Stuart Alexander Bennett was born on 10 August 1980 in Penwortham, Lancashire. He lived in Preston, Lancashire until the age of six, when he moved to Wales with his family. He was inspired by his idol Davey Boy Smith to become a professional Wrestler, and named the WWF Intercontinental Championship match in the main event of SummerSlam 1992 (between Smith and Bret Hart, another childhood hero) as his all-time favourite match. He earned a degree in marine biology from the University of Liverpool, working in a science laboratory and as a recruitment consultant whilst training to become a Wrestler.

Bennett decided to become a professional Wrestler at the age of 21, and was trained by Jon Ritchie and Al Snow. He made his professional wrestling debut in June 2004, using the ring name Stu Sanders, as a surprise entrant in a 30-man battle royal held by NWA UK Hammerlock Wrestling. Sanders also performed at numerous Dropkixx Wrestling, Real Quality Wrestling and All Star Wrestling events, as well as wrestling in Wales for Welsh Wrestling. In June 2005 he beat Danny Beckwith for the Dropkixx IWC Heavyweight Championship. In 2005, he feuded with Nick Aldis and Danny Dexter in Dropkixx Wrestling.

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. He had another tryout in 2007, and signed a developmental contract with them in October. He was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) under his Stu Sanders ring name, where he defeated Ace Steel in a dark match. He later formed a tag team with Paul Burchill and the pair faced the Major Brothers in several matches. On January 2, 2008 Sanders and Burchill defeated Colt Cabana and Charles Evans in the final of a tournament for the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship. 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).

After WWE ended their relationship with OVW as a developmental territory, Sanders was moved to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) with several other Wrestlers. 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. They lost the titles back to the Nightmares at FCW's first TV taping on 17 July. The team broke up after the loss, and Sanders began wrestling under his real name before changing it to Lawrence Knight at the 9 October FCW television taping. On 19 February 2009, Knight announced that he was the new FCW commentator, alongside Dusty Rhodes. He became colour commentator due to an injury, in which he tore his Latissimus dorsi muscle and required surgery. In August 2009, Bennett was renamed yet again to Wade Barrett, partially named for Wade Dooley. He described the character of Barrett as being an extension of his "dark side". He returned to in-ring competition in FCW in December 2009.

Barrett received his guaranteed championship match from winning NXT at Night of Champions, where he was unsuccessful in a six-pack challenge match for the WWE Championship, despite eliminating Cena. The feud between Cena and the Nexus continued at Hell in a Cell on 3 October, when Barrett defeated Cena to force Cena to become a member of the Nexus. The following night on Raw, Barrett, with the help of the rest of the Nexus, won a battle royal to determine the number one contender to the WWE Championship, when Cena eliminated himself on Barrett's orders. Barrett received his championship match against Randy Orton at the Bragging Rights pay-per-view. After ordering Cena to help him win, Cena interfered in the match causing Barrett to win via disqualification, which meant that Orton retained the championship. The following night, Barrett was granted a rematch at the Survivor Series pay-per-view, and allowed to choose a guest Referee. He chose Cena, stating that if Barrett won the match and the WWE title, Cena would be allowed to leave the Nexus; however if Barrett failed to win the title, Cena would be fired. At Survivor Series, Barrett was unsuccessful in winning the WWE Championship from Orton after Cena pushed him into an RKO by Orton. Cena was fired as per the match stipulation after Survivor Series. Due to Cena's interference, Barrett received a rematch for the championship the following night on Raw, but was attacked by the fired Cena, "costing" him the match. After Cena attacked several members of the Nexus over the next few weeks, they demanded that Barrett re-instate him, or be exiled from the group. On the 13 December 2010 edition of Raw, Barrett agreed and rehired Cena on the condition Cena faces Barrett in a Chairs match at the TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view, which Cena won after dropping 23 steel chairs on Barrett.

At the television tapings of the 25 March 2011 edition of SmackDown, Barrett defeated Kofi Kingston to win the Intercontinental Championship. At WrestleMania XXVII, The Corre were defeated in an eight-man tag team match by the team of Kingston, Big Show, Kane and Santino Marella. Barrett went on to successfully defend his championship against Kingston on the 22 April 2011 edition of SmackDown. On the 6 May 2011 edition of SmackDown, Barrett, Gabriel and Slater attacked Jackson, removing him from the group. On the 13 May 2011 edition of SmackDown, Barrett then challenged Jackson to a match for the Intercontinental Championship at the Over the Limit pay-per-view and Jackson accepted. At the event, Gabriel and Slater attacked Jackson during the match, resulting in a disqualification, but Barrett retained the title as a title cannot change hands via disqualification. He then defended his Intercontinental title against Jackson again on the 3 June 2011 edition of SmackDown. During this match, Jackson threw Barrett out of the ring, resulting in a countout, but once again, Barrett retained the title as a title cannot change hands via countout. Barrett then instructed The Corre to attack Jackson, but abandoned Gabriel and Slater, whom Jackson fended off. The following week, The Corre dissolved after Barrett, fleeing from Jackson, walked out on Gabriel and Slater in a six-man tag team match against Jackson and The Usos, causing them to lose the match. At Capitol Punishment, Barrett lost the Intercontinental Championship to Jackson, and failed to win his rematch for the title on 24 June episode of SmackDown. On 1 July episode of SmackDown, Barrett was announced to be one of the participants for the SmackDown Money in the Bank match at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, facing Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Kane, Sin Cara, Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes and Sheamus. The match was won by Daniel Bryan, sparking a rivalry between the two. At SummerSlam, Barrett defeated Bryan in a singles match. He then had a short feud with Sheamus, where he lost on three occasions.

In August 2012, WWE aired vignettes promoting Barrett's return, showing Barrett fighting at an underground fight club in an attempt to "reignite the flame". Barrett, with an entirely new look, made his return on 7 September SmackDown, defeating Yoshi Tatsu. He then went on a winning streak, defeating Wrestlers including Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd, and Zack Ryder, among others. His first loss came on 8 October Raw, when he lost a non-title match to World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus via disqualification after Big Show interfered. Barrett suffered his first pinfall loss on 19 October episode of SmackDown, in a Lumberjack match against Sheamus. At Survivor Series, Barrett was part of the winning team of Dolph Ziggler against the team of Mick Foley, where he eliminated Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston before being eliminated by The Miz.

Barrett had a small role in the 2013 crime thriller film Dead Man Down, for which he was required to use a New York accent. In April 2015, it was announced that he would star as "Europe's most dangerous assassin" in a WWE Studios-Richwater Films action thriller film titled Eliminators.

In November 2014, Bennett received a U.S. green card, which entitled him to unconditional permanent residency in the United States for the next 10 years. He is an avid supporter of his home town football team Preston North End FC.

On 6 May, WWE announced that Bennett had been released. Following his release, Bennett stated that since he chose not to sign a new contract with WWE in August 2015, his contract was supposed to end in June 2016, but he and WWE agreed to an earlier parting of ways. Bennett is currently on hiatus from wrestling in order to focus on his acting career, but said he would be "back in the ring when the time is right".

On the 7 March 2016 episode of Raw, Barrett, along with Sheamus and Rusev, competed against Dolph Ziggler in a 3-on-1 handicap elimination match, where Barrett was the only member of his team to be eliminated. At Roadblock, Barrett and Sheamus unsuccessfully challenged The New Day for the WWE Tag Team Championship. On the 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. After the attack, Sheamus issued a challenge to The New Day for a 4-on-3 match at WrestleMania 32. On 17 March episode of Smackdown, Barrett suffered a loss against Kofi Kingston. At WrestleMania, Barrett and his stablemates defeated The New Day. On the 4 April episode of Raw, Barrett and Sheamus challenged the New Day for the tag titles, but lost. After the match, the League of Nations blamed Barrett for being the "weak link" and attacked him, ejecting him from the group. This was his last appearance for WWE.

After almost a year of inactivity, Bennett returned to professional wrestling when he provided commentary for two What Culture Pro Wrestling (WCPW) events: No Regrets on 29 April 2017 and the Mexican qualifiers for the Pro Wrestling World Cup. On 30 September, Bennett was announced as the on-screen general manager of Defiant Wrestling, the rebranded WCPW.