Big news coming out of last night's (free) episode of Wrestling Observer Radio at F4WOnline.com: The work visas of both Drew McIntyre (written out using the real reason as the storyline reason) and Wade Barrett (said to be meeting with WWE higher ups to discuss why Nexus attacked Vince McMahon) have expired, and it's not clear why, as WWE is usually very careful with these matters. McIntyre presumably has United States Permanent Resident Card (commonly known as a green card) application pending since he recently married an American (fellow WWE performer Tiffany), but who knows how long that will take?
Jason Powell at ProWrestling.net has more details:
Both wrestlers are sidelined indefinitely.
"(This) is a bad oversight that you can't blame legal for as they can do only so much once they're told a visa is set to expire," says one former WWE employee. "It is a key responsibility of Talent Relations to keep tabs on all contracts and particulars pertaining to talent being in good legal standing in any which way."
Meanwhile, a second source stated the opinion that it's not a major problem in that Barrett and McIntyre simply had to return home to fill out the necessary paperwork. This source noted that someone from the legal department works with talent relations on these issues.
Generally speaking, when WWE wrestlers had visa issues in the past, like with Steve "D.J. Gabriel" Lewington, they were in developmental and fired until they got new visas. McIntyre, Barrett, and WWE Champion Sheamus were signed at the same time, so it's a little curious that Sheamus is still around and on top. Was WWE more on top of his status? Does he have a green card?