Wade Barrett was recently a guest on Talk is Jericho. During the podcast, Barrett spoke about his decision to leave WWE in 2016. He shared what happened on his final day with the company and a heated argument that he got into before leaving.
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Here is what Barrett said (quotes below via Wrestling Inc):
“I went into the building that day and I knew I was kind of tying up loose ends at this point and there was this one big issue that I’d kind of been banging heads with talent relations about for a long time and it kind of came to a head there that day. So we get there at 2 o’clock or whatever it is, and around about three or four o’clock I’m having this big kind of blow up with talent relations there, which looking back it was all really silly, but we have this blow-up, I get really angry, they get really angry. I’m not on the show anyway, so at that point, I’m like, ‘do you know what? I’m just going to grab my bags and go home. I’m done.’ So this is me basically leaving WWE, so it was obviously a really stressful moment. I was angry, I was mad, this, that, and the other. I grabbed my bags, I went straight to my car, slammed my bags in the car, started the engine up, and started driving up the ramp, and in my head, I’m still angry about the blowup we’d just had. All I’m thinking about is, ‘wow, that’s me done with WWE! I’m finished! That’s it! Here today.’ And it was pretty crazy considering I spent the majority of my life thinking about working there, and how great it was, and stuff”
So as I’m heading up the ramp, all I see is the top of the tunnel to the outside and I’m thinking, ‘as soon as I’m over there, that’s freedom!’ And there [are] a bunch of fans there and stuff. So I get to the top of the ramp and just as I’m about to burst out into freedom, and light, and this whole new world that might be ahead of me, a car pulls across in front of me and stops me in my tracks. I’m like, ‘who the f–k is this?’ I look up and it’s [Jericho] and [Jericho is] turning up at the building at four [o’clock]. And I’ve got a face like thunder and I look at [Jericho], we lock eyes [Jericho] flip[s] me the bird, and [Jericho] kept driving down the tunnel.” Barrett recalled, “that was my big goodbye to the WWE, getting flipped off by the guy who brought me in storyline-wise and sent me off into the sunset. Looking back that actually makes me laugh.”
Speaking of Barrett, he shared some insight into if WWE purposely sabotages some performers. You can read that here.