The NXT big thing

We chat to British sensation Wade Barrett about his NXT win and his plans for WWE domination.

British star on his big plans for the WWE

British sensation Wade Barrett is set to take the WWE by storm after winning the inaugural season of WWE NXT. The well-built Brit with a strong bare-knuckle fighting background saw off seven other contenders to win WWE NXT and claim a WWE contract and a championship match at a forthcoming pay-per-view event. Confident and eloquent, Barrett isn't afraid to speak whatever's on his mind and he spoke to skysports.com shortly after his NXT victory. He told us all about his experience working with mentor Chris Jericho and spoke about his secret plans to cash in his title shot. Barrett also spilled the beans on his finishing move, the Superstars he'd like to come up against - and England's chances of World Cup glory this summer!

skysports.com: Congratulations on winning the first series of WWE NXT. Were you surprised or did you fully expect to win the contest?
WADE BARRETT: Pretty much from the beginning I was confident that I was the best of the eight rookies on there. I had the most complete package and I felt I was probably the closest of the rookies to being a WWE Superstar. When it comes to the voting from the Pros, I wasn't sure how they were going to go. There could have been some sort of strategic voting with people wanting to get certain guys out so their rookie could win, so I was never 100 per cent. Also the guy I was up against in the final, a guy called David Otunga, would have brought a lot of publicity to WWE by winning because he has a pop star wife in Jennifer Hudson. I thought maybe that might come into play and cost me a victory. But that didn't happen and I was pretty thrilled with the win. skysports.com: Other than yourself, who did you feel were the stand-out competitors on NXT?
WADE: I think Otunga, in terms of his charisma and personality, was a standout. In terms of in-ring ability I was very impressed with Daniel Bryan and Justin Gabriel, who was the only rookie to beat me in the course of the show. He's got some very flashy moves, a lot of kids like that sort of thing, and I was impressed with his abilities in there. He was a very tough competitor. But I think in terms of the whole package, I was head and shoulders above all of them. How much did you learn from your NXT mentor Chris Jericho?
WADE: Chris was a really good influence for me. He was very quick to pick up on the things he was doing in matches and on the microphone and the things I needed to work on. He really stressed the importance of how I needed to be strong in every single aspect of what we do. Not just in-ring work, not just on the microphone, not just how I look, not just my personality but everything as a whole. He stressed to me from the beginning that I needed to be strong in every area and when you compare me to the other rookies that were on the show, every one had one glaring weakness apart from me. The fact that I worked on all those areas is what pushed me through to victory. Do you feel the NXT format is a better way of getting noticed rather than being immediately sent to Raw or Smackdown?
WADE: In the majority of instances, NXT is better. The season we had ran for 15 weeks, which basically gave eight brand new guys a guaranteed 15 weeks of TV for one hour a week. I don't think there's ever been guys debuted in the history of WWE that have had that kind of exposure and that kind