Post by Sephiroth on Jan 28, 2010 23:02:31 GMT -5
I can't remember if this one was ever inducted or not. But I have to say I was rather let down by this one, because I thought it had potential. I was a fan of Alex Wright, and not because of his "das wunderkid" dance. He was a genuinely talented performer with a lot of potential. Sadly, after he suffered that neck injury he was just not the same man in the ring. And when he came back as Berlyn, it was an attempt to relaunch his career, and it ultimately failed miserably. And the part that I think was the worst was that so many of the things that killed the character were completely out of Wright's ability to control.
As I recall hearing, he thought the character up because he decided that as the dancing wunderkid, he would be stuck as a mid-carder and jobber. He thought the Berlyn character would be taken more seriously and would move up the ladder into the upper card a bit. I read that he tried to pitch the idea for the character to win the US title and rename it the German title, and that he wanted feuds with DDP, Flair, and Eddie Guerrero. But instead the character was plagued by blunders and mishaps from day one.
To start with, he was set to debut in the early summer as I recall. He showed up at a couple of shows sitting in the audience. The announcers would start to wonder who this weird looking guy was, but then Tony Schiavone-ever the brain trust himself-spat out that it was Alex Wright on the air. I remember Wright putting a finger on his lips like he was shushing Schiavone. Then the tragedy of Colombine occurred, and the goth elements of the character made WCW decide to push his debut back a bit. And then once he did debut, he had an airhead "translator" who would forget her lines. I remember reading an interview where Wright outright said sometimes when he leaned over to whisper in her ear that he tried to make it look like he was telling her what to say, when in reality he was reminding her of her lines.
And then came the infamous Duggan match. He was supposed to face Buff Bagwell, but Bagwell decided to be a grade A jerk and no showed. They sent Duggan in as a replacement, and Duggan no sold every single thing Berlyn did. You could just hear the whole thing come screeching to a halt then. After that he just had some go-nowhere matches, including a loss to Brad Armstrong of all people. After that they killed the character off and Wright eventually redebuted as a dancing wunderkid again.
It was sad. The gimmick had potential. He had a unique look, and the evil foreign bad guy character almost always gets some heat. And even after all the intial problems, if not for that match with Duggan he might have been able to salvage something out of it. Wright was a good performer and I feel deserved more than he got.
As I recall hearing, he thought the character up because he decided that as the dancing wunderkid, he would be stuck as a mid-carder and jobber. He thought the Berlyn character would be taken more seriously and would move up the ladder into the upper card a bit. I read that he tried to pitch the idea for the character to win the US title and rename it the German title, and that he wanted feuds with DDP, Flair, and Eddie Guerrero. But instead the character was plagued by blunders and mishaps from day one.
To start with, he was set to debut in the early summer as I recall. He showed up at a couple of shows sitting in the audience. The announcers would start to wonder who this weird looking guy was, but then Tony Schiavone-ever the brain trust himself-spat out that it was Alex Wright on the air. I remember Wright putting a finger on his lips like he was shushing Schiavone. Then the tragedy of Colombine occurred, and the goth elements of the character made WCW decide to push his debut back a bit. And then once he did debut, he had an airhead "translator" who would forget her lines. I remember reading an interview where Wright outright said sometimes when he leaned over to whisper in her ear that he tried to make it look like he was telling her what to say, when in reality he was reminding her of her lines.
And then came the infamous Duggan match. He was supposed to face Buff Bagwell, but Bagwell decided to be a grade A jerk and no showed. They sent Duggan in as a replacement, and Duggan no sold every single thing Berlyn did. You could just hear the whole thing come screeching to a halt then. After that he just had some go-nowhere matches, including a loss to Brad Armstrong of all people. After that they killed the character off and Wright eventually redebuted as a dancing wunderkid again.
It was sad. The gimmick had potential. He had a unique look, and the evil foreign bad guy character almost always gets some heat. And even after all the intial problems, if not for that match with Duggan he might have been able to salvage something out of it. Wright was a good performer and I feel deserved more than he got.