Wright grew up in North Carolina and was an ardent fan of Jim Crockett Promotions, admiring wrestlers such as Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Eaton.

Upon his graduation from high school in 1989, Wright was drafted by the San Diego Padres as a catcher, but rejected the offer, instead choosing to attend college, where he studied computing while playing baseball and softball.

Connors approached the booker of CCWA, Jim Massingale, and asked him if he would put Wright and himself together as a tag team.

[4] It was during this time that Anderson joined the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts, a promotion run by Matt and Jeff Hardy.

[6] In 1998, Anderson trained at the World Championship Wrestling run Power Plant under DeWayne Bruce and Pez Whatley.

[5][7] On June 6, 1999, Anderson accompanied a friend to an Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) tryout in Georgia and was convinced to get in the ring by Nova.

On January 7, 2001, at the final ECW pay-per-view, Guilty as Charged, Anderson lost to Tommy Dreamer in an "I Quit" match.

As part of his preparation for the bout, Anderson watched the "I Quit" match between Magnum T. A. and Tully Blanchard from Starrcade 1985.

[5][8] On June 10, 2005, Anderson appeared at Hardcore Homecoming, an ECW reunion event organized by Shane Douglas.

Anderson was hospitalized in 2005 after a supplement named Superdrol gave him jaundice and caused his liver to stop functioning.

[18][19] C. W. Anderson then worked in independent promotions including Vanguard Championship Wrestling where he defeated TNA wrestler Sonjay Dutt.

On April 25, 2009, he worked for GSW German Stampede Wrestling at International Impact losing to "Bad Bones" John Kay.

On June 27, 2009, he appeared at an ECW type reunion show called "Legends of the Arena" and wrestled against 2 Cold Scorpio.

[22] On June 29, Extreme Rising's 2nd show in Queens, NY, CW lost a match against "Pitbull" Gary Wolfe.

On the March 3rd edition of Power, Anderson won a "last chance match" alongside Caleb Konley, defeating the Dawsons and earning a contract with the National Wrestling Alliance.