Are We Still Talking About Barrett?

He had a good feud with Randy Orton. After that, he still seemed to be on the verge of a main-event push. Injury struck him down. Months later, they hype that he will return. He finally does return.

Where is Wade Barrett now? A few weeks after his return, he is still squashing people below him. He is still without proper focus. He definitely had more credibility and momentum prior to his injury. What they are doing with him now is not helping him that much. Time to play fantasy booker. What are some options for Barrett? Let me bring up three possibilities.

First, starting with the big one, have him feud with Sheamus over his World Championship. If they are finally going to move past Alberto Del Rio, have Big Show do something else, and give Barrett a big push now. He doesn't have to win the title, but this could be a good, fresh feud. Of course, the issue there is that they might want Big Show in the picture to have him destroy Sheamus, which will lead to Ziggler cashing in. I don't want to say much about Ziggler now, but there is still a lot of time left for that briefcase to be valid. While Ziggler is still getting developed, Wade Barrett could have gotten a good push. Depending on how the WWE had handled his return, Barrett would have had the momentum for this kind of push very easily.

Second, how about a midcard title feud? When I saw Ryback face Miz, I could picture Ryback winning the title down the road. After that, why not bring Barrett in? There is history there. Both were a part of Nexus. Instead of having Ryback just mow over an opponent, you can have more of a story here. Depending on how they handle that story, this can be the best feud Ryback ever had. Barrett used to be Ryback's leader. Have Barrett play some mind games off of that. Ryback is just so dominant now, they are going to have to find some good way to break him down a little. And this may lead to Barrett winning his second Intercontinental Championship. The problem here is, with Ryback entering something with CM Punk, they might not even follow up properly with Ryback and Miz. Ryback vs. Barrett does not need to be a title feud, but I think it would make it better.

Third, since I mentioned Nexus, how about developing another Nexus incarnation for Barrett? I heard people talking about that as a possibility. Problem is, who would they really destroy? Nexus was created, John Cena was put over them, and they crumbled. CM Punk became the new leader, Randy Orton went over that, and that group eventually fell to pieces and was phased out. The Corre seemed to just break itself. Had Edge not retired around that time, I honestly believe he would have went over them, then the group would have collapsed. What top face is there right now for a new Nexus to work against? Is Barrett going to form a stable just to gang up on jobbers and midcarders? It wouldn't have the same edge to it. Without a proper top target to go after, the group would look stupid. And if you do have such a target, why not just have Barrett go at it alone? That's the problem, there is no target for him.

Of all the options I just talked about, I like the idea of having him feud with Ryback the most. Both would have momentum and a history they share. Throw in the Intercontinental Championship, you would have a great midcard singles feud.