Former WCW wrestler Buff Bagwell undergoes leg amputation

After a five-year battle trying to save his right leg, Buff Bagwell (Marcus Alexander Bagwell) has undergone an amputation and is hopeful that it will improve his quality of life going forward.

The former WCW wrestler underwent an above-the-knee amputation this week due to injuries stemming from a 2020 car accident. He did everything he could to save his leg after the wreck, but Bagwell was ultimately faced with a decision where he could undergo three more surgeries over the next year and have countless hours of physical therapy — only for a 20 percent chance of the leg being saved. And even then, he would need to have a steel rod in his leg for the rest of his life.

Having the amputation is a decision that Bagwell called a “no-brainer.” Losing a leg is tough, but he’s optimistic that his quality of life will dramatically improve with a prosthetic.

“I’m trying to be excited about it, and I think it’s going to be a wonderful thing. So I’m trying to make a bad situation good again, like I’ve done a lot of times in my life,” Bagwell said. “But I really do think this is the right call. And I’m really thinking that I’m going to have a better quality of life.”

Bagwell’s life was previously in a dark place with alcohol addiction, but he’ll officially be three years sober next month. Bagwell said these past three years have been some of the best of his life due to his relationship with God, his fiancee Stacy, and focusing on himself.

“I’d rather be sober right now with this situation than Buff Bagwell on WCW making money and in the funk I was in,” he said. “I’d much rather have this life.”

The 55-year-old Bagwell isn’t closing the book on his in-ring career, saying he hopes to have another match to prove you can still live a great life after amputation.

“I want to get back in the ring, hit the ropes, have a match,” Bagwell said. “It’ll show that I’ve came out of the darkness with this thing and I’ve turned it around all the way to being back in the ring as Buff Bagwell. You don’t have to give up with something like this. This is something that I am taking by the horns, man. And I’m going to show the world that you can have just as good of a life with or without a leg.”

Bagwell documented the journey of his amputation through a video on his YouTube channel and another on Maven Huffman’s channel.