Buff Bagwell tells his side of the story about his incident with Shane Helms.
Dark Side of the Ring Season 5 is underway and the second episode covered the career of former WCW and WWE star Buff Bagwell.
Bagwell spoke candidly about his highs and lows and also shared his side of the story regarding his altercation with Shane Helms in July 2001, which took place prior to Bagwell wrestling Booker T in the main event of WWE RAW.
Bagwell recalled, “Shane says something like, ‘Wow, Buff made it on time today.’ I go, ‘You had a great day today, brother.’ He goes, ‘I’m hurt.’ I go, ‘Oh, I know, yeah. You’re always hurt or something.’ He goes, ‘Well at least I’m not a drug addict.’ I said, ‘Look, bro, we’ve got two ways to go here. We can just drop this and let it go, or I can just slap your teeth down your f***ing throat.'”
Bagwell recalled Helms telling him to “take his best shot,” so he hit Helms with the “Bagwell slap,” which was something his father taught him. Bagwell said it shows instant dominance to demonstrate who’s in control. Unbeknownst to Bagwell, however, Helms had a frozen water bottle under his shirt and struck Bagwell from behind with it.
“It was just like a sledgehammer,” Bagwell remembers. “All of a sudden I look and there’s just blood all around me. I don’t tell nobody about it, I go to my own doctor, I get my own doctor to fix it. No time off. I wrestled that night with Booker with 25 staples in my head that night. I had to get a black Sharpie and cover the staples in that match.”
Buff Bagwell On His Match Against Booker T
Bagwell thought his main event against Booker T was good, but they received feedback from higher-ups that their match did not go well. They also received negative chants from the crowd.
“So they call me that week and they’re like, ‘Hey, man, we’ve got big plans for you on Monday. Rest up, you’re good to go.’ And I was fired the next week,” Bagwell added. “I went from main event one week and was fired in seven days. What if I had a horrible match? So what? I’m Buff Bagwell, man. I gave 11 years to WCW. Five-time world tag team champion, rookie of the year. I’m 31 with 20 years coming at me of wonderful wrestling. Why would you get fired over a bad match? I think they were just trying to get rid of me.”
Helms previously addressed the altercation on Sam Roberts’ Wrestling Podcast in 2016. He claimed that he only threw a 10-ounce plastic water bottle at Bagwell, not a frozen bottle. Since Bagwell struck him while he was already hurting, Helms retaliated but did not expect Bagwell’s head to be busted open.
Ultimately, WWE locker room leaders like The APA and Steve Austin showed their support of Helms in the days that followed despite Helms recently coming from WCW.
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