Wade Barrett Praises NXT’s Arianna Grace For Improving His Wasteland Finisher

WWE

SmackDown commentator Wade Barrett has praised a younger NXT star for improving his finishing move.

Wade Barrett started out as a contestant and eventual winner of WWE’s then-seasonal show, NXT. He made a name for himself as the leader of The Nexus, a faction that included Heath Slater and other NXT rookies from season one.

His character evolved over the years, and with it, his finishing move changed from the Wasteland to the Bullhammer.

Wade Barrett has not wrestled in WWE since 2016, but NXT star Arianna Grace has since started using a variation of the Wasteland on WWE TV. According to Barrett, she performs the move better than he did.

Speaking with Ryan Satin on the ‘Out of Character’ podcast, Barrett praised Grace for her interpretation of the finisher:

“Arianna Grace, who is in NXT, she’s unfortunately just gone in for surgery and has picked up an injury, hopefully, she’ll be back soon. She started doing her version of the Wasteland and, first of all, she came to me and said, ‘Would you mind if I use this move? I like the way you do it.’ I said, ‘Of course.’ How cool is that, that she came up to me and asked me?

“Here’s what I don’t like, she actually does it better than I did. She figured out a way of doing it where she goes down with it, it looks even better than how I did it.

“So, maybe if I could go back in time, I’d try to do Arianna Grace’s version rather than my own version. As much as I hate to admit it, the youngster has improved on my way of doing it.” 

Arianna Grace is currently away from the ring while she recovers from surgery.

Grace has not given details on the nature of her injury, but she has been updating fans on her recovery progress via posts on her social media accounts.

Arianna Grace’s last TV appearance was during the September 13 edition of NXT in a match where she and Kiana James were defeated by Nikkita Lyons & Zoey Stark.

Although Wade Barrett has been away from the ring for some time, he was a part of the commentary team on NXT since August 2020.

He recently moved to the main roster and now appears on the SmackDown brand alongside Michael Cole following the commentary team reshuffle.

Keep up to date with all WWE injuries and expected return dates with our tracker right here.

Transcription via Fightful. 

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• Arianna Grace
• Wade Barrett
• nxt
• wwe

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