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Wrestler with Local Ties is Fondly Remembered

Posted: Jan 28th 2007 By: CMBurnham

Scott Charles Bigelow had an unsavory reputation when Paulsboro High grad "Pretty Boy" Larry Sharpe took him on as a student at his Monster Factory professional wrestling school in 1984.

"But I Iiked him and saw all that raw talent, so I decided to work with him," Sharpe says.

That's how Sharpe became "Bam Bam" Bigelow's manager. And how a legend was born.

Nicknamed for Barney and Betty Rubble's offspring on the "Flintstones" cartoon, Bam Bam was able to perform perfect drop kicks and athletic maneuvers off the top rope that amazed pro wrestling fanatics in the heyday of the World Wrestling Federation. He was among the most agile big men pro wrestling ever produced.

A man with several Gloucester County connections, Bigelow died the other day in the Florida home of his girlfriend while awaiting trial for his role in a DWI motorcycle crash that severely injured her.

There were no indications of foul play although the cause of death was not immediately issued. He faced possible jail time.

Bigelow was the No. 1 heavyweight seed in the NJSIAA state meet as a Neptune senior in 1979. But he was upset in the semifinals by Pitman High School's Matt Lauck, who went on to win the title. A season earlier, Bigelow was ousted in the quarterfinals by Manchester Regional's Bruce Baumgartner, who later won four gold medals in the Olympics.

After high school, Bigelow's jobs included handling backstage security at "The Stone Pony," an Asbury Park club popularized by Bruce Springsteen.

Sharpe recalls Bam Bam being dropped off at the Monster Factory for a long 1984 weekend by "two mob guys from Connecticut." Sharpe already had done it all in wrestling bad guy turned good guy grappler, manager, agent, promoter and his new wrestling school was getting publicized from "Good Morning America" to Sports Illustrated.

So Bigelow earned his doctorate in pro wrestling at a school whose products included Washington Township product Chris Pallies (former WWF superstar King Kong Bundy).

"He was an overnight sensation, a 6-foot-3, 325-pound guy who could do perfect cartwheels," Sharpe says. "I had him for six months before the promoters started coming around. I managed him and we headed first to Tennessee and Texas. In 1986, he signed a $5,500 a week contract, unheard of then, to tour Japan. He was amazingly athletic. Some of the oldtimers compared him to Gorilla Monsoon when he was younger."

Sharpe takes responsibility for Bam Bam's physical trademark the flames that were tattooed on the entire top of his head, requiring several sittings. "It was on my advice," Sharpe says.

Bigelow did not make his professional debut in Gloucester County, but did wrestle his second or third match at Gloucester County College on a card that included a soon-to-be-retired Sharpe wrestling one of his last matches. Bigelow's signature move was a body slam he labeled "Greetings from Asbury Park."

The two last saw each other in 1986 at the Tokyo airport.

"We had a disagreement," Sharpe says. "He was a person with problems. I once bailed him out of jail. But after I got out of Fox Chase in 1998 (Sharpe has battled leukemia), he called to inquire how I was doing, and suggested we get together. We never did."

(Pretty Boy Larry Sharpe was Larry Weil as a student at Paulsboro High School. He works for the County of Gloucester at Pitman Golf Course. Columnist Bob Shryock also works for the course.)