If you’re a fan of WWE Superstars keeping their full names, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news.
According to Dave Meltzer on the July 18 edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE hath decreed that King Barrett no longer has a first name. “Wade” has been officially removed from his pro wrestling birth certificate and banned from WWE TV.
Just in case those anal-retentive announcer notes that leaked hadn’t clued you in, WWE loves to micromanage language and pretend words (and names) suddenly no longer exist. Antonio Cesaro became ‘Cesaro,’ Big E Langston became ‘Big E’ and Alexander Rusev became ‘Rusev,’ and so on. It’s not even a Bill Goldberg -> Goldberg situation where it’s understood that his name’s “Bill Goldberg” but he doesn’t like to be called “Bill” — these men simply lose sections of their names forever.
The good news is that these name changes are purely cosmetic and have no bearing on a wrestler’s success or failure, so King Barrett’s position on the show isn’t expected to change. He’ll simply continue to be ‘King’ Barrett, and should he lose the crown or move on from the King of the Ring gimmick, he could just settle back into being ‘Bad News.’
He’s expected to continue his forever-feud with popular character R.
