10 Wrestlers Who Left Promotions With Nuclear Heat
6. Buff Bagwell
It is a credit to Buff Bagwell that WWE took an immediate interest in him when they bought out WCW. He had the look, athleticism, was decent on the mic, and stood out in a locker room packed with nWo black and white - but he was equally known for his big ego.
Bagwell and Booker T were given a match on 2 July 2001 edition of Raw to trial the idea of keeping WCW as a separate show. Jim Ross described the match as “abnormally bad and seemingly ill-timed”. Bagwell took the bulk of the resulting condemnation. To make matters worse, Bagwell claims he lost $150,000 in signing with WWE, voiding his Time Warner contract.
Bagwell’s failure put nuclear heat on him. This was followed by a backstage fight with Shane Helms, and having his mother call in sick for him. Chavo Guerrero shed some light on Bagwell's heat and exit:
“I think Buff p*ssed off the wrong people. Bradshaw was out to get him and other people were out to get him and I don’t know the whole story I heard — I don’t know if it’s true or not — I heard his mom called the office asking, ‘Why is my son,’ I don’t know if that’s true or not. I don’t know if it happened […] But it’s just, you know, if you get those rumours circulating that’s just never good.”