Everything You DIDN’T KNOW About WCW’s Final Days

3. Famous Last Words

Totally Buffed
WWE

According to the April 2, 2001 issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, a pair of wrestlers didn’t spend the last episode of WCW Nitro reminiscing about the good times. Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell did not spend the last hours of WCW’s existence approaching the younger, anxious talent and offering career advice. According to one of Dave Meltzer’s sources, they were extremely bullish about their individual career prospects, bragging that they were “big time players” who would “have a job” in whatever would become of the pro wrestling landscape in the United States.

The last episode of WCW Nitro was broadcast on March 26, 2001.

Buff Bagwell scored a job with the WWF, and wrestled his first televised match, against Booker T, on the July 2, 2001 edition of WWE Raw. The match, a special ‘WCW main event’, was an infamous, rejected disaster. Bagwell was released from his deal a week later. The rumour and innuendo has it that Bagwell’s attitude was terrible, he had faked an injury, and that, like a young child with the Sunday scaries, he had his mother call in sick for him.

The number of days between April 2 and July 9 is 91. Now, in Bagwell’s defence, he didn’t say anything about getting fired from said job in what is very close to record time.

Luger, meanwhile, also got a job - but a brief tour of the United Kingdom for a money mark promoter probably isn’t what he had in mind. He also did a job for a t-shirt, if that counts?

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Michael Sidgwick (Creative Writing BA Hons) is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over a decade of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential UK institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!