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00:30It was just massive, but so athletic, so quick.
00:34Bammer did it almost like a ballet dancer.
00:36Bigelow 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.
00:50It wasn't just Rookie of the Year, it was Phenomenon of the Year.
00:53Bam! Bam! Bigelow!
00:57Arriving on the scene like a force of nature.
00:59Bam! 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,
01:12you know, they beat the f*** out of each other.
01:16Wrestling rewarded Bam Bam's talents with money and fame,
01:19but 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.
01:26And that's when it changed, and everything spiraled out of control.
01:31You're selling your body, you're selling your health to have fame, fortune, and everything that goes with it.
01:38People 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.
01:52But Bam Bam's addictions eventually pushed him beyond the point of redemption,
01:57destroying everything he loved.
02:00A trusted professional gave him the thing that was his biggest demise.
02:07This doctor could have had a loaded machine gun to our family,
02:11and it would have been no different.
02:23So, 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,
02:36and then he was in Des Moines, Iowa.
02:37This is literally the first four days of his career with the WWF in 1987.
02:43He definitely wanted kids right away.
02:44He 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.
02:54Hi, 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,
03:02because all he ever really wanted was a daughter.
03:05Oh, yeah, he was a giant teddy bear.
03:08What 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.
03:17He had this giant, giant bed that we would all cuddle up in and just jump around.
03:22Yeah, it was a great time.
03:23When you think of your dad, it's the first memory that comes to mind.
03:27It was the last time I saw him.
03:30We 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.
04:00So he pulled over on the side of the road, and he looked at me and gave me this big
04:05toothless
04:05smile.
04:06He'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.
04:12And then we just got back on the road, and it started happening again.
04:16This 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.
04:30And 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.
04:48And that was the last time I saw him.
04:51He wanted to be a wrestler, but he wanted to be a father more.
04:55And everything was taken away.
04:58So, was wrestling what took it away?
05:02Or was Scott and all the other outside influences what took it away?
05:06Like, how did this happen?
05:11Oh, here we go.
05:14This is his dad, his sophomore year in high school.
05:18Oh my God.
05:20Right?
05:20They were the Class A North champions, 20 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 who hung out in the bars of Asbury, you know, driving
05:41the circuit in muscle cars.
05:42For 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.
05:51We were friends and it was just a progression and 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 and in the middle was this place called
06:19Quack Quack.
06:21It's DDP, Diamond Dallas Page, and I know Bam Bam because I'm from the Jersey Shore.
06:26DDP, we've got a new world champion.
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, but no one cared because he looked like a full-grown
06:44man.
06:45He was, you know, 300 plus pounds and he could obviously be very menacing, but he also had
06:50that fun side to him and 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 and he was feared
07:01on the mat and on the football field.
07:03This was the time when the 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.
07:17I heard a story from a high school wrestling coach that my father rolled his ankle real
07:22bad and he couldn't wrestle, but his coach was just like, Scotty, I need you to just go
07:26up there and just look me.
07:27So he gets up, he steps on the scale, he turns to the kid and he just gives him this
07:31big flex and 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.
07:45Yeah, there was a group of the boys and they were rough drinking, tattooed, like old sailors,
07:51but not sailors, they were roofers.
07:53And 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.
08:10Scott 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.
08:18He got into a fight and he bit some kid's ear off.
08:21I was like, what?
08:22But it's part of the legend that went with the beasts 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.
08:33I am Taz, former ECW World Heavyweight Champion
08:37and 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.
08:46There 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.
08:58I know that he was a bounty hunter for a short stint.
09:01I don't know much about the backstory of it.
09:05I 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 people
09:14and 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 country.
09:26In the whole mayday and craziness of the thing, his bounty hunting partner ends up getting shot in the net
09:32and 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 out of,
09:50like, the terracotta clay.
09:51He used to just break through the cells of the walls so they couldn't keep him in.
09:55So the judge one day apparently goes to him and asks him, he goes, I need security from all these
10:00cartel, mob, whatever guys.
10:03So you stand in front of me and you stop these maniacs from, like, lunging at me and trying to
10:07kill 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.
10:16And he ended up letting him loose early.
10:18He's basically a New Jersey legend.
10:21There's a story that one night, House is on fire, he drives by, runs in and saves some kids.
10:27He pulled over, ran in the house and saved the kids.
10:30That 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 that just
10:37out there floating around.
10:39I'm Shane Douglas, and I had the pleasure of being partners in the Triple Threat with Bam Bam Bigelow.
10:44Who's the world champion?
10:47You know, as I'd heard that he got arrested, I guess, in Mexico.
10:51You know, that sounds implausible.
10:53And then, like, over years, you'd hear other people repeating these stories and just elevated that legend that was Bam
10:58Bam.
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.
11:11And it's packed, and my club was nice.
11:14And I see Bam rolling with, like, three of his biker buddies.
11:17And I come rolling up behind it, put my arm around his back.
11:19I'm like, yo, Bam, like, no trouble in here tonight, right, bro?
11:24Oh, come on, Paige, I wouldn't do that to you.
11:27And at some point, we're at the bar, and I bought 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?
11:39And I said, but I had three matches.
11:41My third match, I hurt my knee.
11:42And I kind of got swept away by the boos, the broads, and the party.
11:46But talking to him about it, you know, 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?
11:57You 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's school at Monster Factory at the time.
12:07And the rest is history.
12:08Larry Sharp was a former amateur wrestler who opened up the Monster Factory.
12:12My name's Dave Meltzer.
12:13I'm the editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and I've been covering pro wrestling since 1971.
12:18And one day, I guess, Bam Bam walked in the door, and Larry saw, like, everyone did.
12:24Money!
12:25And 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.
12:35Basically 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 cartwheel.
12:53I was like, wow.
12:54He'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?
13:11In 1985, Scott Bigelow was on the brink of stardom, having made a clean break from a troubled past.
13:18When he went to the Monster Factory with Larry Sharp, Larry really developed the name Bam Bam.
13:24With 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.
13:53This was the branding of Bam Bam Bigelow.
13:56See, people love to hate, and as long as they want to hate me, I know I'm doing my job.
14:01And 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.
14:32And the guy never even had a match.
14:33Paul worked at Studio 54.
14:35He was doing publicity at the time.
14:37And he got this gig, Bam Bam Bigelow's first match.
14:41And I looked at it, and I was just like, oh my God.
14:45This 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 going to be like it.
14:53In wrestling, like, he's going to be the biggest thing.
14:55I was like 19 when we started dating, and I was with his brother and a couple other friends.
15:00And 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.
15:13At some point, I'm running another really big club, an 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.
15:31He's in the WWF.
15:33And I'm like, oh my God.
15:37From Asburyport, New Jersey.
15:39He made it.
15:44Not only is Bam Bam headed to the WWF, but he's coming in with the full support of company
15:50owner, Vince McMahon.
15:52WWF brought him in, and they tried to make him into the next big thing.
15:57They 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.
16:06Vince loved big guys, and now you've got the most agile, 380-pound guy that anyone has
16:12ever seen.
16:13I mean, they brought him in to be Hulk Hogan's tag team partner, to be right there with Hogan,
16:17and 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, okay, this is the
16:25business.
16:26This is how we do it.
16:27This is serious.
16:28He signed the WWE contract, and we got married November 15, 1987, and he went on the road
16:34November 16, 1987.
16:37How did he propose to you?
16:38We were watching TV, and he was like, you want to get married?
16:45And I was like, okay.
16:47And that was basically it.
16:48There was no fanfare.
16:49I saw him 10 times a year.
16:52I don't even know.
16:53Maybe that's why the marriage lasted so long.
16:55Maybe that's why I don't have anything bad to say.
16:57He was on the road and hit the ground running, and it was on from there.
17:02Back in the early days with WWF, you know, we were working 60 days in a row at the main
17:06event in front of the sold-out crowd every night, and on the weekends, we would do two
17:11shows, so it's life in the fast lane.
17:14When he was home, you know, he did regular things, so he remained very humble.
17:20Scott was who he was around here, but, 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
17:37given 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, so when I did get that belt, I
17:51understood
17:51the 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,
18:17and it was just people that he always saw on TV, and all of a sudden, he's standing in
18:20the middle of the ring in the Survivor Series, and the older guys were like, you know what,
18:25you need to step in line.
18:26The 8th Wonder Up!
18:28I remember there was an Andre match.
18:30Of 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.
18:39Like, Scott was like, he's going to f***ing kill me.
18:42I feel 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 going, oh, God, don't go out,
18:51don't go out, Madison Square Garden made an event sold out.
18:54Yeah.
18:54He can't pass out.
19:02Look out!
19:03Even Bam Bam looks small next to this guy.
19:07Andre thought I was just a kid.
19:08Thought I was getting too cocky or whatever.
19:10You know, he was laying him in.
19:13So, you know, Andre, he was on top of him, and he was pounding on him.
19:16I mean, hard.
19:18It 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.
19:26Like, 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.
19:35He was green.
19:35And you need to wait your turns, because it's not right now.
19:40After only a year in the big leagues, Bam Bam Bigelow's match with Andre the Giant marks his exit from
19:46the WWF.
19:48He'd gotten such a big push, but at a certain point, they did sour on him.
19:53Bam Bam Bigelow paid the price here.
19:56And it may have been ego-wise the other guys not liking him.
19:58And my father just knowing when things get a little too thick and it's not his time, he moved on.
20:05Now on his own, Bam Bam travels the country working for various U.S. promotions before receiving a lucrative offer
20:12to wrestle in Japan.
20:15I don't even know what years these are, but judging by the suit, probably early 90s.
20:20This is one of his original Japanese suits.
20:22There was more money for him to be had overseas.
20:26They offered me a lot of money to go work in Japan.
20:29I was working with Antonio Inoki.
20:31There was a lot of talent there.
20:33When he went to Japan, he was on for two weeks and then home for two weeks.
20:36So he had longer stretches of time home.
20:40What sparked his return to WWF?
20:42A contract.
20:43And it was time for him to come back to the States.
20:45I guess in his meeting with Vince, you know, they worked a deal that he felt comfortable and he was
20:51a little bit more mature and he was ready to come back.
20:54All right, men.
20:55So what do you got here?
20:56So 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.
21:14I don't feel it out as much as he did.
21:20He 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 XI.
21:40WrestleMania XI.
21:41When McMahon books him against one of the NFL's most celebrated players.
21:47Lawrence Taylor.
21:49Probably the most media frenzied time of my father's career.
21:55That was Scott's idol.
21:56Like, LT and the Giants.
21:58Like, now I'm going to wrestle him.
21:59You know, I'm going to wrestle with him.
22:01That buildup and that whole pomp and circumstance of being the main event in WrestleMania.
22:09Lawrence Taylor.
22:10Just me and you.
22:12This was a match not for wrestling fans.
22:14The media hype around this match has been absolutely huge.
22:18This was a match for the general public.
22:19And the idea was, is by being in the match, all the exposure from the football press and the mainstream
22:26press 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.
22:34I did it.
22:35I am the 1%.
22:37Every little boy wants to be a WWE wrestler.
22:43Almost every little boy.
22:44And he was main event.
22:45It was a paycheck bigger than a lot of people make in one year.
22:50I see a lot of videos online.
22:51People are like, it's the worst, WrestleMania.
22:54You know what?
22:55There's not another person that could have carried Lawrence Taylor to do that show.
23:01Business was down.
23:02Vince needed to hit a whole run.
23:04And they picked me because I'm the only guy that could take chicken shit and turn it into chicken salad.
23:10You 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.
23:21The only problem working for Vince McMahon is that if you get hurt, there's no sympathy there.
23:26He 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
23:54longer.
23:55And a big guy, it starts wearing down on you a lot.
23:57He definitely had some knee surgeries and an elbow surgery or a shoulder surgery.
24:03You know, his body was starting to take a little bit of a licking.
24:08That's one thing I didn't do.
24:09I 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
24:22his 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
24:28to step up and replace him.
24:30So that was a no-no.
24:31I'm not letting the opportunity walk by me.
24:34That heavyweight championship is going to be mine.
24:37He's got multiple injuries at this point.
24:38How is he dealing with that?
24:40Probably pain pills like everybody else.
24:42But I do remember, you know, that was so commonplace among wrestlers then.
24:45It was such a part of the scene that it wasn't like a big deal.
24:49And it was like, hey, D, you got any Vikes?
24:51So you just gave them to your boy, you know, because he needed them right there.
24:56When you see this symbol, you can be assured of drug-free entertainment you can be proud of.
25:02Been tested for marijuana and performance-enhancing drugs, but you've got a prescription.
25:08You're good.
25:09Through that 80s and then into the 90s, there were two things that coincided running.
25:13If this is the wrestling industry, running right next to that is the pharmaceutical industry.
25:17And the pharmaceutical industry is now coming up with better, more accessible opiates.
25:22Oxycontin, which I did have a problem with.
25:24I've seen it so much in my career.
25:27So 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.
25:38Not a pain management doctor.
25:41And he would call and, I need Perks, I need Vikes, I need Oxy's.
25:46They need something to keep me going.
25:47If you were at the pool party and a doc came by, well, I happen to have a refillable script
25:53of Oxycontin's 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.
26:20In 1995, after a three-year run with the WWF, Bam Bam Bigelow leaves the company to sign with the
26:27notorious 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.
26:38Obviously, if he was in Asbury with the whole family, we'd get together, we'd all go.
26:43And he knew he had a commodity.
26:45You know, he didn't take his character off.
26:46It was tattooed on his head.
26:48So, 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.
27:05That was the whole gimmick.
27:06We were renegades.
27:07Well, damn it.
27:08We the fans, we're renegades, too.
27:11From 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 and trucks me
27:24right into the ground.
27:25I'm like 10, 11 years old.
27:27Like, 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.
27:39And he's like, what happened?
27:41And I'm like, I don't know, this guy punched me, like, went through the crowd.
27:45He's like, find him.
27:47The gentleman who did that was escorted to the back for a conversation.
27:51I witnessed this quasi-conversation.
27:54I'll never forget it.
27:55And all you hear is, so you want to hit kids?
27:57And you know that, like, this dude is just getting the life smacked out of him.
28:02I don't know how else to put it.
28:04It was very bad.
28:06I'm sure everybody's okay now.
28:09But the fans in turn are fueled by ECW's over-the-top ultraviolet brand of extreme wrestling.
28:17In 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 the Misfit Toys and incorporated a lot of new stuff into pro wrestling
28:30in a revolutionary way.
28:31I mean, you had to be tough to be in our company.
28:34And 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.
28:51And a ballet suplex!
28:53We weren't just trying to hurt each other.
28:55We 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.
29:05So, I get this phone call from Paul Heyman and he says, you and Bigelow, he's going to beat you
29:10for the belt and he's going to put you through the ring to do it.
29:14He 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 and then there's these thick wood boards and then
29:25there's kind of like a cushion, it's not as big as a mat, and then a canvas.
29:29So, these wood boards were cut first, so then the boards would just be moved out of the way, then
29:35open the trap door.
29:37And Bam Bam was concerned, what 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 until 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!
30:06He's got it locked up!
30:07When I have the choke on, and I'm really pulling the back of this curtain all the way here, right?
30:12So, Bam Bam, he's tapping first, then 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 head.
30:29We hit that crash mat hard as hell.
30:33The ring engulfs us, and we heard the people.
30:39My eyes lit up.
30:40I was so happy.
30:41And the first thing he says to me, are you okay?
30:45That's Bam Bam Big Row.
30:47And he goes, we did it.
30:49And we were laughing because the place was rumbling.
30:53He waited for the people to come down a teeny bit.
30:55And then, once they saw him come out first, we knew the pop would be loud.
30:59But I don't know if we knew it was going to be that loud.
31:00I mean, it was just, I'll never forget it as long as I live.
31:03And we've got a suit.
31:05I got goosebumps.
31:07I mean, there's so many things that could have gone wrong.
31:10You could break your back.
31:11You 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.
31:21I'm just surprised nobody died.
31:22I am really surprised nobody died.
31:25You would see him come out.
31:26He'd have, you know, giant gashes on his head.
31:29And he would just put some super glue on it, close it up.
31:31And 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 while he was half
31:38asleep.
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.
31:59If 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 Big O 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.
32:21My shoulder hurts.
32:22My 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 at the highest level,
32:35but they also take a toll on his life away from the ring.
32:38He was never, never, never aggressive, and he was always very respectful, and he became angry.
32:45He would at times be very coherent and at times be very incoherent, and he would be like,
32:50you'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 and
33:03gave
33:04him another, a whole nother 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, and he would have done anything that Scott wanted, regardless of his
33:20license, and he did.
33:22Scott was in denial, and so was the doctor, because I would call him and say, stop writing
33:28these prescriptions, you're destroying our lives, you'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.
33:37You're undermining my mother to my father in an already weakened state.
33:44Nobody's paying attention to these doctors.
33:46You're a drug dealer, because he was not a pain doctor.
33:50It's a tragedy.
33:52Scott sold his soul for OxyContin's, and he would have stepped over us in the street to
33:58get them.
34:05Bam Bam Bigelow's addiction continues to get worse, fueled by an endless supply of OxyContin
34:11from his 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, and then the promises, you know, this is going to be
34:37different, we're going to get through this.
34:41I think he tried to pull himself together, because he said he always wanted a daughter his
34:44whole life.
34:44It 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, and he was in her room, on her floor, every night.
34:59Wednesdays.
35:00Every Wednesday, my dad would pick me up from preschool, big red truck, eat all the Doritos
35:05you can imagine, paint pictures, just normal father-daughter relationship.
35:10When he was around, he was focused on being with us and spending time with us.
35:16What are you doing, boys?
35:18His body was a little hindered, and he was starting to feel the pain, but, you know, that
35:23didn't stop us from going to every opening day for fishing, every opening day for hunting.
35:29He got to be a dad, and without being on the road 300-plus days a year, those are the
35:34fondest
35:34memories.
35:36There's no pension in professional wrestling, so he needed to make as much money as he could
35:42with the body that he had, because he knew it was deteriorating.
35:45He even says that he's the highest-paid loser in the world, because he'll take a loss as
35:50long as 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.
36:17Over-consumption of pills, because when you're taking five at a time, because three stopped
36:25working, you can't remember if you took them or not, so you take five more, you know, and
36:31before 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
36:45they called home, and I was like, what do you mean?
36:47He's there.
36:48Got to the point where he was a liability, and that's what they said, and they paid him
36:54the rest of his contract to stay home, because he could not function.
36:59I saw a man broken.
37:00He's away from his family, and he's not in the best physical shape, because he's in constant
37:06pain, you know, having to take a pill just to get up, and not just a pill, multiple pills.
37:11But the trade-off of that is it completely dulls your senses, it completely just destroys
37:18your sense of person.
37:19How many pills do you think he was taking a day?
37:2115, 20 Oxycontins, easily.
37:24A day?
37:24Yeah.
37:25It was dangerous, and a situation happened with the youngest where it became very dangerous.
37:31I had wrote a paper about it when I was in eighth grade, and I went back and read it
37:36last night, understanding that what was happening is I'm writing about my father nodding out,
37:41driving.
37:43And 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
38:03in his system, it just hits ten times harder.
38:08As Bam Bam Bigelow's addiction sends him crashing to rock bottom, he's charged with
38:13endangering 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, when I knew that that was the
38:41most 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
38:48really
38:49quiet, because I could hear him crying.
38:53He was struggling to form the words, I.
38:57I went down to Tampa, spring break, my senior year.
39:01I wanted to go down there to see my friends, but I really just wanted to go down there to
39:04find my dad.
39:08And 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.
39:21And, 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.
39:33I was in school teaching, and a phone call got patched to my classroom, and it was his brother,
39:39Todd.
39:39And Todd said, he's gone.
39:43I 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.
39:52Yeah, 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.
40:14It 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 felt for him.
40:30He died of an overdose.
40:33Accidental overdose, but, 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.
40:49On January 19th, 2007, at just 45 years of age,
40:55Bam Bam Bigelow dies by what authorities call an accidental overdose
40:59from a cocktail of illicit and prescription drugs.
41:03I didn't grieve.
41:04There was none for me.
41:05Because I was scrambling.
41:08I had kids.
41:08They couldn't see me break down.
41:09They couldn't see me weak.
41:12And that's all I became, was a provider.
41:14Like, 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.
41:29You 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
41:46heartbreaking.
41:47As a father, I think it just digs into you that when you think,
41:51if 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.
42:04It's been just honoring the legacy of Bam Bam.
42:09Now, collegiate course!
42:10He never really got to stop.
42:12I know it's 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.
42:21Which 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
42:31lot.
42:31You know, you're not around.
42:32You're making a living for your family.
42:35If Scott was here, what would you say to him?
42:38You mother f*****g.
42:40But, through years of therapy, I know you had no control.
42:44It's not your fault.
42:45I don't blame you.
42:48You know, nobody wakes up in the morning and says,
42:50I'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 f*****g first.
42:58Just because he would expect that.
43:00I can't fault him for what happened.
43:04You 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.
43:13As far as being a big man, who's better than Bam Bam?
43:17Nobody.
43:18There's nobody.
43:19The best big man in the business.
43:21The guy that was doing car wheels, 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.
43:34I think of my father.
43:36The world heavyweight champion, the 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, should be what is remembered.
43:52Not how he died, because that's a terrible story.
43:55But he left such a legacy.
43:57Bam Bam!
43:58Look at that bladure!
44:00He was at 1%.
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