Alex Wright as Berlyn

[Sephiroth]

Looking at in retrospect, Berlyn was kind of the Lord Tensai of the time. It was a character that seemed like it would have had potential (to me at least) but just about everything about it was done wrong from the first time he appeared on TV.
To start with, Wright first appeared as Berlyn just sitting in the audience-I assume WCW intended for audiences to wonder who this strange and mysterious looking character was. Instead Tony Schiavone, as brilliant as ever, spat out that it was Alex Wright instantly. Maybe I am just imagining it, but I could swear I remember Wright actually putting a finger to his lips, as if he was telling Schiavone to shut up. Even worse was that Colombine happened shortly afterward, Berlyn's debut had to be pushed back by several months because of his goth look. When he did debut they gave him a semi-push by having a big entourage, complete with a translator, and put him into a feud with Buff Bagwell-except the translator kept blowing her lines and Bagwell, once again proving what an unprofessional dick he was, no-showed their match. Jim Duggan got sent in as a replacement and in a display of dickisness to equal Bagwell he no-sold everything Wright did. I've honestly never heard an explanation for why Duggan did that. The whole thing was pretty much dead from then on.
I was always a mark for Wright, myself. The guy displayed some amazing skills as cruiswerweight and TV champion. And I've long wished we could see more talented Europeans in North American wrestling. And my proud German heritage just plain made me root for the guy. I actually liked the look of the Berlyn character, and I remember reading an interview where Wright said he chose it because the goth look was really popular in Germany at the time. He also said he created the character because he felt he wouldn't get taken seriously as the dancing Das Wunderkid, and he hoped being Berlyn would get him moved up the card a bit. He wanted to do feuds with Eddie Guerrero, DDP, or even Flair. He even said he proposed the idea of having Berlyn win the US title and rename it the German title-which WCW ended up doing anyway but with Lance Storm. At the time I had a fantasy booking of Berlyn and Vampiro teaming up as a pair of anti-American goths, granted Vampiro is actually Canadnian, but was booked as if he were from Mexico.
And ironically enough, just like Lord Tensai, Alex Wright eventually ended up as part of a dancing jobber tag team (again).

[cabbageboy]

The Berlyn gimmick had some potential and was light years removed from the dancing fool Alex Wright, but you alluded to the problems he had booking wise. The whole Bagwell/Duggan thing just killed him out of the gate, which is ironic since Paul Roma did the same thing to Wright in early 1995 at SuperBrawl (no selling, making him look bad).

Another problem is that Alex Wright just didn't really match this gimmick. I remember someone I knew in college talking about Berlyn, noting that Wright "Took all this time off, but he hasn't gotten in any better shape, isn't more muscular, and if anything looks even paler."

Wright was another guy I'm baffled that WWE didn't try to bring in.

[Sephiroth]

Aug 5, 2013 22:45:55 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

The Berlyn gimmick had some potential and was light years removed from the dancing fool Alex Wright, but you alluded to the problems he had booking wise. The whole Bagwell/Duggan thing just killed him out of the gate, which is ironic since Paul Roma did the same thing to Wright in early 1995 at SuperBrawl (no selling, making him look bad).

Another problem is that Alex Wright just didn't really match this gimmick. I remember someone I knew in college talking about Berlyn, noting that Wright "Took all this time off, but he hasn't gotten in any better shape, isn't more muscular, and if anything looks even paler."

Wright was another guy I'm baffled that WWE didn't try to bring in.

I actually recall reading that WWE couldn't sign him, even if they had wanted to, because he was under contract to Time Warner, not WCW itself. So signing him would probably have meant having to pay Time Warner some settlement, and if Vince wasn't going to do that to get Golberg he certainly wasn't going to do it for Wright.
As for the rest, I really don't think the paleness should be held against him-he was supposed to be a goth and hey, lets remember...he's German. But I can agree that maybe if he'd pumped up and gotten more ripped, maybe even gotten some tattoos, even fake ones, it might have made him less recognizable as the former Dancing Fool. And to be fair, he wasn't quite the same guy in the ring by that point. If I'm not mistaken he'd suffered some neck and knee injuries that kept him from doing the kind of moves he'd done as cruiserweight and tv champ.

[agent817]

I am sure I am not one of the very few who remembers this, but prior to Alex Wright’s character change, we started getting some signs of Berlyn before the gimmick change. In late 1998, he started talking bad about Americans and how they only know one language and that they should go to Germany to, and I quote, “get a good education.” Kayfabe-wise, he had issue with other European wrestlers in WCW like Finlay, British Bulldog and Norman Smiley. I think those were signs that he was going to change his gimmick.

Also, I remember one night on Nitro, Wright was seen in his Berlyn getup in the front row and Tony Schivaone mentioning that it could have been Alex Wright, which I think blew the whole thing in which the audience at home were probably supposed to wonder who that guy was. I think the gimmick debut was supposed to debut around that time but then Columbine happened and the gimmick didn’t debut until Fall Brawl of 1999.

[JTG Fan]

Tony did indeed immediately identify him as Alex Wright, and this first glimpse occured on the 4/19/99 Nitro, literally the night before Columbine.

[cabbageboy]

I didn't know that Wright was under a Time Warner deal and not a WCW deal. That was usually for the top guys. That whole deal can't be underestimated in terms of why the Invasion failed. Too many guys were willing to sit at home and collect their Time Warner paycheck rather than accept the buyout and go to the WWF. Given the way those guys that did go were booked, I can't say I blame them.

[RudoReels.com]

Alex Wright was awesome. Very underrated.

[crowwreak was WRONG]

Aug 6, 2013 13:12:41 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

I didn't know that Wright was under a Time Warner deal and not a WCW deal. That was usually for the top guys. That whole deal can't be underestimated in terms of why the Invasion failed. Too many guys were willing to sit at home and collect their Time Warner paycheck rather than accept the buyout and go to the WWF. Given the way those guys that did go were booked, I can't say I blame them.

I don't think that Vince helped with acquiring anyone by giving DDP (aka the only one to give it a try) 2 bad gimmicks in a row

[kingoftheindies]

I think Wright also had a pretty serious back injury as he pretty much retired in 2003. But yes, he had an AOL contract and was just so burnt out from all the BS that was going on in WCW that he didn't really want to go to WWE when the purchase happened.

[Ben Wyatt]

I might be crazy, but I could swear it was actually Zbysco that outed Wright. I *know* at one point he definatly did , I suppose it could have been after Tony did it

[Banjo Is Broken]

I don't understand. We weren't supposed to know that it was Alex Wright? We would have found out eventually. Cause if the announcers don't admit it, then we have all the smarks doing a Goldust and bringing signs about how Berlyn is Alex Wright and the announcers ignoring it and looking stupid.

[tms]

Aug 6, 2013 13:45:35 GMT -5 RudoReels.com said:

Alex Wright was awesome. Very underrated.

I always thought of him as a more athletic Booker T./Chris Jericho mashup.

[percymania]

If at first you don't succeed, become a dancing jobber.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Alex Wright is one of those names that really should have jumped to the WWF, the backstage environment in WCW was just too chaotic and, not to mention stupid, for a guy like him to get a sustained push. The incidents with Paul Roma, Bagwell and Duggan would never have happened in the WWF, people on their level on the card would have known that if they tried, they would be dumped. I think the WWF would have gotten the Berlyn character over as it was more of a fit with the edgier environment over there, and the company heads would be less likely to freak out over Columbine the way Turner standards and practices did.

[Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster]

I liked Alex Wright as the guy is criminally underrated and all but honestly even if Bagwell or Duggan didn't act like total arseholes and put him over like a million bucks... The Berlyn gimmick was stupid and doomed to fail so at least WCW realized that and ditched it as soon as possible.

[Viking Hall]

I can only just recall seeing Berlyn on TV, beyond thinking he looked cool he didn't really register much, mainly due to the fact that we didn't get much WCW broadcast in the UK towards the end as far as I know. However, looking at this picture, a Berlyn led cult/group would have been one of the coolest looking factions of that time if you ask me. I'm not really sure how you would have presented them, but a generic cold and ruthlessly efficient German vibe would have gone down well I think. WWE don't appear to be fans, Alex Wright as both himself and Berlyn is listed as one of WCW's most forgettable competitors on their site.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Aug 7, 2013 5:47:59 GMT -5 Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster said:

I liked Alex Wright as the guy is criminally underrated and all but honestly even if Bagwell or Duggan didn't act like total arseholes and put him over like a million bucks... The Berlyn gimmick was stupid and doomed to fail so at least WCW realized that and ditched it as soon as possible.

People keep saying the Berlyn gimmick was stupid but I don't see how. It's a pretty standard heel gimmick really, Berlyn was Alex Wright deciding that since American didn't embrace him, he was no longer going to embrace it, refusing to try and appeal to the fans anymore or even speaking the language, he changed his look from a smiling babyface to one that featured the look from the industrial scene that was bec0oming more popular around that time, thanks to German bands like Rammstein. It worked for Bret Hart, it also worked for Lance Storm so it could have gotten over had they not freaked out over Columbine and kicked him off TV, and, you know, put him in feuds with people that were over and willing to help him get over too.

[Sephiroth]

I also recall an interview where Wright summed it by saying that at the time if you weren't involved in the NWO storyline in some way then you really didn't have much chance of getting over. Kind of sums up WCW in those days.

[Ben Wyatt]

Aug 6, 2013 13:45:35 GMT -5 RudoReels.com said:

Alex Wright was awesome. Very underrated.

Agreed. One of those guys who should have been a bigger deal than he was.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

Aug 7, 2013 9:23:02 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Aug 6, 2013 13:45:35 GMT -5 RudoReels.com said:

Alex Wright was awesome. Very underrated.

Agreed. One of those guys who should have been a bigger deal than he was.

Absolutely. I just wanted to repeat what I often have said and that is that if success in wrestling depended on nothing but ability then AlexWright would be multi-time WWE Champion.