Wade Barrett Reveals When He Found Out About Move to Smackdown Commentary

Wade Barrett was moved to the Smackdown commentary team in October, and he recently discussed when he found out about the move. The company announced the shakeup of their broadcast teams last month and the announcement saw Barrett shifted from the NXT team to Smackdown. You can check out some highlights below:

On when he found out about his move to Smackdown: “So I probably found out maybe three or four days before I took the first trip over. It was very much a last-minute decision, I know Pat McAfee’s off for two or three months during his college football stop. Initially they had Corey Graves stepping in and filling the seat. But I think Cory probably had a lot on his plate, hHe does a hell of a lot for WWE with all the PPVs and Raw too, and he’s got his podcast. So I think maybe somebody needed to pick up a little slack on behalf of Cory, so that’s when they gave me the call and asked me to step in there.”

On if he was surprised by the move: “No, I think my history in the entertainment sphere in general, but especially in WWE, you’ve always got to be ready to pivot. I love NXT, I hope to be back there sooner or later in some capacity. Hopefully commentating, but I think you’ve always got to be ready to pivot in this game. Things change fast as we’ve seen, the past 18 months in WWE have been absolutely insane for all of us. So you’ve always got to be ready. I love NXT, I thought that was gonna be my future for the foreseeable. But you get that call, you’ve got to be ready to jump and it’s been that way since I was in the developmental system.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Out of Character With Ryan Satin with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.