Former WCW Star Buff Bagwell Has His Leg Amputated (WWE News)
Sad news coming out of Buff Bagwell's camp, but he's remarkably in good spirits.
Former WCW star Marcus 'Buff' Bagwell has undergone surgery to amputate most of his right leg. Ex-WWE worker Maven Huffman documented his preparation for surgery, the procedure itself and Bagwell's thoughts after going under the knife via his popular YouTube channel, and it's a must-see mini-documentary if you don't have a weak stomach for such things.
Doctors performed up to 30 different surgeries on Buff's knee over a period of 5 years following his car crash in August 2020. By his own admission, Bagwell was driving under the influence and blacked out behind the wheel. He ended up crashing his vehicle through a bathroom behind a nearby Marietta, Georgia shopping mall.
Later, docs told Buff that his kneecap had exploded, and they were finding it borderline impossible to correct things. He couldn't get a knee replacement, because he didn't have a kneecap to make it work. At one point, Bagwell faced the prospect of never being able to bend his leg again unless he had surgery that carried a measly 20% success rate, and he's struggled with that ever since (both physically and mentally).
VICE documented some of Buff's harrowing personal tales on 'Dark Side Of The Ring' in 2024.
Bagwell Remains Hopeful For The Future
On 9 July, Maven and his film crew travelled to see Buff. Bagwell explained the situation, then had surgery the next morning. Hospital staff wouldn't let Maven's YouTubers shoot a lot of footage inside the building, but there's some fascinating sneaky footage in the video before they were told to shut cameras off.
In total, the doc lasts for 25 minutes, and it shows Buff in remarkably good spirits considering what he's going through. Right at the end, he showed Maven his amputation, said he could still feel his ankle twitching, and then offered the following hopeful statement:
"I want to get back in the ring, run the ropes, have a match. It’ll show that I came out of the darkness with this thing, and I turned it around all the way to be back in the ring as Buff Bagwell. You don’t have to give up with something like this. I’m taking it by the horns and showing that you can have just as good of a life without a leg".
Best wishes to Marcus as he continues his recovery.