling the entire locker room that when he was a kid, he was watching me wrestling as this character he made up called “Bad News” Barrett who goes around giving bad news to people. So we all laughed about it and forgot about it. Then I was invited on the “JBL and Cole” show and they said they wanted to use me on the show and asked if I had any ideas I wanted to do. So I said ‘you know what? Let’s just do Bad News Barrett.’ I’ll just turn up, give people bad news and disappear. I got a really good response online and fans were loving the catchphrase. Vince McMahon saw it and thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. Next thing you know, I’m on TV doing it.

If he thinks he can be WWE World Heavyweight Champion using the gimmick:

I’ve always said that I want to be the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. The Intercontinental Championship is nice and this is my fourth time having it, but as far as I’m concerned, I’m ready to take a step up and become the man in WWE. That’s where I want to get to and if “Bad News” Barrett is the vehicle that gets me there then great, but if not, I’ll keep plugging away and one day I’ll be Britain’s first WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

His ever-changing entrance music:

Honestly I’m settled on one now. This is finally the one I really, really like. I loved the original Nexus one, but as soon as we split up, that went away and I had a succession of pretty average theme songs for a little while until I got the current one. And the current one actually has the bonus of a little bit of vocal work from myself which is really just me shouting “BOOM!” over and over again.