Former WCW star Buff Bagwell shared some stories from his wrestling days on his YouTube channel, including an interesting story about Sting and Rick Rude.
Buff Bagwell on changing his wrestling name from Marcus Alexander to Buff:
“When the NWO thing happened, I knew it was a chance for me to do something with my name. I didn’t know what. I remember being on a flight, and it was me and Luger on a flight with everybody, but me and Luger were standing up in first class talking on a long plane ride from Seattle. We were trying to throw names against the wall, and back in the back of first class, in the dark, we hear, ‘What about Buff?’ It’s Nick Patrick. Nick Patrick said, ‘What about Buff?’ Me and Luger went, ‘Buff Bagwell. Oh, my God, that’s it.’ Every person that heard it just chuckled with happiness, like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s great.’ Everybody loved it.”
Bagwell on when he first realized he was addicted to pills:
“I remember I got in the car in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I can’t remember the year, but I remember I got in the car. I didn’t feel good. Taking a pill or drinking a beer in the daytime wasn’t happening. Losers and alcoholics and drug addicts did that. I woke up and I was feeling different. I was feeling funny, and I didn’t know why. I got in the car. Lex always kept the car freezing. I get in the car and I’m hot and I’m sweaty, and I’m trying to fix the vents, and the more I think back on it, I think Lex knew. Lex is extremely smart. I think Lex had already gone through this. I think he had already felt this way, and was letting me just see if I could figure it out. The more I really think about it, because at that junction of me starting to almost panic with vents and cracking the window and just not knowing what it is, is calmly and as coolly as you could say it, Lex said, ‘If you take a couple of pills and drink a beer, that’ll go away.’ The look on his face just told me to do it. I still hadn’t put all of it together. I took a couple of Somas and I drank a beer and it went away. Looking back on it, I was going through withdrawals. That was day one of me never really having fun again taking pills and alcohol. Now I gotta take them so I don’t feel like that.”
On Rick Rude pulling a gun on Sting when they were in WCW:
“Rick Rude met Sting on the side of the road, and with a gun in his hand, said, ‘Hey, Sting. I hope you do the right thing at the hearing.’ So the ones that don’t know about this, Rick Rude injured his neck, and there was some big lawsuit. There was a platform that they were using in Japan or something, and Rick’s neck hit it and it caused some damage. (his co-host corrected him and said it was Rude’s back). He tried to sue WCW for it. Me and Sting were super tight during this. Sting was having a really hard time with it. It was a big deal. Rick is a man’s man. I was more scared of wrestling Rude in the ring than any guy. It just felt like at any moment, he could snap and kill you, and there was nothing you could do about it. I was scared of Rick Rude, and he was nothing but nice to me and really liked me, but I was petrified of him. He was a man, brother, and I think Steve was a little bit worried about this one because Rick was tough and Sting had to voice his opinion on this topic in court. I’m not even sure how it went and what happened, but I do know that Sting was really upset that he was going to have to tell the truth, and the truth wasn’t good for Rick.”
“Several guys had these big insurance things with this company called Lloyd’s of London. I remember I was even looking into getting it because my peers were doing it and it was paying off. Then something happened and they got rid of all the wrestlers. Lloyd’s of London was a big company insuring athletes. Somewhere there was a loophole of pro wrestling being real. Somehow, with all that, guys were getting insured, and then when they would quit, and like, I think this really affected Rick Rude’s insurance policy with the Lloyd’s of London with this stage thing, and that’s why he also needed this to go where it mattered on what Sting said happened. I don’t remember the ending to it, but I remember that Steve was going to have to tell the truth, and that was going to make Rick Rude very angry.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Buff Bagwell on YouTube with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
