Buff Bagwell Posts Video Addressing Social Media Account Manager’s Exit, Merchandise Issues

Buff Bagwell’s social media account manager quit following a series of controversies, and Bagwell has posted a new video addressing the situation. It was revealed yesterday that Bagwell’s account had been operated by Michael Long, who announced on social media that he is no longer doing so “due to a variety of reasons.” Long noted that “though I was posting for Buff it was my beliefs and opinions being tweeted.”

The news coincided with reports that Long was scamming fans with merchandise related to Bagwell and it was revealed that Long was a registered sex offender in the state of Ohio.

https://twitter.com/BlackTonganBoi/status/1543391565984546817

Following this news, Bagwell posted a video to discuss the matter. You can check out some highlights below:

On addressing the matter: “I just came out today to — want to talk to you a little bit about my life the last three or four months. And as you know, the last three or four months I’ve been trending over a lot of great things and having a lot of fun doing it. But the last few weeks, it seems like I’ve been trending over some things that are not so great. And so today I wanted to come out and clear some things up, and apologize about several things. And I just wanted to come face to face with everybody and do that. I really want to apologize about several, several things.”

On his Change or Die docuseries with DDP: “As a lot of you guys may know I’ve been working on a docuseries called Change or Die with Diamond Dallas Page and it’s — the title says it all. It’s Change or Die. In my situation it was my with my knee, and my addiction problems. And the thing that I really want to hit with everybody out there that’s listening is, the support I got from everybody through this journey was unbelievable. It was, everybody just seemed to be behind me 100% and for me. And it meant so much for me, and it helped me so much to drive forward. But at the same time, it also showed me that I really had a lot more changing to do. And I am going to stick this out until I do get everything changed, and I’m going to do it because of your support.”

On the merchandise issues: Another reason I’m here today is to talk about merchandise that was not received by some fans out there, that has just recently came to me through my knowledge. Unfortunately a guy named Michael Long that was helping me with my merchandise dropped the ball. And a lot of fans did not receive certain merchandise that they’d ordered. And to all those fans, I do apologize from the bottom of my heart and I want you to know, I did not receive or see any of that money. And I just want to get that cleared up with everybody and know that I want to get to the bottom of it, and I apologize.

On Long’s criminal record: “Over the last few days this also came across that Michael has a criminal record that I do not condone at all. It’s a a situation he’s got to deal with on his own. But at the same time um I just want everybody to know it’s something that I do not condone whatsoever. And I just want everybody to know that I did not know this when I hired him, that it is a mistake that I will not make in the future. Michael’s got his own problems that he’s got going on right now and that’s just on Michael.”

On his social media: Another thing people seem to be very upset about is you know, how much is coming out of my social media actually is my heart and my soul that’s coming out of my social media. And it really bothers me a lot, because I do have a team, and we talk about it and we go over it. But there’s also times like in life, you know there’s times where we may not get together and we may miss tracks. I may be out of town. I’m a huge part of my social media and loved the interaction I had with everybody out there. And I just want everybody to know that I’m going to be a lot more activated in this situation of my social media from this point on.”

On his support of the LGBTQIA+ community: Another thing that’s been going on and been said a lot about is the LGBTQ community and you know, whether I support that or not. That’s been the big question, because I’m learning this just like, you know, my fans that loved it when they were helping me. The fans out there knew that they were teaching me and helping me, and that was part of the Uncle Buff, and the ‘Is this Buff-Approved,’ and ‘Wholesome Buff’ and all the stuff that I was having so much fun going over with everybody. I’m learning this — you got to realize, I’m learning this myself. So you know, do I support it? I support anybody that’s happy in their lives. And that’s the idea of what we were talking about. You know, when we came out with the shirt ‘Buff is for Everyone.’ And that is, Buff is for everyone that is for themselves. For me, anybody that believes in themselves, I’m for. And that’s what we were trying to say.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Buff Bagwell with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.