Buff Bagwell On Failed WWE Run Leading To Depression & Drinking

Buff Bagwell is opening up about dealing with depression and drinking a lot of alcohol because of what happened to him during his very brief WWE career.

In March 2001, WWE purchased their former rival promotion, World Championship Wrestling. Along with the purchase, WWE obtained the contracts of dozens of prominent wrestlers in the company. One of those wrestlers was Buff Bagwell.

During his decade-long WCW career from 1991 to 2001, Bagwell was a five-time WCW Tag Team Champion with four different partners. While he didn’t become a main event talent in the company, he was very well-known due to his physique and charisma.

Bagwell’s lone WWE match was in the main event of Monday Night Raw on July 2nd in Tacoma, Washington when he faced Booker T for the WCW World Title. The match ended as a no contest when the wrestlers were attacked by Steve Austin & Kurt Angle while the dead crowd didn’t care about the match at all. One week later prior to Raw in Atlanta, Bagwell was fired due to his attitude and the poor match.

On a recent episode of Chris Van Vliet’s Insight show, Bagwell talked about his past problems with depression and alcohol problems while noting that his failed WWE run played a big part of that.

“Absolutely I am [upset], that’s where part of the depression part of drinking was. You throw it into a pile and set fire to it, that is in there. It was so depressing to me, the only thing that didn’t make it worse was that the fans knew that I got screwed. The fans know, and still know, that Buff Bagwell got jibbed man. Without that I would be completely depressed. But they know that, I did get jibbed. I was Buff Bagwell bro, and I got fired in Atlanta, Georgia.”

Bagwell added that a lot of guys in wrestling have a story about being fired, but they don’t have his story where WWE fired him after one match when he was in the main event of Raw.

“A lot of guys may have the same story, but they don’t have this one. I’m the only guy, to my knowledge, I’m the only wrestler in history to be the main event one week and then fired the next. Where do you sign up for that? Buff Bagwell was main eventing against Booker T, and then they fire me in Atlanta, Georgia the next week.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Bagwell revealed that a serious leg injury could lead to his leg being amputated. Bagwell also spoke about trying to overcome his personal demons and get better in rehab. Good luck to Buff as he continues that journey.