Had the NXT of 2010 looked like the NXT of 2023, Wade Barrett‘s professional wrestling career might have looked very, very, very different.

Taking part in the gameshow-style format alongside future luminaries of the sport like Bryan Danielson, Heath Slater, and Husky Harris – aka the late, great Bray Wyatt – Barrett won the show and used it as a jumping-off point to not only begin his career with his hard-fought WWE contract but parlayed that success into a spot as the leader of the Nexus, a faction made up of his other fellow contestants who were eliminated for one reason or another.

Had Barrett been given a Bron Breakker or Karrion Kross-style run in NXT with the brand's championship belt, which didn't exist until 2012, and been allowed to show fans his character and wacky personality, maybe Nexus would have been afforded an extended, expansive run that really did change the WWE Universe forever, but instead, the group lasted roughly a year, was severely diminished by an angle with John Cena, and couldn't even stick around after CM Punk was added to the group.

Speaking of and about the little faction that never quite could on the Even Stronger podcast, Barrett reflected on his time in the Nexus, of what was and what could have been.

“Nexus, for all of us who were in the group, was just a mind-blowing experience. It's something that even though I think it died prematurely, it's something that people still want to talk to me about this day. It probably only lasted six months really Nexus, but people still to this day want to talk about the time we ripped up the ring, the time we attacked John Cena. The time we beat up Vince McMahon and ran the company. Really exciting times,” Wade Barrett said via TJR.

“It completely changed the trajectory of my life. To have a massive impact on your debut like that. You can't really ask for too much more as a young and coming star, and I hope that helped show the company ‘Hey, there's a way forward here to debut dominant young groups of stars,' which we saw with the Shield a few years later. They knocked it out of the park, so maybe we were the catalyst for some of that.”

Had Nexus been booked better in Year 1 would there have been a Year 2 or beyond? Yes, the faction's rapid burnout is one of the biggest what-ifs of this century of WWE, but in the end, Barrett fared better than everyone except for “The Fiend” and the “American Dragon,” and he deserves to feel proud of that fact.

Wade Barrett is still very proud of everything he accomplished in WWE.

Discussing his WWE career further on Even Stronger, Wade Barrett reflected on his appearance in the new 2K23 game and how he's now able to relive his life back in 2010 before he became the performer fans came to know and love.

“Well, it's kind of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I'll get it out of the way now. I wish I had the brain I have now on the young body and potential I had back then because I would have done things a little differently. I would have handled certain political situations differently, things that were completely beyond the realm of my comprehension in 2010. I wasn't able to understand how the industry worked behind the scenes. The other side of that is the positive side where you've got to remember at that point in my career. I'd probably been training to be a wrestler for about seven years at that point. I'd been all over Europe at that point. Obviously, I'd come over to the US and been in the developmental systems in Ohio Valley Wrestling and Florida Championship Wrestling, getting paid very little and making big sacrifices to try and chase this dream,” Barrett recalled via Fightful.

“So, the really cool thing about the era that you see [in WWE 2K23] this young, fresh-faced Wade Barrett, that was the point where I knew that no matter what happened from there, all my sacrifices had been worth it. I'd made it to WWE, I'd made it to the pay-per-views, I'd made it to RAW and SmackDown, I was a focal point of the show in 2010. So, really, it felt like a big weight lifted off my shoulders that I wasn't going to have to go back to the UK with my tail in between my legs, having failed to make it and having to go back to my regular old job and beg them for my job back. I think that would have haunted me for life. So, there was a massive feeling of achievement and relief that I got to that point in 2010, and this is the character you get to play with now on WWE 2K23.”

Could Barrett have been a much bigger star in WWE? Sure thing, but then again, he could have been less popular, too, as five reigns with the Intercontinental Championship is nothing to sneeze at. Enjoy your legacy, and remember to stay thirsty, Wade.