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Buff Bagwell had superstar and box-office draw written all over him. He had a great look and a good amount of charisma. In addition to that, he was a confident speaker and promo guy. Unfortunately, as good as he was on camera, his life outside the squared circle was rather tumultuous. He constantly pissed off his co-workers and had a habit of getting into trouble.
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Bagwell was introduced to the business by Missy Hyatt. Hyatt approached him and encouraged Bagwell to pursue a career in professional wrestling as he had a great look for the business. When Bagwell found out about the potential paycheck, he gave it a go, and within years he ended up in WCW, one of the top promotions in the world. Buff was never the world champion, but he was popular and captured the tag titles a total of five times. Bagwell continued his tenure in WCW until the company was bought by Vince McMahon and the former tag champion was accepted into WWE.
Buff Bagwell Bullied Shane Helms During A WWE Training Session
Bagwell was a WCW outsider coming in from WCW to WWE, but he still kept an attitude backstage and began targeting other wrestlers. Shane Helms, later known as the Hurricane, was the one he kept pissing off, and it eventually led to a fight. When WCW wrestlers were brought over to WWE, they went through a small training session so they could acclimate to the WWE style and ring. Bagwell was one of the trainees and alongside him was fellow WCW wrestler, Shane Helms.
Reportedly, Bagwell told Helms, who was 40 pounds lighter than him, that he would never amount to anything in wrestling as he was too small and not muscular enough. This continued on and on and Bagwell even slapped Helms at one point. It was then that the WCW cruiserweight stood up for himself.
Shane Helms Threw A Water Bottle At Buff Bagwell's Head
Hurricane Helms was armed with a frozen water bottle, so he threw that at the back of Bagwell’s head. It connected and Buff’s head was busted open. Helms then punched Bagwell in the back of his head a few times and the other wrestlers came along to break up the fight. These details came from Bagwell himself. Shane Helms offered his own story, and it goes a little differently.
Shane Helms claimed that he was training injured as he had a bad shoulder. He further mentioned that Bagwell kept talking trash to him until he got him back with a really bad verbal burn. This started the fight and Bagwell hit him on the ear. In retaliation, Shane threw the water bottle at him and watched on as Bagwell started bleeding from the wound. So yes, a water bottle busted up Buff Bagwell. Helms never mentioned it being a frozen water bottle but Bagwell insisted it was.
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Buff Bagwell Didn't Last Long On The WWE Roster
Regardless, the fight happened, and the winner was Shane Helms. After this fight, the future Hurricane said there was a shift in attitude backstage, as the next day, the APA guys carried his bags to the WWE side and Steve Austin gave him a pat on the back, maybe for a job well done. Despite this incident, Bagwell was given the honor of wrestling Booker T on the one-hour exclusive WCW show on RAW and the match bombed.
The pro-WWE crowd jeered every second but aside from the boos, the match just wasn’t good. Booker T tried to carry Bagwell to a decent match, but as good as he was at talking, Bagwell was not a great wrestler. A troubling incident backstage and a horrible match, all in a span of a couple of months, spelled the end for Buff Bagwell in WWE.
He was fired a month later after his WWE debut. The last memory of Bagwell in a WWE ring was him getting a very stiff powerbomb from John Bradshaw Layfield. Bagwell complained about the stiff powerbomb to JBL, and he got a second serving of it a moment later.
Bagwell was released from WWE as the company felt that he was difficult to work with backstage. Buff himself stated that he didn’t think his fight with Helms was the cause of his release.
