[10][11] He earned a degree in marine biology from the University of Liverpool,[8] after which he went to work in a science lab and as a recruitment consultant while training to become a wrestler.

[11][12][13][14] He competed in a match in Budapest dubbed "The Battle of Buda" by the bare-knuckle underworld, in which he defeated a reputable opponent for a substantial cash prize.

After appearing as part of a security team on 13 November 2006 episode of Raw in Manchester, Barrett participated in a tryout with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) later that month.

[3][11] He was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) under his Stu Sanders ring name, where he defeated Ace Steel in a dark match.

[6] On 2 January 2008 Sanders and Burchill defeated Colt Cabana and Charles Evans in the final of a tournament for the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship.

[3][6] Sanders and Burchill held the title for nearly two months before losing it to Los Locos (Ramón and Raúl) in a four-way match also involving The Insurgency (Ali and Omar Akbar) and The Mobile Homers (Ted McNaler and Adam Revolver).

[6][18] After WWE ended their relationship with OVW as a developmental territory, Sanders was moved to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) with several other wrestlers.

[6] On 6 May 2008, Sanders and Drew McIntyre, collectively known as The Empire, defeated The Puerto Rica Nightmares (Eddie Colón and Eric Pérez) to win the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship.

[6][19] The team broke up after the loss, and Sanders began wrestling under his real name before changing it to Lawrence Knight at 9 October FCW television taping.

[26] On 1 June 2010 episode of NXT, Barrett won the overall competition and a WWE contract, by defeating Gabriel and David Otunga in the season finale.

[27] On 7 June 2010 edition of Raw, Barrett was at the forefront of an attack by the NXT rookies, as they interfered in the main event match between John Cena and CM Punk, attacking both competitors, Luke Gallows, the announce team, the timekeeper and the ring announcer, Justin Roberts, before they destroyed the ring area and surrounding equipment.

The group of rookies continued their path of disrupting main events, as they attacked both Cena and McMahon, who had been acting as the referee on 21 June 2010 edition of Raw.

[36] The Nexus continued to feud with Cena and the Raw roster, resulting in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match at SummerSlam.

[37] After Young was exiled from the group for losing a match to Cena the night after SummerSlam and Skip Sheffield was injured at a live event in Hawaii two nights later, the Nexus faced Cena, Edge, Randy Orton, Sheamus and Jericho in a five-on-five elimination match on 30 August 2010 edition of Raw, which Barrett won by pinning Orton.

[48] Barrett made his first appearance since the TLC pay-per-view on 3 January 2011 edition of Raw, where he confronted CM Punk, who had taken over the leadership of the Nexus in his absence.

[64] At Capitol Punishment, Barrett lost the Intercontinental Championship to Jackson,[65] and failed to win his rematch for the title on 24 June episode of SmackDown.

[69] On the 21 October episode of SmackDown, Barrett dismissed his past allies as a "legion of parasites" and claimed that the only person he needed for success was himself.

[70] The next week, he began a winning streak, defeating John Morrison, Trent Barreta, Sheamus, and Randy Orton in singles competition.

[82] The following night on Raw, Barrett suffered a partially dislocated elbow after Big Show threw Dolph Ziggler at him during a battle royal, and was taken off television.

[87][88][89][90] His first loss came on 8 October episode of Raw, when he lost a non-title match to World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus via disqualification after Big Show interfered.

[118] After an absence from WWE television due to legitimate work visa issues,[119] he returned on 2 December 2013 episode of Raw as Bad News Barrett, a persona he had previously assumed on The JBL and Cole Show, but was still called Wade on occasion by commentators and backstage interviewers.

On 9 June Raw, he competed in a WWE World Heavyweight Championship qualifying match for the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, but failed after a Brogue Kick by Sheamus.

However, Triple H put him in the Money in the Bank ladder match for a WWE World Heavyweight Championship contract on 23 June Raw.

[121] Barrett's injury required surgery, ruling him out for months, thus WWE made the move to vacate the Intercontinental Championship on 30 June.

I was kinda told by the powers that be that I had to knock it on the head for a while as too many people were joining in and cheering me for it so maybe we will bring it back after Wrestlemania but for now I have to be a bit quieter".

On 14 March edition of Raw, Barrett and the entire League of Nations attacked the New Day, after Alberto Del Rio lost to Big E and Xavier Woods in a Tag Team title match.

[147][148] On 17 September, he announced in an interview with Sports Illustrated that he had signed a one-year deal with WWE to become a permanent member of the NXT broadcast team.

[149] On 6 October 2022, WWE announced that they had shuffled their commentary and interview teams, with Barrett moving to SmackDown to be the colour commentator alongside Michael Cole.

Under the Wade Barrett name, Bennett had a small role as Kilroy in the crime thriller film Dead Man Down (2013),[152] for which he adopted a New York accent.

[154] Credited under his real name, he starred as John Gold in the action films I Am Vengeance (2018) and I Am Vengeance: Retaliation (2020), both of which received primarily negative reviews; however, Bennett received praise for his performance, with Variety noting that Retaliation showed "sufficient comic chops to occasionally undercut Gold's macho with self-parody".