A couple hours ago, a rumor about Wade Barrett started popping up on the wrestle web. Aggregation accounts on X/Twitter spread versions of a report, supposedly from PWInsider, that Barrett was “off the road” and that his “time as a commentator on the main roster shows” was over.
It spread quickly, because it seemed to fit with other recent stories — namely Michael Cole announcing last night (Sept. 5) that he & Corey Graves are taking over SmackDown commentary for the next few months, and possibly the odd, seemingly-resolved issues Nikki Bella said she had with Barrett last week in France. Some of those aggregators included a note teasing that the announce desk changes could be related to whatever had gone on with Bella.
Before the talk could too much momentum, Barrett (real name Stu Bennett) reposted a version of the report that particular aggregator has since deleted. He called the reports “BS”, and indicates the rumor was leading to more “hate” — much of which is probably headed Bella’s way as people decided she was to blame for the change in Wade’s TV role.
I usually ignore BS reports like this, but it’s causing needless hate to be spewed towards people I work with. WWE have kindly given me a couple of weeks off for personal time (booked nine months ago), and then I’m back to business as usual. A complete non-story. The end.
There will still be questions about the make-up of the WWE announce teams. But barring credible reports of something nefarious going on, hopefully people can move on from gossiping about them… or at least attacking strangers over the gossip.