Perez debuted as "The Latin Heartthrob" in World Class Championship Wrestling in 1987, where he was the top heel for several months. He was managed by Gary Hart and feuded with Kevin Von Erich, Kerry Von Erich and Dingo Warrior.
On December 25, 1987, he was successful in a steel cage match against Kerry Von Erich. Hart and Von Erich's father Fritz were supposed to be handcuffed together but after Fritz was attacked by several heels and afterwards collapsed with a suspected heart attack, Hart alone was handcuffed to the ropes. Perez managed to smash Von Erich's head into the handcuffs to score the pinfall win.
In 1988, Perez moved to World Championship Wrestling (WCW) with Hart and teamed with Larry Zbyszko along with feuding with Nikita Koloff and Dusty Rhodes.
Al Perez signed with the WWF and made his debut on October 2, 1989 with a win over George South in a dark match at a WWF Superstars taping in Wheeling, West Virginia. Perez was undefeated the first month, wrestling primarily on lower card shows against Barry Horowitz and The Brooklyn Brawler. His first loss would come against Boris Zhukov on November 13, 1989 in Roanoke, Virginia. Perez would then continue to wrestle primarily on the undercard, although on one Prime Time Wrestling show, host Gorilla Monsoon made mention of a possible tag-team pairing of Perez and Tito Santana. Perez was primarily seen on house shows and Prime Time Wrestling. Despite sustaining losses to the likes of Hercules and Tito Santana, Perez had many wins over wrestlers such as Paul Roma, Jim Powers, The Red Rooster, Koko B. Ware, "Bullet" Bob Bradley, Kato, Jim Brunzell, and others. His last WWF match was a win over Jim Powers on July 23, 1990 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
On September 5, 1990, Perez competed in WCW as The Black Scorpion, wrestling Sting in a losing effort at Clash of Champions XII. Perez would wrestle one more match as The Scorpion at a house show in Chicago, Illinois on September 30.