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10 Things WCW Fans Should Know About Buff Bagwell

Posted: Nov 20th 2022 By: Joey Haverford - TheSportster.com

He may have been Buff Daddy, but what else do wrestling fans needs to know about former WCW star Buff Bagwell?

Buff Bagwell is a unique story of a former wrestler becoming a story in recent years. The resurgence of Bagwell as a social media personality, accusations that he wasn’t running his own account, and a stronger stint in rehab and other methods cleaning up his life all put his name into headlines.

WCW fans most know Buff for his time in that promotion spending about a full decade with a consistent television role. Bagwell’s career took a few interesting twists and turns throughout the years. No other promotion gave Buff a home in wrestling after WCW to cause his story to fall off. Bagwell’s career deserves a look back with the following noteworthy aspects of it.

10/10 Won WCW Tag Titles With Four Different Partners

The singles success of Buff Bagwell never came in the manner he and WCW always wanted. Bagwell achieved most of his success in the tag division with multiple partners. There was a total of five WCW Tag Team Championship reigns with four different wrestlers.

2 Cold Scorpio, Shane Douglas, Scotty Riggs and The Patriot each were the tag partners of Bagwell to win gold together. Buff had other partners like Lex Luger, Scott Steiner and Scott Norton that didn’t win gold with him to show how many partners he had overall.

9/10 Judy Bagwell Was His Real Mother

Wrestling promotions often hired people to play the parents of wrestlers as seen with Shelton Benjamin in WWE and Raven in WCW. Buff Bagwell having his mother Judy Bagwell become part of his act featured his real-life mom in the role.

WCW didn’t want to hire an actress to take away from the authentic nature. Unfortunately, the angles of Judy winning tag gold with Rick Steiner or being forced to be on a forklift for a pole match made fans wish they didn’t use her in this role.

8/10 Had Controversial Storyline "Breaking Character"

The WCW tenure of Vince Russo featured a few different wrestlers having gimmicks that caused them to “break character” as part of the act. Buff Bagwell started cutting worked shoot promos and made it seem he was livid about putting over other talents.

The angle reached the point of Buff talking trash to the camera and using Russo’s name to sell the gimmick. WCW had no real pay off in mind beyond Jeff Jarrett hitting Bagwell with a guitar in his return as Russo’s handpicked chosen one.

7/10 Fans Were Upset About Using Injury As An Angle

One of the most controversial storylines in WCW history featured Buff Bagwell returning after suffering a severe neck injury. Rick Steiner asking for Buff’s forgiveness of being in the ring for that moment and the New World Order seemingly kicking out a weakened Bagwell felt like time for a face turn.

The return saw fans behind Buff more than ever wanting him to get revenge on the nWo. It turned out to be just another swerve as Bagwell set up Rick and rejoined the nWo moving forward. Buff revealed in shoot interviews that fans even called WCW’s offices to complain about his heel act.

6/10 Never Won A Singles Title

The WCW Tag Team Championship was already referenced as a high point of Buff Bagwell’s accolades. However, there was always a hope to see Bagwell become a top singles star as the running “what if” scenario in his career changes.

WCW just never trusted Buff to hold any of their singles titles during his various pushes. The history of WCW featured the United States Championship, TV Championship and even the Hardcore Championship as mid-card titles behind the WCW Championship. Bagwell never held any relevant singles title in his career.

5/10 Everyone Hated Him In WWE

The WWE chapter of Buff Bagwell’s career could create a few noteworthy moments or stories, but it all came back to the same thing. Bagwell was hated in the WWE locker room for his arrogant reputation and the way he carried himself.

Moments like a horrible match vs Booker T, real backstage fight with Shane Helms and an alleged story of his mother calling in sick for him caused a quick firing. Bagwell never got another chance in WWE and saw his reputation grow worse than ever before.

4/10 Was Upset About TNA Using Him Without A Contract Offer

TNA brought Buff Bagwell in for a few non-official roles in the early seasons. Bagwell and Lex Luger were each used as mystery partner options for Sting playing into their WCW history. Sting teased having a big partner reveal to face the team of Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner.

Bagwell was unhappy and even criticized TNA for having a less known name at the time like Joe be slotted above him and Luger. TNA never felt Buff was trustworthy enough to offer a deal and that likely upset him more than anything else.

3/10 Trying To Change Negative Wrestling Reputation

The recent moments of Buff Bagwell provide some confusion over who actually ran his social media account during a positive change. Bagwell has admitted that someone else was helping him post the content, but he truly believed the positive things he was sharing.

The reputation of Buff has been terrible among wrestlers and fans for years. Even with the controversy involved, he seems set on changing things for the better. Diamond Dallas Page has started taking a bigger role in helping Bagwell clean up his life like he did for Jake Roberts and Scott Hall.

2/10 Retired Goldberg In WCW

One forgotten storyline from WCW involving Buff Bagwell took place at the end when fans were no longer watching and had given up on the product. Bagwell teamed with Lex Luger to form the Totally Buffed tag team that feuded with Goldberg.

WCW booked an angle of Goldberg teaming with his old retired trainer Sarge vs Totally Buffed with his career on the line. Sarge getting pinned forced Goldberg to “retire” aka take time off to rehab an injury. WCW was sold to WWE a few months later to make that Goldberg’s final WCW angle truly being written off for good.

1/10 Was One Of The First WCW Wrestlers To Join NWO

The early months of the New World Order made it hard to remember which names joined the faction before or after they jumped the shark. Buff Bagwell was on the short list of early WCW names to turn on their company for the new hot heel group.

A direct heel turn on Scotty Riggs ended the American Males tag team and gave Bagwell a chance to turn heel. Buff doesn’t deserve to be on the list of names that caused the group to fall apart. The heel turn introduced a new side to Bagwell and worked well in the nWo dynamic.