Wade Barrett was always a wrestler that the WWE Universe got behind. Part of the original NXT group who invaded Raw and made a splash with other newcomers, Barrett went on to have a bigger career than almost any member of the group not named Daniel Bryan.

Still, Barrett ended up leaving WWE under less than ideal circumstances in May of 2016. It was a controversial move because he was popular and when he asked for his release, fans everywhere wondered what was going on. In an interview with SPORTbible, Barrett finally provided some detail as to what exactly happened between himself and the WWE.

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First, he was asked if he missed wrestling. When he left the WWE, he moved immediately into the soccer industry and spent some time working in Hollywood. Most fans haven't heard much from him since, and he appears to be completely content being out of the spotlight. Unlike other former WWE stars, Barrett has not popped up on the independent wrestling scene until recently. He said,

"I have my good days and bad days. There's days where I think I don't miss it all and then there's days like yesterday [at Refuse to Lose on October 2] where you see the kind of reactions the guys were getting and get that desire to get back in the ring. I'm 99 percent certain I will wrestle again at some point, I just couldn't tell you when."

He went on to say that the right opportunity would have to come along if he were to consider a return and his body would have to feel 100 percent right.

The interview then moved toward what happened when he departed and the truth behind the speculation. Barrett explained:

"I didn't really ask to be released. My contract was coming to an end, I'd been there just over nine years at that point - I was not happy with the way my creative had gone and not happy with some stuff behind the scenes, and the way I'd been treated by certain people there, so in my opinion it was time to move on and do something else, at least for a while."

Barrett had been asked to stay and offered another contract. He simply wasn't interested. He detailed that he believes he wasn't the only one.

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The former relayer of bad news described his last few years in the WWE as unhappy and impossible to seize an opportunity.  He was confident in his ability to get over, but he felt those successes were snatched from him. "It got to the point where I didn't believe I was getting the opportunities to get to the level that I wanted to and I think once I'd seen the writing on the wall from that perspective, it was a very easy decision for me to leave."

Specifically, the Bad News Barrett gimmick was extremely popular and because of its popularity, the WWE told him he could no longer use it. That kind of booking was enough to make Barrett realize he was in the wrong place.

Will we see Barrett again in the WWE? Or, will he instead go the same route as other disgruntled ex-WWE employees? Cody Rhodes, for one, took a risk by walking and it's turned out incredibly well for him.

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