13 Things Fans Forget About WCW Wrestler Alex Wright

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For North American wrestling fans, Alex Wright’s career basically amounted to his meager 7 years in World Championship Wrestling, during which he went from vanilla babyface to dancing heel to being repackaged as the Eurotrash villain Berlyn before returning to his Boogie Knights tag team with Disco Inferno. In addition to some forgotten details about Wright’s storied time in WCW, there are a few more aspects of Alex Wright’s entire pro wrestling career worth knowing about, including his time in Japan and his pedigree in the sport. Many fans are likely completely unaware of the latter two, so let’s take a look at these underexposed parts of Alex Wright.

Alex Wright signed to WCW in the '90s with a lot of hype and expectations. Wright looked great and had the youthful athleticism promotions looked for at the time. WCW witnessed Wright spending many years on the roster primarily in the lower mid-card picture trying to break out.

Most fans of the time have at least a handful of memories, from Wright’s better in-ring performances to his humorous dancing skills before and during matches. Each step of his career featured him trying to reach those early expectations with mixed results. The following tidbits will provide more insight into the wrestling career of Wright all these years later.

UPDATE: 2022/09/21 15:01 EST BY Danny Djeljosevic

For North American wrestling fans, Alex Wright’s career basically amounted to his meager 7 years in World Championship Wrestling, during which he went from vanilla babyface to dancing heel to being repackaged as the Eurotrash villain Berlyn before returning to his Boogie Knights tag team with Disco Inferno. In addition to some forgotten details about Wright’s storied time in WCW, there are a few more aspects of Alex Wright’s entire pro wrestling career worth knowing about, including his time in Japan and his pedigree in the sport. Many fans are likely completely unaware of the latter two, so let’s take a look at these underexposed parts of Alex Wright.

13 A Second Generation Talent

Alex Wright's father, Steve Wright, taking on Tiger Mask in Japan

European wrestling can be a blind spot for many fans, so it’s understandable that anyone is completely unaware that Alex Wright was trained by his father, who was a wrestler himself. With a career lasting from 1969 to 1999, British technical wrestler Steve Wright sometimes wrestled under the ring name Bull Blitzer and performed for CMLL in his early years followed by New Japan Pro-Wrestling in the 1970s and early 1980s, where he put on a great little hidden gem of a bout against the original Tiger Mask. The elder Wright’s battles with Fit Finlay would come into play in WCW as Alex Wright and Finlay got into a feud in fall of 1998.

12 WCW Signed Him During Germany Tour

WCW discovered Alex Wright during one of their international tours that came in 1994. Germany was the place where WCW was scouting talent during the trip and Wright stood out as the name they instantly wanted to sign to a deal.

WWE still does this often when having their annual tours by opening the tryouts or scouting to talents that work in the area. Wright had a good look and the young age to check the boxes as a bright prospect for WCW moving forward.

11 Wrestled In New Japan’s Best Of The Super Juniors Tournament

In the summer of 1995, Alex Wright followed in his father’s footsteps by competing in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. During this two-month tour, Wright got a huge spotlight when he competed in that year’s Best of the Super Juniors round-robin tournament, the second ever to use that name as it had been previously called the Top of the Super Juniors.

With a 10-man field that included Brian Pillman and Dean Malenko, Wright finished the tournament with eight points and victories over Pillman, Norio Honaga, El Samurai, and Gran Hamada.

10 Managed By Future WWE Diva Debra

Fans likely remember Debra McMichael for her association with her husband at the time, Steve “Mongo” McMichael, as well as her run in WWE during the Attitude Era. But in WCW, she ended up ditching Mongo for Goldberg, after which she associated herself with Wright, who at the time was still developing as a character, having started as a generic babyface cruiserweight. However, Alex Wright and Debra’s time together would last about a month or so, with Wright walking out his valet/manager following some botched interference during his match with Prince Iaukea.

9 Won Three Different Titles In WCW

Alex Wright’s WCW career is not remembered too fondly since he never reached an upper card spot. However, he was good enough to multiple stints holding titles in various divisions throughout the lengthy stint.

Wright won the Cruiserweight Championship during his short time in the division and the TV Championship during a mid-card push. The third title reign saw the comedy team of Wright and Disco Inferno becoming WCW Tag Team Champions.

8 First Feud Was With Triple H

The early start of Alex Wright’s WCW career came around the same time of Triple H’s debut as Jean-Paul Levesque. Both young wrestlers hoped to become cornerstones of the company’s future and received a strong first PPV match.

Starrcade 1994 was still the biggest event of the year for WCW when Wright defeated Levesque in the second match of the night. Triple H had good chemistry with Wright for one of his rare strong WCW matches before leaving for WWE.

7 Trained At Power Plant

The WCW Power Plant was a smaller and earlier version of what WWE wanted from the Performance Center. Talents joining the WCW roster or being considered for a deal would spend time learning at the glorified wrestling school.

Various wrestlers from WCW would train them when rehabbing an injury or just wanting to practice new things. Wright was sent there by WCW management after signing him to a deal in Germany and requiring more seasoning before a television debut.

6 Paul Roma Received Heat For Not Trying Make Him Look Good

WCW was not shy about their plan to push Alex Wright into a top spot. Most of the early matches of Wright were used to showcase him with the opponent having to do more selling and making Wright look like a top talent.

Paul Roma already had a bad reputation in WCW after flopping in the Four Horsemen when placed with Wright. The reports of the time indicated that Roma received more heat for going against orders for his match with Wright by dominating on offense. WCW used Roma in a smaller role afterwards until his eventual release.

5 Berlyn Character Was Axed By Network

WCW tried to drastically change the name, look and presentation of Alex Wright in 1999 when pivoting to the Berlyn character. The company was already declining fast and hoped that some fresh blood would change the momentum.

Berlyn turned into a huge failure when comparisons were made between his character’s promos and the Columbine school shooting tragedy. Turner executives started to make their voices heard during WCW’s downfall, with the displeasure for Berlyn being one of the reasons it ended. Dustin Rhodes’ new Seven character suffered the same fate for controversial vignettes.

4 Arn Anderson Ended His Winning Streak

The first eight months of Alex Wright’s time on WCW television featured him going unpinned to keep his momentum. WCW wanted Wright to come off as an important wrestler and noteworthy rising star with his first few programs.

Wright finally suffered a loss in his feud with Arn Anderson for the TV Championship. Slamboree 1995 featured Wright getting pinned by Anderson to keep his title reign going strong. Anderson was among the most credible WCW wrestlers, so it didn’t hurt Wright that much to end his winning streak.

3 Shaved Head For Nothing With Berlyn Gimmick

The biggest change for the Berlyn character was Alex Wright sporting a black mohawk when shaving off the rest of his hair. Berlyn was meant to give him a new gimmick for the next few years thus ending the pretty boy look for his dancing gimmick.

WCW quickly went back to his old character when ending the Berlyn experiment. Wright shaved off the remaining hair of the mohawk and started the dancing gimmick with Disco Inferno again. The old act with the new look just came off strange and showed that he changed his look for nothing.

2 Was A Guest Trainer At WWE Performance Center

The WWE Performance Center has become a huge part of the company’s plans of how to develop talent. Various coaches and former wrestlers work there daily with the young stars looking to find a way to get over.

Alex Wright was one of the veterans to spend a short time at the Performance Center in a guest coach role. WWE has brought in various talents from many different backgrounds to provide depth for the students to learn from. Wright spoke about enjoying his time at the PC, but he didn’t become a full-time coach.

1 Ric Flair Felt He Was The Next Main Event Star

The backstage influence of Ric Flair grew when Alex Wright made his debut with a noteworthy push. Various wrestlers have shared stories throughout the years about Flair viewing Wright as the next major star for the promotion.

Other important minds felt the same, but Flair’s word was more valued than most. WCW pushed Wright as a face until realizing the act wasn’t getting over. Flair lost faith in the backstage creative side of things and saw his influence slipping away during this time.