Alex Wright had WWE knocking after WCW folded, but he said no both times.
During a conversation with Developmentally Speaking, Wright revealed that WWE approached him twice after WCW shut down, but he was too physically and mentally burned out to make the jump. At the time, Wright was still under a Time Warner contract and had already decided he wasn’t going to rush back into another packed locker room just to stay on television.
“WWE approached me twice and asked me if I’m interested, if I want to come to them. But I didn’t feel ready at that moment because I knew I can’t give 100% for the promotion, I can’t give 100% for the fans and I can’t give 100% for myself. That wouldn’t be fair for any of them to step in the ring because I couldn’t perform.”
Wright said years of working through injuries in WCW had left him completely drained, and he knew taking another deal just because WWE wanted him would have been the wrong move. So when WWE came calling, Wright turned them down.
“At that point, I was really mentally and physically burned out because I was straight with WCW. I wrestled many, many years and I had a lot of injuries, and I kept wrestling with a lot of injuries also.”
“I said, ‘I’m very honored and thank you very much, but it’s not the right time for me.’”
What makes that decision even bigger is what WWE apparently had in mind for one of those attempts. Wright said the company wanted to put him into a storyline with Hulk Hogan.
“One time they said, ‘Well, we would like to do a story with you and Hogan.’ So that would have been actually a very big deal.”
Even a Hulk Hogan program wasn’t enough to change his mind. Wright went back to Germany instead, took time away from wrestling and eventually rebuilt his connection to the business on his own terms. Turning WWE down once after WCW collapsed would have been a big decision. Wright says he did it twice, and one of those opportunities could have put him across the ring from one of the biggest names in wrestling history.
Do you think Alex Wright made the right call turning WWE down twice, or should he have taken the Hogan program while the opportunity was there? Let us know in the comments.
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