Buff Bagwell Addresses Recent Arrest For Reckless Driving, Discusses Career With Scotty Riggs
The American Males, Marcus Alexander "Buff" Bagwell and Scott Riggs, recently sat down with BDSIR's Mike Knoxxx, Chris Spotface McClain, Mr. Lopez and KME. During the interview, Bagwell explained his recent arrest on reckless driving.
Bagwell says he walked in on his dead friend on April 12 and at the end of April, flipped his Jeep and his doctors put him in a self induced coma for three to four days. He suffered a broken jaw, broken nose, broken eye socket, which were fixed, but had broken his neck again. On July 9, Woodstock police took a warrant for his arrest even though his car was the only one in the accident. He thought he had a seizure (stemming from his accident), which his brainwaves confirmed.
Bagwell says "in the state of Georgia, even if you are God and they take a warrant for your arrest, you've got to go to jail, turn yourself in, get fingerprinted and they set a court date and in court you can tell your story."
Bagwell was going turn himself in on Wednesday and the court knew, but they came over Monday and arrested him anyway because the papers he filed didn't go through. Following the car accident, his wife told him that it was fourteen years to the day that he broke his neck in WCW (April 22, 1998). Bagwell says he plans on wrestling again soon but hasn't been medically cleared.
Riggs joins the show.
Knoxxx asks them why WCW took the tag team belts off The American Males in 1995 after only one week. Bagwell says they were the cutting edge of the new generation wrestlers with earrings and goatees since good guys in the early 90s babyfaces were still clean-cut. He says they were fighting an uphill battle from day one but he and Scotty wanted to fight there own battles. He feels they were both good wrestlers
Riggs says Kevin Sullivan and Jimmy Hart were in charge and wanted them to be more like the Rock 'n' Roll Express or The Fantastics and they weren't. He says though the gimmick caught on with fans, it wasn't what the office wanted.
Bagwell says they respected the veterans but they knew their style was what was coming up. Luger and Sting ragged on them and thought it was uncool and none of the other wrestlers dug it at first but once the nWo came out and had a similar style it was more acceptable.
Bagwell says they were doing music videos before the New World Order did nd WCW spent $80,000 on them. Riggs says they were the only babyface tag team during their run.
Spotface asks about The American Males working a dark match at the 1995 Starrcade. Bagwell says he didn't mind working a dark match because it meant you were on our way.
Mr. Lopez asks Bagwell about his various partners. Bagwell says he thinks he is the only guy to have the tag belts with about four or five different guys in WCW and that he loves tag team wrestling.
Bagwell says The American Males and Harlem Heat had some of the greatest matches ever in WCW but when he wrestled Booker T in their first match in WWE, it was bad and were booed out of the building.
KME asks Bagwell why WWE had him wrestle Booker T in Tacoma, Washington rather than the site of the following week's show, Atlanta, Georgia. Bagwell believes they had the match in Tacoma because they planned to fire him.
Bagwell and Riggs also talk about Bagwell's crowd reaction when Vince McMahon said his name on television, rumors about Bagwell's mother telling Jim Ross that his son was too sick to work, promises Jim Ross made to Bagwell, Chris Benoit, Bagwell's fight with Shane Helms, wrestler deaths and more. The full interview is available here.