Alex Wright on Life After WCW, His German Wrestling School and the Dancing

Fred: I’m joined today by former WCW star Alex Wright. Alex, how are you doing, sir?

Alex Wright: Very good. Thanks for having me on.

Fred: A lot of people have been wondering what you’ve been doing since WCW. It sounds like you’re pretty successful in Germany.

Alex Wright: That’s true. After I moved back to my home country, I opened a wrestling school, the Wright Stuff, and it’s running pretty good. I have about 200 students now, and I’m booked for months. That was always my second dream. My first dream was to follow in my father’s footsteps, become a pro wrestler and go to the States, which I did. My second dream was always to make sure pro wrestling survives in Germany. I wanted to feature and train young, upcoming talents, and I started that in 2006. In 2009, I opened my own pro wrestling promotion, New European Championship Wrestling, and right now we’re the most-producing promotion in sports entertainment in Germany.

Fred: Congratulations. I’m sure you help the young students quite a bit, given that you’re a second-generation star who went through all the pressure of being a pro wrestler in the States for WCW, at one time the most profitable wrestling company in the world.

Alex Wright: I know what the big companies are looking for, the total package, and I know how hard you have to train to even get a chance at one of those companies. For example, my students do a thousand squats, a thousand push-ups and a thousand crunches as a warmup, and then they start training. They all have to be in shape. I want to use my professional experience over the years to give my students the best chance to get to the top, to WWE or TNA or wherever. They don’t just learn one style of wrestling. They learn the Mexican, European, American and Japanese styles, how to do interviews and how to perform in the ring, everything. I really put my heart into all my students.

Fred: How is the wrestling scene in Germany right now? Is it booming, at a status quo or going down?

Alex Wright: It’s climbing up again, and it’s getting really good. We have a lot of promotions over here, the interest is getting bigger and bigger, there’s a good fan base, and the media attention is growing, so I’m looking forward to the next couple of years.

Fred: You were with WCW until the very end, the bitter end, when Vince McMahon and WWE bought it for essentially a bargain. Was your mind already set on opening a school and starting your own promotion before WCW closed, when you saw the writing on the wall, or did you decide after you couldn’t wrestle in the U.S. anymore?

Alex Wright: I always had that second dream, but it wasn’t right at the point when WCW closed down. When it was bought, I was still young, 28 or so, with a lot of years to go. But I started with WCW when I was about 18. At the time, I was the youngest wrestler in the States and one of the youngest worldwide. My first professional match over here was at age 16, and I was with WCW for all my contract time. Sometimes I was scheduled to work 300 days a year, and I was really physically and mentally beat. I really needed a break for my body and my mind, especially toward the end, when the backstage morale went down, with all the backstage politics. I thought it might be good timing to go back to my roots, get a little distance from the active side of the sport and find myself again.

I probably would have had a chance to go to WWE, because they contacted me twice. But when I sign a contract, I want to give 180 percent, and if I can’t, it’s not fair to the promotion, the fans or myself. So I said, “Thank you very much, but it’s not the right time,” and I decided to pursue my second dream in Germany, because I love wrestling. I grew up with the sport. My dad wrestled for 26 years all over the world, my uncle wrestled internationally for many years, and my father’s stepfather had a wrestling school, a gym and a promotion and was a wrestler, too. I come from one of the few European wrestling families. It’s in my blood, so it was the next logical step for me.

Fred: That’s awfully commendable, being that honest with yourself. A lot of people would gladly have taken Vince’s money, and in the long run it seems to have worked out for you. Look at how some of the guys who went from WCW to WWE ended up in the Invasion.

Alex Wright: Like I said, I always want to give 180 percent, and I’m a very loyal person. That’s why I never left WCW. I’m very thankful for the time I had in the States. I really miss the States. Maybe two or three times a month, I really miss being active in the ring, because I’m still young. A lot of wrestlers my age are still active. But I’ve built so much over here. I have the top promotion in Germany, with shows every month, a lot of wrestlers under contract with storylines and the only fully equipped wrestling hall in Germany, which is really unique in German-speaking countries. I really want to bring the sport to the top over here, so I just can’t leave. I always get offers from a lot of promoters, and I’d really like to, but my schedule won’t let me. Maybe one day I’ll come back to the ring in the States. I love the country and the people. It was the best time of my life.

Fred: When I told our subscribers I was interviewing Alex Wright, everybody said, “Wow, what’s he doing these days? I loved Alex Wright.” Back then, whether it was a main eventer or a midcard guy who had standout matches like yourself, the characters seemed so much more memorable than today. No disrespect to guys like Kofi Kingston, but it seems like everybody back then had at least a pretty big fan base. Is it the booking?

Alex Wright: In my opinion, it’s not the booking, and it’s not the athletes. They’re great athletes, really top. The thing is, they all look the same. There are no edges. I did the dancing, and that’s the first thing spectators remember. I really didn’t like the dancing, but it made me famous really quickly, and it gave me an edge. People liked me or didn’t like me, and I stayed in their memory, like if you had a nasty voice or something. The characters were more individual. Nowadays, you mostly just have short trunks and a great body like a bodybuilder, so for spectators, there’s not really a big difference between the wrestlers. I think that’s one of the problems.

Fred: You mentioned the dancing, which is what you’re famous for, and you said you didn’t like it much. Are you a dancer in real life, or the complete opposite of that character?

Alex Wright: Of course, to get the girls, but not in the ring. Wrestling is sports entertainment, and you need to be a great wrestler and a great entertainer, so on that side it was good. It helped me get famous really quickly, and I had a lot of fans, like the girls, the grandmas and the kiddies. But the guys and the hardcore fans hated me. I never got the chance to have certain groups of spectators look behind the dancing at my wrestling abilities. As a second-generation wrestler, I really like the sport, being an athlete and showing techniques and chain wrestling. Being taken seriously was a hard time for me.

Fred: You were well on your way to becoming one of the best workers in the business. I was reading an old back issue of the Wrestling Observer, and to paraphrase Dave Meltzer, around 1995 or ’96 he wrote that Alex Wright would one day be one of the best workers in the business. You had a very nice career in WCW, but for whatever reason, they never took you to the next level. Was it the dancing, politics or a bit of both?

Alex Wright: Maybe to a certain percentage it was because of the dancing, but that has to do with the office. If the office had really wanted to push me, they could have pushed me. If I’d been in WWE at that time and they wanted to, they would have pushed me. It always has to do with the office. If the office is really strong, with a hard line, every wrestler will do what the office says. So to a certain percentage, the dancing made it harder, but like always, it’s backstage politics.

Fred: How did you maintain your sanity in WCW under so many regimes, from Eric Bischoff to Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo to Vince Russo and the later years before they were bought out?

Alex Wright: Backstage morale was a lot of times not very good, but I also have to say a lot of times it was very good. Toward the end, it was really bad. I mostly kept to myself and did my job as best I could. I was loyal, I was always on time, and I always did what they asked. I was never a group guy. I got along with everybody, and I never talked bad about anybody or about the business, because I have to be very thankful for what the business and WCW gave me.

Fred: We often hear about the bad times and low morale in WCW. When was the best time to be part of WCW? I’m assuming ’97 or ’98, at the peak.

Alex Wright: Not really. Actually, ’95, ’96 and ’97, because I was there when they went from Saturday Night to Nitro, from one hour to two hours to three hours. You saw everything growing and getting better and better. The company looked really good, you really liked working there, and WCW was the No. 1 wrestling company in the States for a time. At the peak, it got really hard, because at one point there were too many wrestlers under contract. When I started with WCW, there were about 25 guys under contract, and at the end there were about 250. That’s just too much, with too many heavyweights, not physically, but in backstage politics, and that made it really hard for the office to function.

Fred: Some younger fans might not realize there were guys under contract who never even debuted on TV and were paid for the duration of their deals.

Alex Wright: A lot of companies do that. They put a hold on a guy so the other company doesn’t get him. Of course, for the guys who had to work a 300-day schedule, and sometimes I had seven matches a night, it’s hard, but I love the sport, and being in the ring is what I always wanted to do. You can always look to the other side and say it’s better, but then you’ll never be satisfied.

Fred: Were you one of the 500 people offered a spot in the nWo during your WCW career?

Alex Wright: No. They didn’t. That was still around the time I was doing the dancing.

Fred: You stopped dancing for a short period, and they repackaged you as Berlyn. When they gave you the idea for that gimmick, what was your first reaction?

Alex Wright: When I stopped the dancing, I first went from the good Alex Wright to the bad Alex Wright, and then, after my very bad injury, they changed it to Berlyn. It actually wasn’t only their idea. It was a working process between the office, me, Diamond Dallas Page and Dusty Rhodes, because I wanted to get away from that pretty-boy image. I really hated it. I actually enjoyed Berlyn, and I was starting to lose my hair anyway, so it was pretty good to get a mohawk.

Fred: Disco Inferno, your most famous tag team partner, I had the pleasure of interviewing a couple of months back. I don’t know if he was joking, but when I asked about a Boogie Nights reunion, he said, “If Alex Wright wants to fly me to Germany, I’ll go, but then he’d lose his business,” because Alex runs a school with 200 students, “and I’m the one who taught him everything he knows.” So let’s set the record straight.

Alex Wright: I really like the guy. I had so many fun times on the road with him, and he’s a great guy. If I ever have the chance to bring him over, I definitely will.

Fred: Has he always been that funny?

Alex Wright: Yes. Sometimes he doesn’t know when to stop, and then he gets in trouble. That happened a lot of times backstage.

Fred: When you were younger and trying to be a more serious character, were you opposed to teaming with Disco Inferno? When they told you you’d be the dancing fools, did you think it was a great opportunity, or “Oh God, more dancing”?

Alex Wright: Since I came from overseas originally, I didn’t know who was on the indie scene over there, and I didn’t know Disco was a veteran when he teamed with me. I was there from ’95 and worked my way up to the permanent roster, so to me he was just a new guy. I didn’t follow the indie scene or even really follow WCW storylines. I just wanted to step in the ring, do what I do, enjoy it in front of a crowd and live the life of a wrestler. It didn’t matter if I stepped in with Disco or with Eddie, because I always wanted to have a good match. Of course, when I was in with a veteran like Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Arn Anderson or Regal, it was a great moment in my career, and I tried to learn as much as I could.

Fred: You had a lot of good matches, and Eugene asks: “Who is your favorite opponent?”

Alex Wright: That’s a really hard question. There were so many great wrestlers I really enjoyed working with. Ric Flair was great, Arn Anderson was really great, and so were Bobby Eaton, Pillman, Eddie Guerrero, Chavo, Rey, Jericho and Malenko. To pick out one would not be fair.

Fred: As WCW was starting to fall apart backstage and financially, did you ever look around and wonder how they could waste so much great talent?

Alex Wright: Of course, and not just one time. There was really great potential in the locker room. But it’s not easy to run a company. I see it myself these last few years. There are a lot of aspects I didn’t know about as a wrestler that I know now. It’s really tough to promote and have everything under control, so I can see a little bit why the WCW office had so many problems.

Fred: You stepped away from active competition relatively young, and you’re doing very well. When you look back at some of the guys you worked with who have had problems or unfortunately are no longer with us, do you feel lucky to have avoided some of the pitfalls of the business?

Alex Wright: Of course. I feel like a survivor sometimes, because so many of my colleagues aren’t with us anymore, and I’m at the age when a lot of those guys left. I’m very thankful that I’m still here and still involved in the business. By the way, I never officially retired. It’s just a very, very long break right now.

Fred: Somebody’s going to have to edit your Wikipedia page. I think it says you retired in 2002 or 2003.

Alex Wright: I don’t step in the ring, but I never said, “OK, that’s my last match.” I still have the desire. I still feel the need to step in the ring. I miss being on the road with the guys, having a good time and being in front of a crowd. Maybe if my companies over here can run without me, I might step back in the ring.

Fred: Do you think coming from a pro wrestling family helped you stay on track and survive?

Alex Wright: Of course I had luck that my dad was a very good pro wrestler, because he trained me, and I got everything I know from him. That’s why I could take the chance in WCW and stay there. For people without a family background in wrestling, it’s pretty tough to handle the fame and all that stuff. I was used to it from being in public and on the road with my dad, and I was even used to the backstage politics, which are everywhere. If somebody has only watched wrestling on TV and suddenly he’s on TV, he’s famous, he gets a lot of money and he can do whatever he wants, it’s pretty hard to stay grounded and not drift into drugs and stuff like that.

Fred: It’s great to see you doing well. Where can fans find more information about you, your promotion and your school?

Alex Wright: My promotion, New European Championship Wrestling, and my pro wrestling school both have websites with all the information about training, and we’re on Facebook and YouTube. Just punch in New European Championship Wrestling, and you’ll find all the videos, promos and matches.

Fred: One last question from a viewer that’s appropriate to end on: What’s one piece of advice you’d give somebody who wants to become a professional wrestler?

Alex Wright: Always believe in your dream and always work hard for it. Be prepared to do everything it takes to follow your dream, and never let anybody tell you that you have no chance, because everybody has a chance. Train hard, listen, always be humble, never get a big head and try to learn from other people’s mistakes.

Fred: Alex, it was a pleasure to watch you wrestle back in the day, and it was a pleasure to talk to you today.

Alex Wright: Thank you very much. You have a good day.