Former WWE star Marcus ‘Buff’ Bagwell has had a leg amputation after years of health struggles following a 2020 car crash.
The 55-year-old retired wrestler, who still hopes to get back in the ring again after his operation, has opened up about how he’s had over 30 surgeries to try and save his limb over the past five years.
Bagwell is a five-time WCW World Tag Team Champion, and spent some time with WWE in 2001.
Speaking on his own YouTube channel, Bagwell and his fiance Stacy Brown documented his decision to undergo the procedure, and the aftermath.
‘Today we are 12 hours away from being at the hospital. We have to be there at 7:45 tomorrow morning for an above-the-knee amputation. This is the result of a five-year battle trying to save my leg,’ he said in the emotional video.
In 2020, Bagwell passed out behind the wheel of his car and crashed into a brick wall in Atlanta, Georgia, where he sustained a foot and knee injury, and he admitted now the life altering incident feels like a ‘dream’.
‘It’s strange because when I look back on it, it felt like a dream. I vaguely remember hitting cars, seeing faces, hearing horns, people yelling, and not knowing what I was doing,’ he recalled.
‘Somehow I ended up behind Cumberland Mall, and that’s where it all ended.’
Over the following years, he underwent over 30 surgeries, and at one point at 21 in less than two months, while he also battled infections and other complications.
‘That suffering pushed me into the darkest addiction I’ve ever been in,’ he admitted.
‘Alcohol became my daily escape. I was hiding mini bottles in my pockets. I tried to keep functioning – still going to the gym on a walker – but I was falling apart inside and out.’
He checked himself into rehab three years ago, and has been sober ever since, although his leg has not improved.
Although further surgeries are an option, he was told by doctors that they would only have a 20% chance of success, particularly as he has no kneecap in that leg.
He decided to undergo the procedure, but Bagwell is trying to focus on the positives.
‘And now, as I prepare to lose my leg, I don’t feel fear or sadness. I feel peace and joy,’ he said. ‘Because through this pain, I found sobriety. Losing my leg might’ve been the rock bottom that saved my life.’
Meanwhile, Bagwell confirmed he hopes to wrestle one day in the future.
‘I want to get back in the ring, run the ropes, have a match,’ he told Maven Huffman on his YouTube channel. ‘I’m taking it by the horns and showing that you can have just as good of a life without a leg.’
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