Buff Bagwell Issues Update On His Recovery – “I’m Sober, I Feel Great”
Buff Bagwell has opened up about his sobriety while reassuring wrestling fans that he feels great.
Wrestling fans that watched during the much-talked-about Monday Night Wars era are familiar with Marcus “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. Even though he didn’t become a main event talent in the company, he was very well-known due to his physique and charisma.
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.
Bagwell’s only 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. It was not a match that is remembered fondly. That 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 that he had.
Buff Bagwell was a guest on the 83 Weeks podcast on AdFreeShows.com hosted by Eric Bischoff & Conrad Thompson to provide an update on how he was doing after a long battle with alcohol addiction.
“I just graduated Tangu, which is my aftercare in Atlanta here. I completed 30 days at Blackberry recovery in the North Georgia area and completed that after 30 days. I moved into something I’ve never done before, which is something called Aftercare.”
“It’s something that I always thought, and I’ve learned with addiction, that 30 days isn’t enough. You always try it and think, ‘Well, I’ve been 30, so I’m good now.’ I did three or four other times like that and it’s just not.”
As he continued, Buff Bagwell spoke about how many days he has been sober.
“When you take on the Aftercare part, and continue your sobriety with numerous days, with the 90 meetings in 90 days, all the stuff that people hear, but stuff that people don’t do, and I actually did it. I did the 90 in 90. I’m not a day counter. My sobriety date is August 27. That’s actually 148 days today. They got a new app now that you can check out. It’s 148 days today sober, and I’ve never been 148 days sober in my life. I mean, I really don’t think so. When you talk about complete sobriety, 148 days is huge.”
That positive news has led to Buff Bagwell talking about how excited he is while adding that he is sleeping a lot better as well.
“So I’m very excited. I am doing things I didn’t think I could do, like I can sleep at night without being medicated. From years on the road, I didn’t think I could do that, but I can and it’s great. In the daytime with my life, going to the gym and stuff, it was a pill for everything. It was a pill to go to the gym. It was a pill to relax. It was a pill to go to sleep. It was a pill to wake up.”
“Then alcohol with it, it just gets to be a crazy world and I was already living in one called professional wrestling, and so it added right to that, but I got a corral on it. I got grips of it, and you know, I’m sober. I feel great. I’ve been told I look great. So that’s all fantastic. So thumbs up over here. I just feel fantastic.”
H/T WrestlingNewsco for the transcription