Wade Barrett reflects on former football player Wayne Rooney punching him on WWE RAW

Wade Barrett believes the physical altercation with former football star Wayne Rooney on WWE RAW was one of the highlights of his career.

On the November 9th, 2015 edition of RAW, Wade Barrett confronted footballer Wayne Rooney while he was seated in the front row during a match between Sheamus and former WWE Superstar Cesaro. The confrontation resulted in Rooney connecting with a punch to Wade's jaw as the crowd cheered.

Speaking with Kenny McIntosh during an Inside the Ropes live event, Wade noted that everyone was thrilled with the angle backstage and it immediately went viral on social media.

“So it was a really awesome segment," said Barrett. "It achieved exactly what we wanted to achieve. And then I got to the back, usual handshakes, everyone’s thrilled with it. And I look at my Twitter and this thing has immediately gone viral, and it’s on ESPN in the US, it’s on Sky Sports over here. And I have these alerts set up on my Twitter, which alert me as to what’s going on in the Twitter world and it’ll even tell me when my handle @WadeBarrett, which it was at the time, is trending." (H/T: Inside the Ropes)

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Wade Barrett on how the Wayne Rooney segment on WWE RAW was a success

Wade Barrett recently joined the SmackDown commentary team as a temporary replacement for Pat McAfee as the former punter works full-time for ESPN College Gameday. Barrett is expected to return to NXT commentary once the former NFL punter returns to the blue brand.

The 42-year-old said that the angle with Wayne Rooney was trending all around the world after it aired on WWE RAW. Wade joked that you know you've hit a home run when you are trending in Nigeria.

"So I was trending in the UK," said Barrett." Because all these newspapers have picked up on it and when they were getting clicks on the story, and then I was trending in the US and then I was slowly as the sun was rising around the world and people would wake up and it would be on their news around the world, it will be [saying] you are now trending in Australia, you are now trending in Japan, and the one that really, I really knew we’d we’d hit a home run as they say in the US – you are now trending in Nigeria.” H/T: Inside the Ropes

WWE has often featured celebrities in sports and entertainment on RAW and SmackDown. It will be interesting to see which stars from outside of wrestling show up on the company's programming next.

Did you enjoy the segment between Wayne Rooney and Wade Barrett on WWE RAW? Let us know in the comments section below.