411’s Dark Side of The Ring Report: ‘Buff and The Bagwells’

-Real quick I want to take a second to give props to my Uniontown Red Raider High School Basketball Team. They battled their hearts out against a nationally ranked team with a future NBA Player. No shame in losing to the defending State Champions. Proud to be a Red Raider!

-Now to this week’s episode of Dark Side and after last week started with a light episode about Earthquake, this one should be more what we come to expect from Dark Side. Let’s get to it!

-As a reminder, Chris Jericho is our narrator.

-The tease before the credits indicates this should be a wild one. Let’s settle in!

-Marcus Bagwell starts us out as he shows us his mother’s office that is filled with pictures and magazine covers of his wrestling career. He says this is all because of Judy Bagwell and her drive.

-Marcus says his family was told from a young age they were special and would be somebody. He was an All County football and baseball player and we meet his father, Steve. Marcus was the youngest of three sons and his dad he was slower to develop. Marcus says his dad was a famous drag racer and a self made millionaire. We see photos and press clippings of Steve as a drag race and it notes he also became an owner of a drag racing team. They mention wrestling was on TV growing up, but there was never any inkling of getting into the business.

-Former WCW and TNA referee, Mark “Slick” Johnson, is up next and he says The Bagwell Family was famous and they owned Southeast Lumber, and everyone got their lumber there. Slick has known Marcus since he was eighteen.

-Next we meet Tonya Bagwell, the first wife of Marcus. They meet when they were both 18 and immediately hit it off. She says Marcus is a loving person. Slick goes over all the things the family had: pool, tennis court, big house, movie theater in their home. Steve bought Marcus a Corvette when he was fifteen. Marcus notes they were spoiled rotten, but they weren’t spoiled brats as their parents didn’t let them get away with anything. Steve says he wanted his kids to have the things he didn’t have. Marcus: “If you did anything wrong, you got your ass whipped.” He says his dad whipped him once, but his mom did it a thousand times.

-Slick: “You don’t fuck with Judy Bagwell.” She ran the company that had over 100 employees and everyone knew she was in charge.

-They talk about Steve being the calmer of the two unless he lost a bet. Slick tells a story of Steve losing a bet and unloading a clip on a machine gun on a bunch of geese outside in his yard out of anger. Steve says it’s a true story and laughs. I don’t find that funny at all! Dick!

-More great parenting from Steve as he would hand out bags of cocaine to Marcus and his friends for them to have fun. “Have fun tonight, but stay out of trouble.” I guess his rationale was that he wanted his kids to get the coke from a place that he trusted and not somewhere else. That’s what we are dealing with here.

-The business starts to struggle and the finances aren’t good. Steve thought he had enough money to live the rest of his life comfortably. That wasn’t the case and Marcus was at home with his parents when things got tough. Judy tried to leave one night and Steve told her not in one of his cars. They get into a fight and Marcus steps in to save her, while having a gun in his hand. Steve questions the gun and Marcus tells him he won’t shoot unless he has too. Steve runs and gets his gun off the refrigerator, and we have a standoff. Marcus fires first and the first shot would have killed Steve, but he got his hand in the way. Marcus shot four more times and Steve couldn’t believe it was happening.

-Steve had to get a bone graph from his hip to repair his arm and hand. It took some time (3-4 months) and they talked it out. Steve told Marcus he was 100% right in what he did as he was just protecting his mom. Marcus: “We had a rough couple years, but have been best friends ever since.”

-Marcus moves out of the house and marries Tonya. He takes a job as a stripper and when they move into an apartment, they met Missy Hyatt. Miss introduces herself as the first lady of wrestling and with all due respect, NO! For me that title will always belong to Miss Elizabeth. Nobody will ever convince me otherwise. Missy talks about her career in WCW and how her claim to fame besides being a manager was being the first female announcer.

-Marcus told Missy that his brother wanted to be a wrestler. Missy told him he should be a wrestler and he thought wrestlers didn’t make any money. She lets him know their top guys make $100,000 a year. Marcus went to go train while Tonya worked and supported him. The deal was she would support him and once Marcus made it, he would support her. She hated it and cried every night, but Marcus knew it would pay off.

-Commercials!

-We see footage of Bagwell in his Indy days and then he went to GWF as The Handsome Stranger. Missy was impressed with how Marcus was developing after only three months. Missy gave the tape to Jim Barnett and that got Marcus a job in WCW.

-Next we meet 2 Cold Scorpio, who was Bagwell’s tag partner in WCW. Scorpio was surprised how well Marcus could keep up with him. They were Tag Team of the Year and won the WCW Tag Titles. The women loved Marcus and he wasn’t ready for women throwing themselves at him and he admits he cheated on Tonya. She was obviously extremely hurt and she could not forgive him.

-Bagwell has the idea that he needs a better body so he gets calf implants. He started having leg pain and Slick would carry Bagwell on his back so he could piss or take a shit. What happened was his body rejected the calf implants. He went to the hospital and was told the implants had to come out or he would have to cut his legs off. Bagwell actually had to think about that which is insane. He still has the implants in a box at home.

-A third team for Bagwell and this one with Scotty Riggs, who is our next talking head. Riggs rocking the full gray beard and hair is something. I didn’t even realize that was him at first. The talking heads sing the catchy American Males theme song. Eric Bischoff says he is pissed they mentioned it as now he will have the song stuck in his head.

-Bischoff says they used The American Males to appeal to the women and try to draw them into watching. Bagwell met his second wife Eric, and that didn’t last long. His third wife was Judy, so there was a Judy The Wife and Judy The Mother. We meet Judy, and she says Mark put her on top, but laughs as she says Mark always comes first.

-The nWo: Bischoff talks about the group and how they were so cool that they were cheered. Kevin Nash asked Bagwell if he wanted to be in the nWo and Marcus didn’t have to think twice. Scotty didn’t want to be a dick and block Bagwell, so he said it was cool and “let’s make it work for you, brother.” Bagwell turns on his partner and is now part of the nWo. He marvels at being in the ring with the talent in the nWo and it changed his career.

-Buff is born and Scorpio says Buff is the kind of guy he wants to beat their ass. Tonya thought they may get back together, but once she saw Buff, she knew it was over as he was engrossed in the character.

-Buff hires his mom as his personal assistant/secretary. Slick walks in the home and see Judy (mom) shaving Bagwell’s balls in a tub. I mean, yeah. They both just smile at Slick and he says he just walked out of the room. Judy was going to help Mark out anyway she can.

-Bagwell also gets work as an actor in straight to video action movies. Bischoff says he never watched the movies and doesn’t know how he missed them. HA! Anyone out there ever seen any of them?

-We jump to Rick Steiner vs. Bagwell on Thunder where Marcus bruises his spinal cord. Just nasty as he Rick slips off trying a bulldog and Buff smacks his forehead off Steiner’s back, snapping it backward. He was left paralyzed!

-Commercials!

-Judy (wife) says she was watching at a friend’s house and she knew something wasn’t wife. The next three hours Marcus was getting MRI and Cat-Scans and was told to sit up by the doctor. He bruised the spinal cord and apparently the swelling tricks your body into thinking you are paralyzed. Once the swelling goes down, that goes away. Huh! He did have to get two plates and eight screws to repair his broken neck but no paralysis.

-Buff says he was back on TV in three months and the fans were behind him. From that mark until the 10 month mark, he was Scott Steiner’s manager. Scott turned to drugs to pick him up, take him down, and relax his muscles. Slick says he was out partying with wrestlers while Bagwell was passed out in hotel rooms. Slick and Judy (wife) would make up excuses to cover for Bagwell.

-Judy Bagwell gets brought to TV and Bischoff laughs as he says they made her a star. Buff says that Rick loved his mom and they got along. Judy loved performing and Marcus says she enjoyed working his mom, but it’s still hard working with family. Bischoff doesn’t regret letting her get involved, but says it went too long and they pushed with her too much. We get a brief mention of Judy Bagwell on a pole!

-WCW goes under and is bought by Vince McMahon. They play the clip from the RAW/Nitro simulcast where Vince goes through the names of WCW stars to get a reaction and Bagwell gets a strong reaction. He makes the cut when they decide to bring WCW back.

-Before getting on TV, Marcus heads to training where Shane Helms is. They get into a verbal confrontation and Bagwell tells him to drop things or he will slap his teeth down his throat.

-Commercials!

-They insulted each other and then Helms tells him to take his best shot. Marcus unleashes The Bagwell Slap! It was taught to him by his father as it was a way to show who was in control. Helms got knocked on his ass, but had a frozen water bottle near him and blasted Marcus from behind. Marcus is bleeding, but doesn’t tell anyone and gets his own doctor to fix it. He had 25 staples and used a black sharpie to color over them to match his hair, so nobody would no and so he could wrestle Booker T that night.

-That was the infamous WCW closing RAW angle where the crowd took a dump all over what they were seeing. Bagwell thought they had a good match and was floored when he was told it was a bad match. He said it wasn’t barn burner, but they didn’t do anything wrong. He was then fired and says he went from Main Event to fired in 7 days. “What if I had a horrible match? So What? I am Buff Bagwell….why would you get fired over a bad match?”

-Slick mentions that Buff slapped Shane first, and if Shane had thrown the first blow, he likely would have been fired. “The famous Bagwell Slap cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Buff says he was going to be one of the biggest stars of all time and instead, just had a good run. He dealt with it by doing drugs and drinking.

-Bagwell works independent shows (XWF, WWA, WMA) and battles his addiction. He tries to get clean, but is out of it and wrecks his jeep. He had a withdraw seizure, which apparently happens when your body isn’t used to being clean. Judy (wife) says that the plate in his neck actually saved his life in this wreck as if not there, he would have been dead from the force of the blow. He had swelling in his face and neck and we see a photo of Bagwell in the hospital on a ventilator and yeah, he looks awful.

-Bagwell had bills that were due and made a deal to get paid $25,000 to do a show called Gigolos. Scorpio: “How the fuck is he going to be on a show called Gigolos, when he only has a dick this big?” Not going there! We see footage from the show and Judy (wife) says Buff was told it would be appearance and he was going to mentor the guys. That all changed when he got out there and was told what he had to do. “Are you shitting me?”

-Commercials!

-Marcus calls Judy (wife) and says it was more than he thought and confesses it ended up being life soft-porn. She wanted to die when he broke the news as it broke her heart. She knew it was bad. Marcus remembers his scene and he had zero blood in his penis, so he got up close and acted like he was having sex. He apologized at the bar to a producer of the show for not being able to have sex, and is floored when he responds, “you’re not supposed to.” Buff: “Nobody told me, bro.” He says it’s sad what a human will do when you are broke.

-At some point Buff ends up on a website called “Cowboys for Angels.” It was a place where women could hire men for a week or weekend for $10,000 or more. He knows it sounds crazy, but he needed money. Judy (wife) says it is crazy and the first women fell in love with Marcus. He would live with her for a week to get the money, and he started to fall for the woman.

-Marcus says he never saw Judy as she worked when he was home and the transition to the woman with the money was easy. Marcus calls Judy and tells her that he is falling in love and wants to leave. Judy says the woman is not in Marcus’ life anymore. Marcus says he would have stayed with Judy if he had it all to do over again.

-The drug use continues, and it leads to multiple DUIs and another car wreck. He isn’t sure how he didn’t kill himself or more importantly, someone else.

-We then learn that Judy (mom) got Dementia. That’s awful!

-Commercials!

-Next week: The Freebirds! Sweet!

-The family faces their biggest challenge as Judy is battling Alzheimer’s Disease. Judy fell into a state where she could not wake up and Steve spent over an hour trying to get her to wake. Judy passed away, and Steve breaks down a bit as she notes Judy was one of the greatest women he ever knew. Marcus says everyone says their mom is the best, but he knows his mom was the best.

-The death of Judy was a wake-up call for Marcus, and he stayed with his niece, but she told him he had to get sober, or the family would leave him. They brought in Diamond Dallas Page and Marcus found his path to recovery. Tonya says she can know see the old Marcus back in him and she believes this is going to stick this time.

-Marcus says Dark Side called him about doing his story and Scotty Riggs was going to reach out. Scotty had been living in his car for the last 6-8 weeks as he was trying to help his ill mother and he lost his house. Scotty says he was close to putting a gun to his chest, and Marcus told him to get to him and DDP. He finally agreed and says he would not be here today if it wasn’t for Marcus reaching out.

-Tonya says she still loves Marcus and will always love him. She thinks he is a good guy genuinely and people had misjudged him. Judy (wife) knows Marcus has good people supporting him, and he has a wonderful girl with him and she wants that to work out. She wants him to be happy. Bischoff notes that Marcus is a lovable guy and that’s why his ex-wives still love him, and that’s he loves him.

-Steve says he is most proud of Marcus getting sober and staying sober. Marcus says he wants to keep his sobriety number one and wants to get back in the ring. Tonya closes by saying she is rooting for him.

-This was more of what we are used to with this show, but thankfully, Marcus is here to tell us his story and seems to be one of the success stories as far as his recovery from drug abuse. DDP is a saint for all he has done to help save the lives of people. The talking heads were all good here and nobody seemed like they were short changed or just tacked on. I am happy to hear he has helped get Riggs back on the right path as well. Good episode with some crazy stories, but most importantly one that has so far had a happy ending for the main subject of the story. Thanks for reading!