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00:30He was just massive, but so athletic, so quick.
00:34Bammer did it almost like a ballet dancer.
00:37Bigelow can move for a big man, and he knows what he's doing in there.
00:40Look at this 400-pound man doing flips, cartwheels, and going through the ring.
00:45This is crazy.
00:46In his time in the 80s, nobody was like him.
00:49Like, this isn't right.
00:51It wasn't just Rookie of the Year, it was Phenomenon of the Year.
00:54Bam, bam, Bigelow!
00:57Arriving on the scene like a force of nature, Bam, bam, Bigelow catapulted to the top of the wrestling world and never looked back.
01:04You need a little excitement!
01:06When you've been on top in WWE, and then you've been on tippity-top-top in ECW, you know, they beat the f*** out of each other.
01:16Wrestling rewarded Bam Bam's talents with money and fame, but those rewards came with a heavy price.
01:22All the wear and tear, and you're not going to feel it right away, but it's coming.
01:27And that's when it changed, and everything spiraled out of control.
01:32You're selling your body, you're selling your health to have fame, fortune, and everything that goes with it.
01:39People had mouths to feed, so guys did what they had to do to earn their living.
01:44He was in pain, and there was a doctor involved that was willing to take that away.
01:49And things went downhill from there.
01:53But Bam Bam's addictions eventually pushed him beyond the point of redemption, destroying everything he loved.
02:01A trusted professional gave him the thing that was his biggest demise.
02:08This doctor could have had a loaded machine gun to our family, and it would have been no different.
02:13No different.
02:14So, just digging through the vast archives, we have Dad's calendar.
02:27And then if you go to November 15, 1987, he got married.
02:33And then, you know, not even taking a honeymoon, like he had a day off, and then he was in Des Moines, Iowa.
02:37This is literally the first four days of his career with the WWF in 1987.
02:42He definitely wanted kids right away.
02:45He was like, I just want to stay home and raise the kids.
02:47You could go to work, go to school, do what you want to do.
02:49And he was more excited about being a dad than he was when he got WrestleMania.
02:55Hi, I'm Dana Breckenridge.
02:56I was married to Bam Bam Bigelow.
02:58And when Richie came, I mean, that was the best thing ever.
03:03Because all he ever really wanted was a daughter.
03:05Oh, yeah.
03:06He was a giant teddy bear.
03:07What fans saw in the ring was not at all what we saw at home.
03:12It was love.
03:13It was playing around.
03:14My name is Richie Bigelow, and my father is Bam Bam Bigelow.
03:18He had this giant, giant bed that we would all cuddle up in and just jump around.
03:22Yeah, it was a great time.
03:24When you think of your dad, it's the first memory that comes to mind.
03:27It was the last time I saw him.
03:29We were just driving in the car, and I was two or three years old.
03:33But I remember seeing his head slowly drop to his chest and then come back up.
03:41And whenever I think back on how I went about the situation, I'm always so baffled because
03:46I was so young.
03:48But in some way, I understood that we were in some sort of danger.
03:53And as a toddler, I went into panic mode.
03:57I got to go to the bathroom.
03:58I got to get out.
03:59Daddy, daddy, pull over.
04:00I can't.
04:01So we pulled over on the side of the road, and he looked at me and gave me this big toothless
04:06smile.
04:07He's like, come on, like, do you have to go?
04:08Like, it was just on the side of the road.
04:09And I was like, no, no, but kind of stalling.
04:13And then we just got back on the road, and it started happening again.
04:17This time we were by a diner, and we pulled into that diner.
04:20And the next thing I know, my car door was opened, and a man just scooped me up and put
04:28me in the back of this gray car.
04:31And from the back seat, I watched them take my dad in handcuffs across.
04:36That was it.
04:37My mom came and picked me up, and she was real gentle about it.
04:41And she told me, you're probably not going to be seeing daddy anymore.
04:46He needs help.
04:47And that was the last time I saw him.
04:51He wanted to be a wrestler, but he wanted to be a father more.
04:56And everything was taken away.
04:59So was wrestling what took it away?
05:02Or was Scott and all the other outside influences what took it away?
05:07Like, how did this happen?
05:11Here we go.
05:14This is dad, his sophomore year.
05:16In high school.
05:18Oh my god.
05:20Right?
05:20They were Class A North champions.
05:2220 and 6.
05:23That's probably the last time you'll see him with hair.
05:27Everything around Asbury Park is Bruce Springsteen.
05:30The sound of Bruce Springsteen is everywhere and in everything that we did when we grew up
05:35on the shore.
05:36Scott was a street kid from Neptune.
05:39He hung out in the bars of Asbury, you know, driving the circuit in muscle cars.
05:43For our age and our crowd, he was definitely the man.
05:47You know what?
05:47He was probably the kindest, most genuine person of the group.
05:52We were friends and it was just a progression.
05:54And then it was a whirlwind.
05:56We were street kids.
05:58Nobody thought about where they were going.
05:59I didn't go to college.
06:00My friends didn't go to college.
06:02He didn't go to college.
06:03God, the Jersey Shore was like the party place to be.
06:09I was running a club called Club Xanadu in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
06:14The club is actually one block from the Stone Pony.
06:17And in the middle was this place called Quack Quack.
06:21It's DDP, Diamond Dallas Page.
06:23And I know Bam Bam because I'm from the Jersey Shore.
06:26DDP, we've got a new world champion, guys.
06:29I roll into the Quack Quack and I see this mammoth kid.
06:34And at some point, you know, we're doing shots and we just kind of clicked, you know.
06:38But I think he was 17 at the time.
06:41But no one cared because he looked like a full-grown man.
06:45He was, you know, 300-plus pounds and he could obviously be very menacing.
06:49But he also had that fun side to him.
06:53And they were calling him the beast from the East back then.
06:56He was a football player and he was ranked in the state for wrestling.
07:00I mean, he was feared on the mat and on the football field.
07:03This was the time when heavyweight in high school wrestling was unlimited.
07:08So you're talking about a 320-pound teenager who can bench 500 pounds walking onto a mat.
07:14I'm Shane Bigelow and my father's Bam Bam Bigelow.
07:18I heard a story from a high school wrestling coach that my father rolled his ankle real bad
07:22and he couldn't wrestle.
07:23But his coach was just like,
07:25Scotty, I need you to just go up there and just look me.
07:28So he gets up, he steps on the scale,
07:30he turns to the kid and he just gives him this big flex.
07:32He's just like, I'm coming for you.
07:34Lo and behold, this kid is shitting his pants.
07:36So he tells his coach, I'm not wrestling this guy.
07:38He's going to rip my head off.
07:40All my father had to do, he hopped out on one leg, got his hand raised, and took the win.
07:46There was a group of the boys and they were rough drinking, tattooed, like old sailors,
07:52but not sailors, they were roofers.
07:54And they were very infamous around town.
07:58Him and his brothers used to jump off of billboards onto mattresses on the side of the road.
08:03When my grandmother would drive past, she'd be like, oh, look at those kids.
08:05And then she'd realize that it was her three boys jumping onto like five mattresses piled high.
08:11Scott was very quiet.
08:12You know, he was the baby of the bunch.
08:14They usually only called him in when they needed the extra muscle.
08:18It hurt.
08:19He got into a fight and he bit some kid's ear off.
08:21I was like, what?
08:23But it's part of the legend that went with the beast from the East.
08:26Tough dude, ran with rugged people.
08:29He was all that and a bag of chips, man.
08:31He was a bad apple when he wanted to be.
08:34I am Taz, former ECW World Heavyweight Champion and former opponent of Bam Bam Bigelow.
08:41Bam Bam Bigelow all over Taz.
08:43I've heard all the stories about Bigelow and I believe them all.
08:47There is a whole separate legend before the legend Bam Bam Bigelow ever became the legend.
08:53My name is Scott Colton Bigelow and Bam Bam Bigelow is my father.
08:57I know that he was a bounty hunter for a short stint.
09:02I don't know much about the backstory of it.
09:06I guess I was about 18, 19 years old.
09:09You see an ad for bounty hunter and basically just picked up ale jumpers, beat up a lot of
09:14people and then wind up going to Mexico to get a little girl that was kidnapped.
09:19He was supposedly commissioned to go and bring back a young girl who was taken out of the
09:26country.
09:26In the whole mayday and craziness of the thing, his bounty hunting partner ends up getting
09:32shot in the net and killed.
09:33And that's when my dad spent six months in a Mexican prison.
09:38I heard he ended up in jail, you know, Mexico.
09:41So you just hear little bits and pieces.
09:43With Scotty, they could be exaggerated.
09:45The story is he befriended the judge because he used to run through the walls that were made
09:50out of like the terracotta clay.
09:52He used to just break through the cells of the wall so they couldn't keep him in.
09:54So the judge one day apparently goes to him and asked him, he goes, I need security from
10:00all these cartel, mob, whatever guys.
10:03So you stand in front of me and you stop these maniacs from like lunging at me and trying
10:07to kill me and I'll knock your sentence down.
10:09So the story is that a judge took pity on my father because my father saved him from a bunch
10:14of guys trying to jump over and stab him and he ended up letting him loose early.
10:18He's basically a New Jersey legend.
10:20There's a story that one night, house is on fire, he drives by, runs in and saves some kids.
10:26He pulled over, ran in the house and saved the kids.
10:29That sounds like a TV movie.
10:31It doesn't sound like stuff that really happens, you know, and there were a lot of stories like
10:36that just out there floating around.
10:38I'm Shane Douglas and I had the pleasure of being partners in the Triple Threat with Bam Bam
10:43Bigelow.
10:44Who's the world champion?
10:47You know, as I'd heard that he got arrested, I guess in Mexico, you know, that sounds implausible.
10:52Then like over years, you'd hear other people repeating these stories and just elevated that
10:57legend that was Bam Bam.
10:59You know, getting out of the joint, there's no jobs, you know.
11:02So I was bouncing, partying, hanging out with the boys.
11:05Here comes Bam Bam in the club.
11:08This is like 81-ish and it's packed and my club was nice and I see Bam rolling with like
11:15three of his biker buddies and I come rolling up behind and put my arm around his back.
11:20I'm like, yo Bam, no trouble in here tonight, right, bro?
11:24Oh, come on, Paige.
11:25I wouldn't do that to you.
11:27And at some point we're at the bar and I got the guys a shot and wrestling comes up.
11:33And, you know, I said, you know, I tried that.
11:36In 79, he goes, you tried wrestling?
11:39I said, but I had three matches.
11:41My third match, I hurt my knee and I kind of got swept away by the booze.
11:44The broads and the party.
11:46But talking to him about it, I'm like, dude, you're a natural.
11:49He goes, that would be a pie in the sky dream for me.
11:53I just got to the point where, well, where's my life going to go?
11:56You know, I don't have a college education.
11:58My gift was being athletically inclined.
12:01And so I went to a wrestling school, which was Larry Sharp School of Monster Factory at the time.
12:06The rest is history.
12:08Larry Sharp was a former amateur wrestler who opened up the Monster Factory.
12:12My name's Dave Meltzer. I'm the editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
12:15And I've been covering pro wrestling since 1971.
12:17And one day I guess Bam Bam walked in the door and Larry saw like everyone did.
12:23Money.
12:24And he became Scott's manager.
12:27Set him up on a couch, threw him in the ring and trained him.
12:31I wound up staying out there at the Monster Factory, living out there, basically eating it, living it, sleeping it for a year.
12:38I saw footage of him coming out of the Monster Factory.
12:41You could tell like his aptitude to learn how to do this and get better at this, his athleticism.
12:47It jumped out to me right away.
12:49I mean, seeing a guy like that, you know, a guy that big, you know, do a caught wheel, I was like, wow, he's super impressive.
12:56For Scott, professional wrestling, it's like a double-edged sword.
12:59It gave him life and it took his life.
13:02That's the ultimate double-edged, isn't it?
13:04In 1985, Scott Bigelow was on the brink of stardom, having made a clean break from a troubled past.
13:17When he went to the Monster Factory with Larry Sharp, Larry really developed the name Bam Bam with Scott Bam Bam, the strong baby face.
13:26You're like Bam Bam from the Flintstones.
13:29So he became Bam Bam Bigelow.
13:31Probably the most handsome wrestler on the face of the earth.
13:34The massive head of Bam Bam and that big flame ball on that head, that tattoo.
13:39Who gets ink on their head has got to be crazy.
13:42Nevertheless, their whole head, for those that never got a tattoo, they hurt as much as they think, okay?
13:47This guy got his skull tattooed.
13:49Just imagine how much pain and how many hours that took to do.
13:52This was the branding of Bam Bam Bigelow.
13:56See, people love to hate.
13:57And as long as they want to hate me, I know I'm doing my job.
14:00And it kind of just sent that message to the fans and to other wrestlers.
14:05That's a bad dude right there.
14:07Bam Bam, do you have anything to say about all this?
14:09I'm hungry.
14:10Despite being a rookie to the wrestling scene, those with an eye for the business see Bam Bam's incredible potential.
14:17Especially soon to be industry pioneer, Paul Heyman.
14:21Paul was doing wrestling magazines at the time.
14:24This was before he was actually running around the business as a manager.
14:27And in his magazines, he was always promoting Bam Bam Bigelow like this phenomenon.
14:31And the guy had never even had a match.
14:33Paul worked at Studio 54. He was doing publicity at the time.
14:36And he got this, you know, gig. Bam Bam Bigelow's first match.
14:41And I looked at it and I was just like, oh my God.
14:44This guy's like 380 pounds and he's coming off the top rope.
14:48At that point, you know, I'm going like, this guy's gonna be like it.
14:51In wrestling, like he's gonna be the biggest thing.
14:55I was like 19 when we started dating and I was with his brother and a couple other friends.
15:01And we went to his show and he got up there and he wrestled.
15:04And they were just in awe of what it all was.
15:06I just was like, oh, you know, he's at work.
15:09I didn't really know too much about it until the WWF came rocking.
15:14At some point, I'm running another really big club in the 86-ish.
15:18And I'm slicking the channels and all of a sudden I'm seeing wrestling.
15:22And I'm like, oh my God, that's Bigelow.
15:25Take a good look because we're bringing him from one end of the world to the other.
15:30Next thing I know, he's with Hulk Hogan. He's in the WWF.
15:33And I'm like, oh my God.
15:36From Asburyport, New Jersey.
15:39He made it.
15:41Bam Bam Bigelow.
15:44Not only is Bam Bam headed to the WWF,
15:47but he's coming in with the full support of company owner Vince McMahon.
15:51WWF brought him in and, you know, they tried to make him into the next big thing.
15:56You know, they did the thing where all the managers were bidding on him to make him extra special.
16:01I'm here to introduce Bam Bam Bigelow.
16:05Vince loved big guys.
16:06And now you've got the most agile, 380 pound guy that anyone has ever seen.
16:12I mean, they brought him in to be Hulk Hogan's tag team partner, to be right there with Hogan.
16:16And he was going to main event there and he was going to work with the top guys.
16:20In the beginning, Hulk Hogan was the one that really took me and said,
16:24okay, this is the business. This is how we do it. This is serious.
16:28He signed the WWE contract and we got married November 15th, 1987.
16:33And he went on the road November 16th, 1987.
16:37How did he propose to you?
16:38We were watching TV and he was like...
16:41Want to get married?
16:44And I was like, okay.
16:46And that was basically it. There was no fanfare.
16:49I saw him 10 times a year. I don't even know.
16:52Maybe that's why the marriage lasted so long.
16:54Maybe that's why I don't have anything bad to say.
16:56He was on the road and hit the ground running and it was on from there.
17:01Back in the early days with WWF, you know, we were working 60 days in a row.
17:06The main event in front of the sold out crowd every night.
17:09And on the weekends, we do two shows.
17:11So it's life in the fast lane.
17:13When he was home, you know, he did regular things.
17:18So he remained very humble.
17:20Scott was who he was around here.
17:22But, you know, it was cool to see him on TV.
17:25He was in the first Nintendo game.
17:27Like I said, he was just breaking into the business and he worked and he provided.
17:32He knew to take advantage of that situation and take advantage of everything that was given to him.
17:38What a monster!
17:40Everybody that gets a pair of boots and tights wants to be the world champion, right?
17:43And they think they're ready for it yesterday.
17:45For me, it was 11 years before I saw a world title.
17:48So when I did get that belt, I understood the responsibility that went with it.
17:53So I would think that Bam Bam being thrown that quickly into main events with, you know,
17:58Hulk Hogan or one of these massive names, it would have been intimidating.
18:02He never had to crawl his way up.
18:04There's always going to be jealousy, especially when you've been in the business 15 years
18:07and he's been in the business for two or one and he's on the top of the card.
18:12He was young and these guys were big and it was George Animal Steel and King Kong Bundy
18:16and it was just people that he always saw on TV and all of a sudden he's standing in the middle of the ring
18:21in the Survivor Series and the older guys were like, you know what, you need to step in line.
18:26The 8th Wonder Up!
18:28I remember there was an Andre match. Of course Andre the Giant was the biggest man you'll ever see.
18:34Andre got him in the ring up against the ropes and wrapped the rope around his neck.
18:40Scott was like, he's going to kill me.
18:43Andre tried to kill me in Madison Square Garden.
18:47He picked me up and he tried choking me out and I was like, oh God, don't go out, don't go out.
18:52Madison Square Garden, man, that's all that.
18:54Yeah. He can't pass out.
19:02Look up, even Bam Bam looks small next to this guy.
19:06Andre thought I was just a kid, thought I was getting too cocky or whatever.
19:10You know, he was laying him in.
19:12So, you know, Andre, he was on top of him and he was pounding on him.
19:15I mean, hard. It was a bad night at the office for Bam Bam Bigelow.
19:20And Andre said something to him like, young boy, you know, you're a little green for us.
19:25Like, this is how it works. Like, you're going to learn.
19:28And Andre really just stuck it to him.
19:31But, you know, they were just letting him know he had to pay his dues. He was green.
19:35And you need to wait your turns. Because it's not right now.
19:38After only a year in the big leagues, Bam Bam Bigelow's match with Andre the Giant marks his exit from the WWF.
19:47He'd gotten such a big push, but at a certain point, they did sour on him.
19:53Bam Bam Bigelow paid the price here.
19:55And it may have been ego-wise the other guys not liking him.
19:58And my father just knowing when things getting a little too thick and it's not his time, he moved on.
20:04Now on his own, Bam Bam travels the country working for various US promotions before receiving a lucrative offer to wrestle in Japan.
20:13I don't even know what years these are, but judging by the suit, probably early 90s.
20:19This is one of his original Japanese suits.
20:22There was more money for him to be had overseas.
20:25They offered me a lot of money to go work in Japan. I was working with Antonio Inoki. There was a lot of talent there.
20:32When he went to Japan, he was on for two weeks and then home for two weeks. So he had longer stretches of time home.
20:39What sparked his return to WWF?
20:41A contract. And it was time for him to come back to the States.
20:44I guess in his meeting with Vince, you know, they worked a deal that he felt comfortable and he was a little bit more mature and he was ready to come back.
20:52All right, man. So what do you got here? So this is his coming out to the ring attire when he was in his second run in the WWF.
21:05He would have pyrotechnics underneath here and they would shoot like fireworks out.
21:10I don't feel it out as much as he did. He said he used to look like a tulip in it.
21:24In 1992, as the WWF struggles with declining popularity, Vince McMahon brings Bam Bam back to the roster.
21:33Once again, proving to be a top level star, Bam Bam gets thrust into the main event of WrestleMania 11.
21:40WrestleMania 11.
21:42When McMahon books him against one of the NFL's most celebrated players.
21:46Lawrence Taylor. Probably the most media frenzy time of my father's career.
21:54That was Scott's idol. Like, LT and the Giants. Like, now I'm gonna wrestle him. You know, I'm gonna wrestle with him.
22:01That build up and that whole pomp and circumstance of being the main event in WrestleMania.
22:09Lawrence Taylor. Just me and you.
22:11This was a match not for wrestling fans.
22:14The media hype around this match has been absolutely huge.
22:17This was a match for the general public. And the idea was, is by being in the match, all the exposure from the football press and the mainstream press would then make Bam Bam's name bigger.
22:28So then he could be the big star that they wanted him to be.
22:33That means I'm here. I did it. I am the 1%. Every little boy wants to be a WWE wrestler. Almost every little boy. And he was main event.
22:45It was a paycheck bigger than a lot of people make in one year.
22:49I see a lot of videos online. People, oh, it's the worst WrestleMania. You know what? There's not another person that could have carried Lawrence Taylor to do that show.
23:00Business was down. Vince needed to hit a hole none. And they picked me because I'm the only guy that could take chicken shit and turn it into chicken salad.
23:09You know, Vince trusted my father enough to be the person to pull that off.
23:14Bam Bam soon learns that being the company's go-to big man comes with certain sacrifices.
23:20The only problem working for Vince McMahon is that if you get hurt, there's no sympathy there. He wants you to work.
23:27It's really hard to do because your body can't take that type of punishment.
23:31It definitely took a toll on his body.
23:34I mean, every time he sits in a chair and stands up, he just squatted 400 pounds.
23:39A lot of wear and tear on your knees, your back, your neck, your shoulders.
23:45I mean, the thing that made him so great was, you know, an agile big guy.
23:50The problem with the agile big guys is that by doing that stuff, a smaller guy can take that stuff longer.
23:55And a big guy, it starts wearing down on you a lot.
23:58He definitely had some knee surgeries and an elbow surgery or shoulder surgery.
24:03You know, his body was starting to take a little bit of a licking.
24:07That's one thing I didn't do. I didn't worry and I didn't stress out.
24:11It was his job and he was an entertainer and he was an athlete.
24:15And I was too young to think about the lifelong lasting effects of wrestling and what it would have on his body and his mind.
24:23But I do know that he knew if he was out and he was injured too long, somebody was going to step up and replace him.
24:29So that was a no-no.
24:31I'm not letting the opportunity walk by me. That heavyweight championship is going to be mine.
24:36He's got multiple injuries at this point. How's he dealing with that?
24:39Probably pain pills like everybody else. But I do remember, you know, that was so commonplace among wrestlers then.
24:44It was such a part of the scene that it wasn't like a big deal. And it was like, hey D, you got any Vikes?
24:51So you just gave him to your boy, you know, because he needed him right there.
24:55When you see this symbol, you can be assured of drug-free entertainment you can be proud of.
25:01Been tested for marijuana and performance-enhancing drugs, but you've got a prescription. You're good.
25:09Through that 80s and then into the 90s, there were two things that coincided running.
25:12If this is the wrestling industry, running right next to that is the pharmaceutical industry.
25:16And the pharmaceutical industry is now coming up with better, more accessible opiates. Oxycontin, which I did have a problem with.
25:24I've seen it so much in my career. So many of my peers during that time just left us way too early because of addiction, especially pain pills.
25:34He was diabetic and he had an endocrinologist, not a pain management doctor.
25:40And he would call and, I need Perks, I need Vikes, I need Oxys. They need something to keep me going.
25:47If you were at the pool party and old Doc came by, well, I happen to have a refillable script of Oxycontins in return for autographs or, you know, tickets to local shows here and there.
25:59It's a pretty powerful thing to have over someone.
26:02They might as well have just put heroin in a bottle and called it Oxycontin.
26:07I can guarantee you, before that prescription was done, he was probably addicted.
26:17In 1995, after a three-year run with the WWF, Bam Bam Bigelow leaves the company to sign with the notorious hardcore wrestling promotion ECW, run by his old friend, Paul Heyman.
26:34I mean, the one reason he went to ECW was because he liked how it was local.
26:39Obviously, if he was in Asbury, the whole family would get together and we'd all go.
26:43And he knew he had a commodity. You know, he didn't take his character off. It was tattooed on his head. So, wherever he went, Bam Bam Bigelow was going.
26:51There is only one Bam Bam Bigelow!
26:55I think it was a little too hardcore for me being so young.
27:03Our fans were riding with us. That was the whole gimmick.
27:06We were renegades, well damn it. We the fans, we're renegades too.
27:10From Fit to Finish, those shows were chaos.
27:15Well, I remember this crowd just like a mosh pit.
27:18And this dude, who is drunk as a skunk, comes barreling and just absolutely face punches me, trucks me right into the ground.
27:25I'm like 10, 11 years old. Like, I've never been hit by a grown man.
27:29And it's that type of like, where you're like, you can't catch your breath.
27:33So, I remember going backstage and I don't even think I told my father anything.
27:38He just like saw it. And he's like, what happened?
27:40And I'm like, I don't know. This guy punched me, like went through the crowd. He's like, find him.
27:46The gentleman who did that was escorted to the back for a conversation.
27:51I witnessed this quasi conversation. I'll never forget it.
27:55And all you hear is, so you want to hit kids? And you know that like, this dude is getting a life smacked out of him.
28:02I don't know how else to put it. It was very bad.
28:05I'm sure everybody's okay now.
28:08But the fans in turn are fueled by ECW's over the top ultraviolet brand of extreme wrestling.
28:16In ECW, we were a bunch of wrestlers that most of the bigger promotions, they didn't want us, kind of.
28:24And we were like the land of Misfit Toys and incorporated a lot of new stuff into pro wrestling in a revolutionary way.
28:31I mean, you had to be tough to be in our company. And Bigelow was a very tough guy, a legitimate guy.
28:37And he really started to come into his own amongst what we were doing.
28:41The stuff that these guys were doing, jumping off the rafters, through tables, getting thrown into the stands.
28:49It's just as hardcore as hardcore can get.
28:52We weren't just trying to hurt each other. We were professionals.
28:56What happens in that ring is built on trust.
28:58So, the infamous Taz and Bigelow go through the ring in Asbury Park.
29:04So, I get this phone call from Paul Heyman.
29:07And he says, you and Bigelow, he's going to beat you for the belt.
29:11And he's going to put you through the ring to do it.
29:13He goes, what do you think?
29:15And the first thing I thought is, I'm going to die.
29:17So, the way a ring is constructed, it's a steel frame.
29:21And then there's these thick wood boards.
29:24And then there's kind of like a cushion. It's not as big as a mat.
29:28And then a canvas.
29:29So, these wood boards were cut first.
29:32So, then the boards would just be moved out of the way.
29:35Then open the trap door.
29:36And Bam Bam was concerned.
29:38What about Taz's head? Like, his head's going to hit the frame of this thing.
29:42How are we going to clear this hole?
29:44I almost feel dirty explaining this on air.
29:47I'm so old school. Like, it's like, unbelievable.
29:50So, basically, we fought, fought, fought.
29:53We were outside the ring for quite some time fighting.
29:55Until we get the signal that this door is open.
30:00He's got both champion and challenger back in the ring.
30:03So, if you watch closely.
30:05He's got it! He's got it locked up!
30:07When I have the choke on.
30:09And I'm really pulling back this curtain all the way here, right?
30:12So, Bam Bam, he's tapping first.
30:14Then he puts his hand on the top rope.
30:17Under his hand is a little piece of white tape.
30:20That white tape was the measurement to clear my hand.
30:25We hit that crash mat hard as hell.
30:31The ring engulfs us.
30:35And we heard the people.
30:37My eyes lit up. I was so happy.
30:40And the first thing he says to me,
30:43Are you okay? That's Bam Bam Bigelow.
30:46And he goes, We did it.
30:49And we were laughing because the place was rumbling.
30:52He waited for the people to come down a teeny bit.
30:55And then, once they saw him come out first,
30:57We knew the pop would be loud.
30:58But I don't know if we knew it was going to be that loud.
31:00I mean, it was just...
31:01I'll never forget it as long as I live.
31:03And we've got a suit.
31:05I got goosebumps.
31:06World television champion.
31:08There's so many things that could have gone wrong.
31:10You could break your back. You could break your neck.
31:12But Scottie never ever said no to anything.
31:15It's a small miracle that Big O is moving.
31:18ECW was definitely extreme.
31:20I'm just surprised nobody died.
31:22I am really surprised nobody died.
31:24You would see him come out.
31:26He'd have, you know, giant gashes on his head.
31:28And he would just put some super glue on it, close it up.
31:30And then we would go have a cheesesteak.
31:32I can't tell you how many times he's been sewed up in our living room.
31:35Doctor just would come over and just sew him up in the middle of the night
31:37While he was half asleep.
31:39So the injuries were the beginning of the end.
31:43He had stenosis in the entirety of his spine.
31:47He had crushed discs.
31:49He had sections fused of his back at that time.
31:52You could run your finger down his spine and you could feel almost like braille.
31:57Pills just allowed him to move.
32:00If you didn't go out and you didn't put on a show, you weren't getting paid.
32:04So I understand the aspect of having to take something to basically push you through that.
32:12I did see Bigelow struggling a little bit physically, but he hit it well.
32:17He wouldn't tell you if you had to go for a match,
32:19Hey dude, I'm hurting here.
32:20My shoulder hurts.
32:21My neck hurts.
32:22My back hurts.
32:23He was just, let's go.
32:25You know, let's do it.
32:26You know, whatever it was.
32:29The pain pills Bam Bam Bigelow consumes allow him to continue performing
32:33at the highest level, but they also take a toll on his life away from the ring.
32:38He was never, never, never aggressive.
32:41And he was always very respectful.
32:43And he became angry.
32:45He would at times be very coherent and at times be very incoherent.
32:49And he would be like, you're just crazy and you're making things up.
32:52I'm under a doctor's care and this is, you know, what I have to do to be in the business.
32:56It was a doctor, an MD who got paid a lot of money to treat him for one disease.
33:02And gave him another, whole another one.
33:06The pill bottles from that doctor, I've never seen pill bottles that size in my life before.
33:12100 pills, 300 pills.
33:14This doctor was a fan.
33:16And he would have done anything that Scott wanted, regardless of his license.
33:21And he did.
33:22Scott was in denial.
33:23And so was the doctor because I would call him and say, stop writing these prescriptions.
33:28You're destroying our lives.
33:29You're ruining our family.
33:31And that doctor's response, he would call my father and say that the warden's calling
33:35me, telling me not to come over.
33:37Undermining my mother to my father in an already weakened state.
33:43Nobody's paying attention to these doctors.
33:46You're a drug dealer because he was not a pain doctor.
33:50It's a tragedy.
33:51Scott sold his soul for OxyContin's.
33:56And he would have stepped over us in the street to get them.
34:01Bam Bam Bigelow's addiction continues to get worse, fueled by an endless supply of OxyContin from
34:12his doctor.
34:13OxyContin is one of America's new wonder drugs.
34:16Since the drug came on the market, the number of annual prescriptions has risen to nearly
34:20six million.
34:21Contributing to the problem are pill mills, where doctors write prescriptions for non-medical
34:26reasons.
34:27He wasn't going to buy drugs off the street.
34:30He was home taking OxyContin's.
34:33And then I got pregnant with Richie.
34:35And then the promise is, you know, this is going to be different.
34:38We're going to get through this.
34:40I think he tried to pull himself together because he said he always wanted a daughter's
34:44whole life.
34:45It was like beyond anything to have this daughter.
34:48And when she was little, he used to put her to bed every single night and he would get
34:52a pillow and he would lay on the floor next to her and he would sing her songs and hold
34:55her hands.
34:56And he was in her room, on her floor every night.
34:58Wednesdays.
34:59Every Wednesday, my dad would pick me up from preschool.
35:03Big red truck.
35:04Eat all the Doritos you can imagine.
35:07Paint pictures.
35:08Just normal father-daughter relationship.
35:11When he was around, he was focused on being with us and spending time with us.
35:16What are you doing, boy?
35:17His body was a little hindered and he was starting to feel the pain.
35:22But, you know, that didn't stop us from going to every opening day for fishing, every opening
35:28day for hunting.
35:29He got to be a dad without being on the road 300 plus days a year.
35:33Those are the fondest memories.
35:35There's no pension in professional wrestling.
35:38So, he needed to make as much money as he could with the body that he had because he knew
35:45it was deteriorating.
35:46He even says that he's the highest paid loser in the world because he'll take a loss as long
35:50as that loss pays.
35:51I'm the guy who helped bring Bam Bam in to WCW.
35:56When he heard that I was wrestling, somehow he got my number.
36:00He's like, dude, you're doing it.
36:02Like, we grew up maybe seven miles from each other.
36:06These two Jersey Shore boys, but now we're tag team champions.
36:10I'd never felt like he was under the influence in a ring, but, you know, eventually, you know,
36:14people start to go back to their old habits and that's why so many guys died.
36:18Overconsumption of pills.
36:21Because when you're taking five at a time, because three stopped working.
36:26I'm like, you can't remember if you took them or not.
36:29So, you take five more, you know, and before you know it, you know, you're that guy.
36:35He went on the road and he would not show up to shows or tapings.
36:40He was in Arizona and friends of ours were there and he didn't make it to the show and they called home
36:46and I was like, what do you mean? He's there.
36:49Got to the point where he was a liability and that's what they said.
36:54And they paid him the rest of his contract to stay home because he could not function.
36:59I saw a man broken.
37:01He's away from his family and he's not in the best physical shape because he's in constant pain.
37:07You know, having to take a pill just to get up and not just a pill, multiple pills.
37:12But the trade-off of that is it completely dulls your senses.
37:15It completely just destroys your sense of person.
37:19How many pills do you think he was taking a day?
37:21Fifteen, twenty Oxycontins, easily.
37:23A day?
37:24Yeah.
37:25It was dangerous and a situation happened with the youngest where it became very dangerous.
37:30I had wrote a paper about it when I was in eighth grade and I went back and read it last night,
37:37understanding that what was happening is I'm writing about my father nodding out, driving.
37:42And when I wrote that in eighth grade, I had no idea that's what was going on.
37:47And I remember the officers were asking me all these questions like, I mean, for a three-year-old,
37:51they're asking me my address, my phone number, my mom's phone number, like all this information.
37:55And I'm just like, I don't know, where's my dad?
37:59So when I went back last night and read it, really knowing what was going on, what was in his system,
38:04it just hits ten times harder.
38:07As Bam Bam Bigelow's addiction sends him crashing to rock bottom,
38:12he's charged with endangering the welfare of his daughter.
38:15He was given an ultimatum, I'm like, you've either got to go get help or you have to go.
38:20He wouldn't get help.
38:22And he went.
38:23He didn't see that he had a problem the way that he did, the way that addicts do.
38:28You know, dad's not going to be home anymore.
38:30They're getting a divorce.
38:32That's when he picked up and basically went to Florida.
38:35He was married to a drug.
38:37So to watch a man who would choose that over his children,
38:40when I knew that that was the most important thing, was just the worst thing ever.
38:44I got to talk to him on the phone, but it would be like spans of where it would be really quiet,
38:49because I could hear him crying.
38:51He was struggling to form the words, hi.
38:57I went down to Tampa, spring break my senior year.
39:00I wanted to go down there to see my friends, but I really just wanted to go down there to find my dad.
39:06And his girlfriend answered the phone, said he wasn't available at the point in time.
39:14And then I got a phone call when I landed back in New Jersey from my father apologizing.
39:20And, you know, I kind of aired him out a little bit.
39:23I told him how I felt.
39:26And then he died three weeks later.
39:30I was in school teaching and a phone call got patched to my classroom and it was his brother, Todd.
39:39And Todd said, he's gone.
39:42I was like, I mean, he's like, he's gone.
39:45And he was crying hysterically.
39:46And I just hung up the phone and ran out of the building and Shane was in college.
39:51Yeah, I got that call.
39:53I'll never forget.
39:55I'm walking back through the quad.
39:57There's kids going to class.
39:59And I got a phone call from my father's childhood friend.
40:02Your father died last night.
40:05And I just, like, everybody around you is moving fast and you're just still.
40:11I just remember being numb.
40:13It rocked me, what I heard.
40:19At that time, he was, you know, going through a tough time.
40:24I thought of his family instantly, because I know how much he loved his family and his wife.
40:28You know, I just, I just felt for him.
40:31He died of an overdose.
40:33Accidental overdose.
40:34But, you know, the word accidental and overdose should just not be in the same sentence.
40:38How do you accidentally, oops, took one too many?
40:41Took one too many for a long time.
40:43On January 19th, 2007, at just 45 years of age, Bam Bam Bigelow dies by what authorities call an accidental overdose from a cocktail of illicit and prescription drugs.
41:02I didn't grieve.
41:04There was none for me.
41:05Because I was scrambling.
41:07I had kids.
41:08They couldn't see me break down.
41:09They couldn't see me weak.
41:11And that's all I became, was a provider.
41:13Like, I didn't have time to coddle and nurture.
41:17That's the hardest part on me now.
41:19Towards the end, it was very difficult with my mother.
41:23Just because that was my dad.
41:25That was my hero.
41:26My mom had to make a really tough decision.
41:28You know, for a while I never understood why we couldn't just go see dad.
41:33And when you don't understand, you just think it's selfish.
41:38But then when you do, you become appreciative that you weren't exposed to something that would have been just so heartbreaking.
41:47As a father, I think it just digs into you that when you think if there was no compunction for Bamberg to reach out for some kind of help,
41:57that he must have thought that he had it under control.
42:00He must have figured this is not really a problem because of how much he talked about his kids.
42:05It's been just honoring the legacy of Bam Bam.
42:09Now, collegiate course!
42:11I never really got to stop and acknowledge my own pain.
42:14You always think about, if you had one last chance, what you would say.
42:19I think there's more ask, which is why.
42:23His kids lost their dad at a young age.
42:26It's sad, you know, because Bigelow, like so many of us wrestlers during that time, was on the road a lot.
42:31You know, you're not around. You're making a living for your family.
42:35If Scott was here, what would you say to him?
42:37You mother .
42:39But, through years of therapy, I know you had no control.
42:44It's not your fault. I don't blame you.
42:48You know, nobody wakes up in the morning and says, I'm going to be a drug addict today.
42:52You wake up every morning and you're like, today's going to be a change.
42:55But I would call him a mother first.
42:58Just because he would expect that.
43:00I can't fault him for what happened. You had to keep going.
43:05That's how you put the bread on the table.
43:07I signed all the rights over to the kids, so they got all the royalty checks.
43:10So he, in his death, still supported them.
43:14As far as being a big man, who's better than Bam Bam?
43:17Nobody. There's nobody.
43:19The best big man in the business.
43:21The guy that was doing cartwheels, moonsaws, drop kicks,
43:24and things that they never, ever seen another big man do before.
43:28That's what I want to be remembered as.
43:30When I think of pro wrestling, I think of power.
43:33I think of size. I think of my father.
43:36World Heavyweight Champion!
43:39The Beast from the East! Bam! Bam!
43:43He was a great person and how he lived
43:46and all the wonderful things that he did for people
43:49and the great father that he was
43:51should be what is remembered.
43:52Not how he died, because that's a terrible story.
43:55But he left such a legacy.
43:58Bam Bam! Look at that manure!
44:01He was that one percent.
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