10 Wrestlers That Vince McMahon Hasn't Forgiven
7. Buff Bagwell
Musclebound midcard oaf Buff Bagwell was nobody’s idea of the main event in late-period WCW. Following the WWF’s purchase of WCW in 2001, Bagwell had one card to play: he looked exactly the way McMahon thought wrestlers should look. To everyone else, of course, he just looked like someone had pumped one of the Backstreet Boys full of helium.
Having decided to give WCW talent a sink or swim scenario, McMahon selected Bagwell and WCW Champion Booker T to main event the July 2nd 2001 episode of RAW for the title.
No one was prepared for how violently the match would sh*t the bed: metaphorically speaking, the ring would need hosing off afterwards. The WWF audience, conditioned to see these men as inferior wrestlers, began chanting ‘borrrrring’. Whether it was the pressure, the crowd, or just his lack of real talent, Bagwell couldn’t perform to the right standard.
Bagwell claims he came into the match with stitches from coming off worst in a backstage scrap with the much smaller Shane Helms, and was told to take the week off the house show loop only to be fired at the following RAW. However, Jim Ross tells the story differently, saying that Bagwell had his mother Judy call in sick for him for those shows.
The Booker T match may have been the turning point for him, but the rest was just embarrassing. Bagwell was fired - and given the circumstances, there was no chance in hell that Vince would ever give him another shot.