Everything You DIDN’T KNOW About WCW’s Final Days
17. Buff Bagwell’s Epic Tantrum
The demise of WCW is a very familiar and over-told tale.
Hulk Hogan’s creative control throttled the company; he was the cause of and, for a while, the solution to WCW’s problems. But mostly the cause. Vince Russo expedited the company’s creative woes, but WCW’s product was so bad in 1999 that they were already in a tailspin before October. Eric Bischoff, whose creativity deserted him in 1997, was responsible for a culture of rampant apathy, which was significantly more deadly than a nonsensical fictional storyline. Kevin Nash was bone-idle in the ring, selfish with the pencil, and adopted a “Never fancied her anyway” stance when, with WCW in deep sh*t, the time came for him to put his nose to the grindstone.
Ultimately, no one man killed WCW; it was a gangland murder perpetrated by many.
When Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger started acting like unprofessional hotshots in late 2000 and early 2001, it was too late to blame them for WCW’s demise - but their total lack of effort and self-awareness is all too often overlooked.
Buff was a poor wrestler who nonetheless was an effective heel midcard d*ckhead. He was never more than that, but he was so in love with himself that, in November 2000, he hopped on the radio and publicly threatened to quit if he was ever asked to lose a match to David Flair. When bench players start talking like they’re Hulk Hogan, that is an abysmal look.
Buff was a total egotist who thought he was the Rock, but he was justified with one of the many tantrums he was reported to have thrown backstage. This one, per Meltzer’s copy in the December 4, 2000 Observer, was “said to be reminiscent of Scott Steiner at his worst…[he was] basically screaming at everyone”.
Steiner was meant to be distracted during a match against Bagwell when Sid’s image would appear on the big screen, leading to a near-fall spot. The dopes in WCW’s production crew failed to screen the video, so Bagwell simply lost clean without his big moment.
Bagwell losing his mind over not getting a near-fall is class patter. Now nobody will think I nearly beat Scott Steiner!