William Regal On His Role In WCW Signing Alex Wright, Eric Bischoff Almost Firing Wright

On a recent episode of the Gentleman Villain podcast, the original rogue William Regal discussed his role in getting the young “Das Wünderkind” Alex Wright hired to WCW. You can see highlights from the conversation below:

On Alex’s dad, European wrestler Steve Wright: “I knew his dad. His dad was a very famous European wrestler, Steve Wright. Steve Wright was the first person to be taught by an old wrestler and incredible trainer called Ted Bentley; Ted Bentley went on to train Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith, Johnny Smith. Steve Wright was his original protege, as far as I know. Everybody knew there was a big connection with Steve and Ted Bentley.”

On WCW looking to hire a German star in the early nineties: “In ’93, Germany had WCW TV on. They wanted a German star. They said to me, do you know anybody from Germany? And they mentioned one name and I went … all right. This fellow was in his forties. I didn’t say anything, but he has a bit of hard work. There wasn’t too many German wrestlers at the time. He was a huge, big German. And I knew the only person who’d end up wrestling him would be muggins here [me]. Does that make sense? Cause I knew him and I’d wrestled him before.”

On suggesting Alex Wright instead of the other performer: “I didn’t say anything [about this other wrestler], but I said there’s this young lad. He hasn’t done a lot, he hasn’t had many matches, but let’s have a look at him. He’s young, he’s gonna fit right in, he’s good-looking.”

On Ric Flair loving Alex: “So when we were in Germany, Steve Wright brings Alex along. As far as I know, Alex had only had a couple of matches. One against [Fit] Finlay, one against Pierre Carl-Ouelette. Next thing, Ric Flair sees him — I could have all this a little bit jumbled up — [Ric] loves him, Alex is in America.”

On Eric Bischoff being negative on Alex: “I can also tell you another story about Alex. Because of his style, he wasn’t fitting in very well. We were in Chicago one night, and Eric [Bischoff] was a bit down on [Alex] because he wasn’t fitting in very well. His style was different. This is absolute truth: Ric Flair was the booker at the time. Ric loved him, saw the potential in him. Knew the young ladies looked at him like that.

On asking to work a dark match with Alex: “When we got to TV, I said to Eric can I have a dark match with Alex, please? Eric might remember this different. I remember this crystal. His dad was a big thing to me, and his dad was very helpful to me. I had a dark match in Center Stage with Alex. Well, I knew all of ALex’s dad’s stuff. And I knew Alex knew all of Alex’s dad’s stuff. I went out there with Alex and did all of his dad’s stuff, Alex did all of his dad’s stuff.”

On the match changing Bischoff’s mind: “As soon as we walked through the curtain, Eric Bischoff thought Alex was the greatest thing in the world. I flew all over for Alex and did all this stuff and that was it, that’s what kept Alex in America. Cause Eric had told me he was ready to get rid of him.”

If you use any of the above quotes, please credit Gentleman Villain h/t 411mania.com for the transcription