Now known as The Showstealer, Alex Shane's journey to the pinnacle of the British Wrestling scene has been a far from smooth ride, to say the least�

As a youth, Alex drifted with various hobbies, including judo and magic. Even though he used to watch British wrestling on television in the 1980s, Alex only took an interest in wrestling himself in 1990 when WWF mania took over classrooms across the country.

Keeping up with his classmates, Alex spent his pocket money buying every piece of WWF merchandise he could find including books, videos, posters, action figures etc. By the age of 11, Alex was the most knowledgeable wrestling fan in his school. At secondary school, Alex found a group of like-minded friends who all shared the same interest in pro wrestling. Together they set up their own promotion, the LWF. Unlike his friends, who only enjoyed beating each other for real, Alex's interest was with the drama and performance side of wrestling. He dreamed up characters, made championship belts and even volunteered to be the jobber if it meant a match would be better.

At 12, Alex attended his first live wrestling show at the Maggie May's pier in Blackpool. Although the action and wrestling on the show was good, the only person who stood out in Alex's memory was a bigger, younger wrestler called Steve Regal (WWF's William Regal). Two years would pass before he saw him again.

In those two years Alex, through the help of tape traders, discovered Mexican, Japanese and independent wrestling. He also witnessed his favourite wrestler, Sting, capture the WCW World title at Wembley Arena from Big Van Vader. It wasn't until October '94 that Alex first seriously considered becoming a professional wrestler.

While attending the WCW Halloween Havoc tour at the Royal Albert Hall, Alex saw the wrestler he remembered from two years earlier, now called Lord Steven Regal. Although he had been following Regal's progress on weekly television, Alex was overwhelmed by Regal's success in the two years since he had seen him at Maggie May's pier.

Alex waited outside to watch the wrestlers leave on their respective heel and face coaches, and stood in awe as he saw Regal sit and chat with 'Stunning' Steve Austin. As he and his friends travelled home on the train, Alex blocked out their conversation, he had only one thing on his mind - he wanted to become a professional wrestler.

As soon as Alex got home, he looked for information on how he could get started and after weeks of searching finally found the phone number for All Star Wrestling. Alex attended their show at Croydon's Fairfield Halls and during the interval approached promoter Brian Dixon with an undoubtedly the most commonly asked question for any promoter "How do I become a professional wrestler?". Dixon referred Alex to the newly opened Hammerlock school of wrestling.

Part Two