Wrestler Buff Bagwell Has Leg Amputated & Says ‘I Want to Get Back in the Ring’

Marcus “Buff” Bagwell recently underwent a leg amputation following lingering injuries from a 2020 car accident, though he still intends to “get back in the ring” once he’s healed.

Bagwell, who made his name in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the 1990s and had a brief stint in WWE in 2001, opened up about his surgery on his YouTube channel on Friday (July 18). In the video, where he was joined by his fiancée Stacy Brown, Bagwell said his decision to go through with the amputation would give him “a better quality of life.”

“When I look down and see that I’m getting ready to amputate my leg, no more do I start getting depressed about it even for a second,” he added. “Instantly, I get overwhelmed with joy because of the last three years of my life.”

Bagwell revealed he’d already undergone 39 to 40 surgeries for knee replacements, flap surgeries and extension-mechanism repairs, since destroying his “right patellar tendons” in the 2020 car accident. However, his leg never healed properly, leading him into a depression.

“That led me into the deepest, darkest [alcohol] addiction I’ve ever been in,” Bagwell recalled. “My leg wasn’t healing, and so I was super depressed.”

In the video, Bagwell explained how he’d been drinking when he took a wrong exit and “ended up behind the mall, and somehow, that’s where it all came to the end, where I drove through a men’s and women’s bathroom.” No one else was injured in the crash.

Bagwell entered rehab for his drinking in August 2022 and continued to focus on fixing his leg. However, things changed after one final right knee extensor mechanism repair surgery, which “got infected.”

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The former WCW Tag Team champion revealed he was given a choice between a “20% chance” of saving the leg through more surgeries, physical therapy, and a steel rod, or amputation.

Despite the injuries and setbacks, Bagwell described the past couple of years as “the best years of my life.” He also remained positive about his future, even hoping to return to the ring someday.

“I’m gonna be able to run, and I’m going to be able to run better. I want to get back in the ring, hit the ropes, have a match,” he explained. “You don’t have to give up with something like this… I’m going to show the world that you can have just as good a life with or without a leg.”