What started as a routine match at WCW’s SuperBrawl V between rising star Alex Wright and veteran Paul Roma quickly escalated into something far more intense. With one wrestler going off-script and personal tensions boiling over, the bout soon spiraled into a real-life fight!
The tension between Alex Wright and Paul Roma reached its peak at WCW SuperBrawl V on February 19th, 1995, at the Baltimore Arena, when what was supposed to be a professional wrestling match escalated into a real-life fight! Photo Credit: WWE. Artwork by Pro Wrestling Stories.
Das Wunderkind: Alex Wright – The Rising Star
‘Das Wunderkind’ Alex Wright alongside “The Queen of WCW” Debra (McMichael) Marshall. Wright, a second-generation wrestler, was considered a rising star in WCW with an undefeated streak in 1995. Photo Credit: WWE.
"Wrestling is in my blood," Alex Wright passionately shared with me in a 2007 interview with the PWB Podcast. "I’m a second-generation wrestler. I grew up with wrestling. My father wrestled professionally for 26 years."
Trained by his father, Steve, Alex began learning the ropes at around three or four years old and started formal training by the age of eight. Before finishing his teenage years, the young German talent signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
In the opening bout of WCW SuperBrawl V on February 19th, 1995, at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, Alex Wright, who was undefeated, was scheduled to wrestle Roma. They weren’t strangers, having faced each other in Wright’s first-ever WCW match in 1994.
Working the house show circuit for their feud, the storyline was booked as jealousy-based, with the upstart Wright receiving attention from female fans.
This was Wright’s second pay-per-view match with the company, and WCW was positioning the 19-year-old as a good-looking, energetic dancer in the ring. They heavily invested in the young, supremely talented European rookie and booked him to go over his more experienced opponent.
As it turned out, booker Ric Flair had initially informed Roma that he would be winning the match, only to backtrack and change his mind close to bell time.
Unhappy about having to "do the job" on pay-per-view, Paul Roma had other plans.
Roma Goes Into Business For Himself: The Match That Went Wrong
Promotional image for the WCW SuperBrawl V match between rising star Alex Wright and seasoned veteran Paul Roma, which took an unexpected turn. Photo Credit: WWE.
Nothing seemed unusual early on in the Alex Wright vs. Paul Roma match until Wright’s offense and an arm submission were met with a distinct lack of facial expression from Roma.
The no-selling had begun.
As the match entered its final third, Wright had little opportunity to mount any meaningful offense.
Suddenly, Roma impressively jumped to the middle rope and then to the top rope of a corner turnbuckle to deliver a picture-perfect elbow drop. His athleticism and skill drew the crowd’s attention, but that wasn’t WCW’s intention.
Roma botched his positioning during a hip toss and a flying leg lariat, inexplicably kicking out of a pinfall attempt at the count of one. They also botched Wright’s signature top-rope crossbody.
As Paul Orndorff, who had walked to ringside mid-match, argued with Roma on the apron, Wright dropkicked Orndorff and rolled Roma up for the pin, which Roma kicked out of just before the three-count.
It would not have been a normal pinfall if not for Randy Anderson’s quick count.
"It’s over. His career is over," Bobby Heenan stated on commentary.
"This may come back to haunt Paul Roma here," Tony Schiavone correctly predicted.
"Roma didn’t sell a ******* thing for this kid. Alex is chopping wood in the middle of the ring, throwing rights and lefts to Roma’s midsection, and Roma is absolutely no-selling him, which did no good for Roma and exacerbated the dead sell we were seeing from Alex Wright."
Roma wanted to make Wright look foolish. His behavior and kicking out of the winning pinfall would ultimately lead to his firing.
The Fallout: Roma Fired, Wright’s Career Continues
The tension between Alex Wright and Paul Roma came to a head at WCW SuperBrawl V when Roma refused to play by the script. Photo Credit: WWE.
"Paul was a great worker and a veteran to me," he told WSI. "In Germany, the first match I had with him was a very good match. The problem was, I think he didn’t like the order the office gave him. He was [angry] at the office, and I was the guy who got it."
"We had a totally different plan, and he just switched everything around. It was very sad and very unprofessional because I could’ve had such a great match with him. He could’ve taught me so much if he wanted to, but he didn’t. It wasn’t my fault that the order came the way it did."
Wright continued, "I didn’t fight back much in that match because I was new to the company and only 19 years old. I was afraid of losing my job if I fought back. It was definitely the wrong decision on Paul’s part because he lost his job over that.
"The office asked me what happened, and I told them. They said, ‘Next time, if something like that happens, you have to kick some *** and defend yourself.’ From that moment on, I knew it was okay. He got fired six weeks later or something like that."
Paul Roma’s Side of the Story
A recent image of Paul Roma, who maintains that his version of events differs from the office’s perspective, claiming he was simply trying to preserve his strength as a competitor. Photo Credit: RF Video.
Speaking in 2022 to the Cheap Heat Productions Podcast, Paul Roma shared his view of what went down between him and the office.
"We had the understanding that I wasn’t going to do a job on pay-per-view. Absolutely not," he revealed. "Then it came down from the office. Flair supposedly informed me, ‘It’s changed.’
"When I got in the ring, I did what I needed to do to keep what I figured would make me look strong. It wasn’t personal against Alex Wright.”
Roma then expressed his frustration about Wright’s inability to fight back had he wanted to. "Nobody’s going to have their way with me.
"I kicked out at two-and-a-half, but obviously, they got the three count for the bell. When I went into the locker room, people were telling me what a great match it was.
"When I got home, I received a letter from FedEx. I read it, and it basically said, ‘Finish out your bookings—we no longer need your services.’"
Discarded by mainstream pro wrestling, the embittered former WWF tag-team champion elaborated on his thoughts in a 2009 interview with Club WWI.
"This is all hearsay—rumor had it that [Wright] was going to be the next Hulk Hogan. Ric Flair went in and said he was going to be the next Hogan. Then, rumor had it they wanted to get in the kid’s pants.”
Roma continued, “I said to the kid one day, and he looked at me, dumbfounded. ‘I’m just telling you, man. Watch your back. They want to go to bed with you.’ He didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. Didn’t have a clue. Yeah, so they pushed him. The only thing is, it blew up in their face."
Years later, in the documentary Ric Flair and the Four Horseman, Paul Roma referred to Ric Flair as a "97-year-old."
During the same program, Triple H referred to Roma as a "job guy from WWE" when discussing his surprise inclusion as a Horseman.
Roma responded to that jab during a 2013 rant with RF Video.
"You married the boss’ daughter, I get that. Something’s not right there—that, I think we can all agree on," he quipped. "But at the end of the day, you’re not a great worker. You’re not the Ultimate Warrior jumping up on the ropes; you’re not Hulk ******* Hogan, okay? You’ll never be as big as any of them or Randy Savage. You can write yourself into every WrestleMania every year."
In response to a question about whether he took Ric Flair’s girls when on the road, Roma switched his ire back to Flair.
"I took some of his shine away. I just walked in the room and commanded attention. Do I think he started to get jealous? Yeah."
The Russo Effect: Alex Wright’s Legacy in WCW
A recent photo of Alex Wright, who, despite the controversy, went on to capture multiple titles in WCW and firmly establish himself as a top talent. Photo Credit: Wrestling Shoot Interviews.
Alex Wright remained with WCW until its closure in 2001, capturing tag team, cruiserweight, and television titles and being awarded Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Rookie of the Year in 1995.
"The last one-and-a-half years in WCW were [awful]," he explained to me on the PWB Podcast in 2007. "The politics were just too much. It almost killed all my desire for pro wrestling, and that’s the reason I took a break. I had to get away from the business because I really couldn’t stand the backstage politics. It just took a little time to heal those wounds.”
Wright continued, “I found out about the sale through TV. I didn’t get notified by the company at all. No fax, no phone call, nothing.
"Most of the time, I really enjoyed WCW. Like I said before, I liked the wrestling there. I liked my colleagues. Just at the end, the last one-and-a-half years, I should have made my way to WWE."
Wright said he turned down a subsequent opportunity to sign with WWE, citing burnout from his eight-year tenure in WCW.
"In my opinion, there were too many chiefs. Bad management, bad storylines, and, of course, Vince Russo. For example, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship with all those greats like Kevin Nash, DDP, Hulk Hogan, suddenly an actor comes in—what’s his name, David Arquette—and he has the belt? Come on. In my opinion, that killed everything.
"After I stopped wrestling, I just wanted to open my own wrestling school and help young talents become really good pro wrestlers."
Which is exactly what he did, establishing The Wright Stuff Pro Wrestling School.
The infamous match between Alex Wright and Paul Roma at WCW’s SuperBrawl V remains a reminder of how tensions behind the scenes can spill over into the ring.
While Roma’s career with WCW ended shortly after the incident, Wright continued to flourish, earning multiple titles and recognition in the industry.
Though the infamous match between Alex Wright and Paul Roma at WCW’s SuperBrawl V is now a distant memory, it serves as a reminder that in pro wrestling, egos are bound to clash. When they do, the lines between performance and reality can blur—causing backstage tensions to spill into the ring.
Watch the full match below to see how tensions boiled over between Alex Wright and Paul Roma at WCW’s SuperBrawl V:
Here are some stories of other times things did NOT go as planned in the ring:
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Ian Aldous is a former International Boxing Organization fight commissioner and writer for BoxingNews24.com. He briefly covered pro wrestling in the late 2000s for WrestlingNewsWorld.com and the PWB Podcast before finding a home for his work on Pro Wrestling Stories.
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