Buff Bagwell and Booker T were the first WCW wrestlers to main event an episode of Raw back in 2001 as part of the Invasion storyline. The match, which is widely considered one of the worst main events in Raw history, was one of the last times we would see Bagwell on WWE TV.
Bagwell was released from the company a week later.
Reportedly, Bagwell had attitude issues backstage and got into an altercation with Shane Helms. Bagwell slapped Helms and Helms responded by throwing a frozen water bottle at his head, causing a cut that required stitches.
In an interview with Lee Walker III of Ringside News, Bagwell explained that he still doesn't know why WWE released him, but he places much of the blame on head of talent relations Jim Ross.
"The heat with Ross is when he called and let me off after I wrestled in Tacoma against Booker T. There are only three witnesses to this story, God, Jim and me. Nobodies going to believe me, it’s going to be really hard to get God to come down and talk about it, so everybody believed Jim. The true, true story was it was a Wednesday or Thursday and I'm by myself. Jim called and said, 'Listen, we want you to rest your head, take it easy, we have really big plans for you on Monday.'"
The story Ross put out there on an episode of Legends of Wrestling Roundtable is that Bagwell's mom called Ross to tell him that her son could not work that weekend.
Bagwell explained, "Why would I call -- 'Hey Mommy, will you please call Jim Ross and get me out of this after working there two whole weeks?' That’s not even believable but people believed it. People swallowed it up and believed it. That’s why I hate Jim Ross."
Bagwell's heat with Ross isn't new territory. He first aired his grievances with the longtime announcer last year as part of his appearance on Steve Austin's podcast. Ross defended himself at the time, saying on his own podcast, "I never relished in firing people and it only makes sense that if a talent could help a company that I wanted them to make it. I’m sorry Marc feels like he does. I’m sure he believes what’s there is true but I never went out of my way to cause him any misery. I just was the guy that had to deliver the bad news.”
But Buff isn't buying that excuse.
"He’s acting like he just carried on his duty of what he’s supposed to do, but I’ve also seen him on that Roundtable where he blisters me, dogs me out. Dogs my wrestling. It was him, Micheal Hayes, Eric Bischoff on a panel and Ross goes on and on about my Mom calling, dogging me out. His defense was always 'he liked Marc' and that 'he was just doing his job.' Well if that’s the case, why’d he dog me out on The Roundtable if he likes me? I think he’s 1,000 percent behind it. I do hate his absolute every bit of his living guts. If he died today, I could care less. That’s how I feel about it because he cost me millions of dollars over a lie that the world took in that my Mother called to get me out of, and it’s not true. Who would do that two weeks into the World Wrestling Federation? If my leg got chopped off, I would go.”
Following his release from WWE, Bagwell made sporadic appearances in TNA and on the Independent scene. He last wrestled for USA Championship Wrestling.
