Shining Wizards Podcast with Marcus "Buff" Bagwell
Hosts: Tony Z, Eddie, and Matt
Interview available at Shiningwizards.com.

On his recent car accident: "My best friend Hamilton died from a drinking accident. So in the past year I have been doing much better with the drinking and the partying. After I found out how he died, I quit drinking. They say I had a seizure from the alcohol withdrawal. I said, 'Dude, I drink maybe 2-3 beers a day.' And they go, 'How long have you been drinking 3 or more beers a day?' I said '20 years.' They said 'Marcus, 3 beers a day for a long time, it's still a big deal when you come off cold turkey like that.'

"I have had one more withdrawal seizure, from coming off pain meds or whatever, years ago trying to clean my life up. When you have one, you see this thing called an aura. It's a white little light. It's a light that makes you think Jesus is coming. It's that kind of light. It's that brutal. And anyone listening that has seen the aura, it's something that you never ever forget, you don't mistake it for a glare or anything like that, you know what it is.

"It's the scariest thing in the world. The aura gives an epileptic forty-five seconds to either pull their car over or lay down on the ground. There is no fixing it once you see the light. I was on the phone with my wife, and I said, 'Oh my God, I just saw the aura'. She goes, 'What? Pull over.' I had a big jacked up jeep at the time, and I pulled over. And from that point, it's all a black out."

On breaking his neck: "What happened then, Rick didn't tell anyone, he had torn his rotator cuff. So here's a bulldog, a move I have taken a thousand times. He comes off the top and misses me. It was live TV. So I was trying to catch up to him, and as I was trying to catch up with him, he hit the mat and went back into my face. So my face went into his back, and the back of my head touched my shoulder blades. And I just went instantly limp.

"Basically my face went into his back at a perfect angle, so medically at Level 3-4, that cervical disk shot into my spinal cord and bruised it. To me, when it swelled you lose; it's not like a stinger, or I'm gonna be ok, as soon as I got hit I said 'I am paralyzed.' So the finish of the match, Scotty was gonna slide in, hit Rick with a chair, put me on Rick, pin 1-2-3, NWO wins. I am on the mat face down, and as soon as he rolled me over I said I am paralyzed. His eyes were like oh my god, then I had 270 pounds of a maniac named Scotty Steiner coming in with a chair.

"If you watch the match, you will see my mouth going 100 miles an hour saying 'Please don't touch me, I am hurt.' So all Scott did was hit Rick with a chair, and then he was gonna put my arm across Rick, as soon as he did my arm didn't stay there, because I was paralyzed from the neck down. So the ref counted three while both our backs were on the mat. It was just a bad scene."

On a possible future with TNA: "Me and Eric are talking. Sting wants me to come down there and work for TNA. So we are in talks, we are waiting for me to get back to 100 percent. We are about 2 weeks out. I just spoke to Sting yesterday. So Eric is gonna bring me down and talk to me and just see what happens, so I am in the mix with maybe going back to TNA now."

For more from Marcus Bagwell, including talk about his various tag team partners, who was supposed to be in the original American Males, who Eric Bischoff wanted to lead the NWO, his mom being a tag champion, the "Buff Bagwell Heat", his time in and current relationship with WWE, his conversation with Jim Ross after being released and so much more, go to www.shiningwizards.com and listen to Episode 65: Monday Night Wars with Buff Bagwell and Headbanger Thrasher.

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