CBS-19 entertainment reporter Chris Van Vliet interviewed former WCW Superstar Buff Bagwell, who was in Cleveland for this weekend for AIW’s JT Lightning Invitational Tournament. Here are some highlights:
Why he got fired from WWF:
“I still don’t know. But I can tell you the whole story of how I got fired. I walked into a room with Vince, Jim Ross and Johnny Ace and it took me five minutes to realize I was getting fired. I raised my hand and I said ‘Are y’all firing me?’ And Vince says, ‘no Marc, we’re not firing, you we’re releasing you.’ So I asked what the difference was and of course they had an answer for that too. He goes ‘Well, if we release you we don’t have to redo your contract when we bring you back in three months. If we fire you, we have to redo your contract’. So I told myself that I had to start shaking hands and smiling because it was over, so that’s what I did. Trying not to cry, I grabbed my bags.”
His mom winning the WCW World Tag Team Championship:
“I think it hurt it. It did. WCW got to where it was ridiculous where David Arquette was the World Heavyweight Champion and that finally sunk the whole thing. There was a time and place for those gimmicks and angles but not all the way to making my mom win. I disagree with that fully. It was good TV to have her on there, but not to be the champion. And also David Arquette not to be the champion. We used Rodman, we used Leno and we used David Arquette but we shouldn’t have made him the World Heavyweight Champion. That was pushing it too far.”
How he is feeling after his horrific car accident in April 2012:
“I don’t even tell people this because it’s so hard to believe but I wrecked my car and broke my neck on the exact same day as I broke it 14 years previous. April 22, 1998 Rick Steiner bulldogged me live on television and I broke my neck. It was the worst two years of my entire life. I really had a hard time getting back into shape. I was 42 at the time, I’m 44 now and I think with age along with the trauma I went though, it was the hardest thing ever but I finally got back and I’m back to being Buff…. honest to God I’ve only been back to being 100% for the last six months. It took a year and a half to get over it but I’m back to 110%.”
His advice to kids who want to be wrestlers:
“Any kid that walks up to me and says they want to get into wrestling I tell them don’t. Don’t. It’s just a bad time. And it’s because there is only one place to go. TNA is trying but they’re not really there. There just needs to be at least two big companies.”
Whether he actually has sex for the Showtime show Gigolos:
“No, absolutely not. We are not having sex on camera, that’s not what we’re doing. Sure, it might look like it but it’s like in a movie, Tom Cruise looks like he dies when that building explodes but he didn’t actually die. You gotta believe me on this.”
If a woman pays for his gigolo services is he able to say no to having sex?
“I’m not able to, I actually do say no. Contractually it’s no. They are paying for my companionship… they’re not looking just for sex, they are looking for a companion that will tell them they’re pretty and hang out and be friends for a day or two days.”
How his wife feels about him being a gigolo:
“My wife trusts me with this. She totally buys in and understands that we have a great marriage and this is just a decision we made to make money and Showtime loved the idea of bringing a wrestler in.”
Would he be OK if his wife wanted to work as an escort:
“No. And that’s probably not fair. I think that in life there’s a double standard with this. There’s the old saying that if a guy does it we say ‘Big deal’ but if a girl does it she’s a slut. And that goes back for centuries. I’m not a jealous guy. I just think that in the world in general, her having a husband that’s a gigolo is kind of cool but me having a wife that is an escort would be like ‘Are you kidding me?’
