Buff Bagwell Gets Candid About WWE Firing And Subsequent Legal Drama

WWE

Buff Bagwell was a popular WCW star during the "Monday Night Wars," who could have eventually moved into a main event spot, especially after his stint with the nWo. Many thought this would happen once he made the jump to WWE after WCW fell apart, but he infamously only had a single match in the promotion, which came against Booker T — which many have criticized – before being fired.

Advertisement

Bagwell recently revealed that he's not been invited to any WWE or AEW shows, and believes it all stems back to his release from WWE and his only match. 

"Why did we even do that match in Tacoma?" Bagwell questioned during an interview with "The Wrestling Chatter." 

The veteran claimed that he and Booker weren't sure why the match was happening, and they both felt it wasn't good. Bagwell then pointed out that his firing was not because the match was bad, and recounted what he was told.

"You put Booker T and Buff Bagwell in Atlanta, Georgia (...) and it's going to be a totally different outcome, brother," the veteran opined. "I was told I was released and, 'We would bring you back in three months' and I believed them, and in three months when I called back, they acted like they didn't know who I was."

Advertisement

WWE

In October 2001, WWE held the Vengeance pay-per-view, where the WWF and World Championship (formally the WCW Championship) were to be unified into the Undisputed WWF Championship. Buff Bagwell suggested that he should've been involved in the event, and still wonders why he didn't get another opportunity with WWE.

Advertisement

"From the next, let's just say 15 years, I've got no idea how Buff Bagwell don't get a second chance," Buff Bagwell said.

Bagwell further recounted that Diamond Dallas Page spoke to WWE about supporting his rehab bill in 2022, which the promotion refused to do, and believes there's still bad blood between him and the promotion. 

"What did I do, so bad, dude, to be outcasted over a few weeks? How do you go main event 'Monday Night Raw,' and in seven days you get released and then hear it's for a bad match and your mother called?" the veteran questioned.

He then recalled defending his match and even his mother infamously calling WWE for the first five years after the drama, but over the following ten years, he stopped caring. But he was approached by lawyers who gave him some interesting news. "It was a big lawsuit, that they were gonna owe me a bunch of money. It was like 80-something-thousand a week or something, it was crazy," he claimed.

Advertisement

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Buff Bagwell eventually went ahead with the lawsuit, mainly because he felt he was poorly treated by WWE. But the case came down to a technicality, due to an interview where he said that the lawyer contacted him, which wasn't allowed. 

Advertisement

"In some shape, form, or fashion, it was done wrong, so I had to sign these papers saying they'd never owe me anything again," Bagwell revealed. 

The veteran then claimed that he's received very few residual cheques from WWE and that nothing has been over $500 in total. In an attempt to recall what went wrong, Bagwell admitted his substance abuse issues got in the way, but he couldn't think of anything else he might have done wrong. 

"The lawsuit kind of put the nail in the coffin, but we were way off track way before that lawsuit, that was 2012 area, that was 12 years after the invasion stuff," he noted. 

Bagwell then candidly apologized for whatever he might have done and said that he worships WWE and would give anything to be in a WWE 2K video game, even for free. "I would give my right arm to be under the umbrella of the WWE," he said.

Advertisement

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Wrestling Chatter" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.