- Early days
Alex Wright is known for his distinctive pre-match dancing as well as his technical in-ring ability that would ultimately lead him to WCW championship gold. Alex was trained by his father Steve Wright, a British professional wrestler. Alex Wright wrestled his 1st match back in 1991 in Germany when he was only 16 years old. He wrestled in his hometown during his early career and also worked in Japan.
- WCW (Das Wunderkind)
Wright was discovered by WCW in mid-1994 during a German tour of WCW. He then signed a contract with WCW and trained there in WCW Power Plant (WCW academy). He originally wrestled as a face and was known as "Das Wunderkind" (The Wonder Kid) Alex Wright. His first feud was with Jean-Paul Levesque (Triple H), whom he defeated at Starrcade 1994, in both men's pay-per-view debut.
In his early career, Wright remained undefeated against several WCW superstars before losing to then World Television Champion Arn Anderson at Slamboree 1995 for the championship. Due to WCW's partnership with NJPW, Wright was sent to Japan to take part in NJPW's Best of the Super Juniors Tournament and finished 3rd in the tournament. After he return to America, Wright eneounters with upcoming WCW stars such as Brian Pillman, Diamond Dellas Page, Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko.
At World War 3 1995, Wright took part in the first ever 3-ring 60-man battle royal for the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship, which Randy Savage won. At Starrcade 1995, WCW wrestlers faced NJPW wrestlers in a World Cup of Wrestling. Wright represented WCW against NJPW's Koji Kanemoto (for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship but WCW never announced it such) but ended up losing the bout. At World War 3 1996, Wright participated in yet another 60-man battle royal, with the winner getting a shot at the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. However, the battle royal was won by The Giant (Big Show).
- WCW (Heel turn)
Wright was pushed as a heel in the summer of 1997. On July 28 edition of Nitro, he defeated Chris Jericho to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. Wright began a feud with Jericho at the point. He made a successful title defense against Jericho at Road Wild 1997 but lost the title back to Jericho on August 16 edition of Saturday Night.
However, five days later, he defeated Ultimo Dragon at of Clash of the Champions 1997 to win the WCW World Television Championship. Wright started dancing during his entrance to mock his arch-dancing-nemesis at the time, Disco Inferno. At Fall Brawl 1997, Wright successfully defended his WCW World Televison title in a rematch against Ultimo Dragon but eventually lost the title to rival Disco Inferno on September 22 edition of Nitro.
- WCW (Dancing Fools)
Wright would then patched things up and paired with former rival, Disco Inferno in 1998 to form a moderately successful tag team called the Dancing Fools, which at times also featured Japanese wrestler Tokyo Magnum in the role of a tag-a-long who regularly attempted to imitate their dancing styles.
After a brief feud with The Public Enemy, Wright began to claim that he was the best WCW wrestler to come out of Europe. British Bulldog however, disputed Wright's proclamation. Wright and Inferno began a feud with Bulldog and Jim Neidhart and at Fall Brawl 1998 but the duo lost to Bulldog and Neidhart. After suffering losses, Wright and Inferno split and began singles careers again.
Wright feuded with another European wrestler, Fit Finlay. Wright blamed Finlay for ending his father's career and he managed to take his father's revenge from Finlay by beating him at Halloween Havoc 1998.
- WCW (Berlyn)
At the beginning of 1999, Wright was kept off WCW television for an extended length of time until May, when promotional spots began appearing on WCW television featuring Wright as a surprising new Rivethead-style character named Berlyn, with a black Mohawk and goatee replacing his blond hair and movie-star looks. He was clad entirely in black with a long trench coat and arrogantly refused to speak English.
The promos coincided with the aftermath of the Columbine school massacre, which threw a hitch in WCW's plans. Sensing the unintentional similarities in dress between Berlyn and the teenage killers, WCW delayed the debut of Berlyn for several months. Despite the shock value upon his debut, Berlyn never really got over with fans.
This was due in part to his debut match in which he was booked to defeat Buff Bagwell, but Bagwell had refused to lose to Wright and even going as so far to miss a flight in order to avoid having to. Jim Duggan substituted for Bagwell, at Fall Brawl 1999 who then no-sold all of Wright's offense and threw him around like a ragdoll even though Wright picked up the win in the end. Although Berlyn went over Bagwell in the end and defeated him the next night on Nitro, irreparable damage had already been done to the character. WCW would then push The Wall, the bodyguard Berlyn hired, leaving Wright to flounder in the midcard. After a few feuds with Vampiro and The Wall, Wright disappeared from WCW television again.
- WCW (Boogie Knights)
After some time off from wrestling, Wright returned to wrestling on September 27, 2000 edition of Thunder with a bald head during a match between former partner Disco Inferno and Konnan. Wright helped Disqo in getting the victory and the duo reunited as the Boogie Knights.
Boogie Knights began a feud with Filthy Animals, while they also feuded with Natural Born Thrillers, who were the WCW World Tag Team Champions at the time. At Halloween Havoc 2000, the 3 teams participated in a Triangle match but Natural Born Thrillers eventually won the match.
On Millennium Germany on November 16,2000, Boogie Knights were scheduled to take on Natural Born Thrillers in a match for the titles but Disco was sidelined with an injury, so General Rection substituted for him and the duo successfully captured the WCW World Tag Team Championship. However 4 days later, on Nitro, Wright and another substitute Elix Skipper lost the titles to Chuck Palumbo and Shawn Stasiak.
Wright started an angle where he kept KroniK (Brian Adams and Bryan Clark) as his bodyguards to squash other cruiserweights. At Mayhem 2000, Wright and KroniK faced Billy Kidman and Rey Misterio . in a 3-on-2 handicap match. KroniK then betrayed Wright by leaving the match and abandoning Wright which lead to their loss. Disco eventually returned from injury and the Boogie Knights gimmick lasted until WCW was purchased by WWF in April 2001.
- Now
Wright fell out of the spotlight after the folding of WCW, and has not appeared on American television since then. In the years following Wright has stayed away from active competition, only wrestling on rare occasions in Germany. Through out his 7 years of active wrestling career in WCW, Wright was a 1-time WCW Cruiserweight Champion, 1-time WCW Television Champion and a 1-time WCW Tag Team Champion.
Today Alex Wright is working as a banker and fitness instructor in Nuremberg, in addition to opening a school called "The Wright Stuff" in Germany.
Links:
1) Das Wunderkind vs. Jean-Paul Levesque (Starrcade 1994)
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/alex%2Bwright/video/x2q66a_alex-wright-vs-jeanpaul-levesque-hh_sport (Thanks to Stinger1981)
2) Alex Wright vs. Lord Steven Regal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtC8mbicFXc (Thanks to TestingPACV2)
3) Dancing Fools vs. nWo Japan (Masahiro Chono & Great Muta)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQD-Ak1jWAI (Thanks to MarshmallowHedgehog)
4) Berlyn vs. Buff Bagwell
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/berlyn/video/x6vzv7_buff-bagwell-vs-berlyn_sport (Thanks to Singer1981)
5) Boogie Knights vs. Air Raid (AJ Styles and Air Paris)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zedJYPlkoRk (Thansk to WrestlingPolishFan)
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