Alex Wright says the wrestlers inside WCW could see that the promotion was in serious trouble well before it officially closed.
During his interview with Bryan Asbury on Developmentally Speaking, available through the show’s official YouTube channel, Wright was asked whether WCW’s eventual demise surprised him.
“Yeah, of course.”
Wright said wrestlers discussed the company’s problems backstage, but the deterioration was also visible through the television product.
“Every time we had a show… we just see that the product get destroyed by booking.”
Wright was particularly critical of instructions coming from people he believed lacked meaningful in-ring experience.
“There were so many stupid calls, like we shouldn’t do this in the ring or you shouldn’t do that in the ring, and it came from people which never stood in the ring.”
According to Wright, some of those decision-makers “had no idea how to build a match.”
He also remembered seeing the audience shrink.
“Less and less people came to the shows.”
One production technique made the decline particularly obvious to him.
“They had to switch around the fans to the opposite side of the hard cam just so the building looks full.”
For Wright, that was an unmistakable warning sign.
“That was not normal. That’s an issue.”
Wright’s comments represent his firsthand perception of WCW’s decline rather than a definitive explanation for why the company failed. WrestlingHeadlines has recently presented other viewpoints, including Kevin Nash arguing that WCW’s largest problems went beyond booking and Nash identifying AOL Time Warner’s loss of interest in wrestling as the decisive business issue.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Developmentally Speaking, with a h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.
