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Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney may not be making it to the front pages of tabloids with his goalscoring in the Premier League, but he definitely made headlines as he knocked out WWE superstar Wade Barrett at the Manchester Arena on Monday night. The striker’s blow was a reaction to the trash talk he was subjected to by the 6ft 7in tall wrestler.
The World Wrestling Entertainment is currently touring the United Kingdom for an 11-day Live Event tour from the 5th to the 14th of November. The incident took during the ‘Raw’ edition of the WWE.
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Rooney was among the audience along with his six-year-old son Kai in ringside seats. Along with the father-son duo was current Manchester United assistant manager Ryan Giggs and former United teammate and West Bromwich Albion midfielder Darren Fletcher.
The incident took place when Barrett spotted the England International captain at the ringside and started jeering him with insults. Rooney responded by jokingly asking the wrestler to step down from the ring and face him. But things soon got heated when Barrett approached Rooney on the front row.
The wrestler provoked Rooney as he tried to humiliate the striker in front of his son. He began to comment on the striker’s current run of poor form and called him a ‘failure’. The rant prompted Rooney to rise from his chair and challenge the one-time bare-knuckle boxer Barrett to a fight.
And moments later the pair came to blows, with Rooney landing a thumping slap across the wrestler's face in the presence of thousands of fans gathered at the Manchester Arena. The blow left Wade Barrett sprawled on the floor as the crowd cheered and chants of ‘Rooney! Rooney!’ filled the arena.
Rooney is no stranger to ‘pretend’ boxing, with a video of him supposedly being knocked out by Phil Bardsley having gone viral in March. The striker even made a reference to the incident as he celebrated a goal in Old Trafford by enacting a knockout on the pitch.
Click here to find out what exactly made Rooney lose his calm against Wade Barrett.
Below is a video of Rooney knocking out the imposing wrestler. Enjoy !
Here is another angle of the incident.
