All language subtitles for Dark Side Of The Ring s04e08 Bam Bam Bigelow.eng

Look at this man!
I'm telling you, ladies,

send your kids
out of the room,

because I want you to take
a look at Bam Bam Bigelow.

There's no one who doesn't
know Bam Bam Bigelow.

And, if they don't
know his name,

if they see the face and
the head, they know it.

His entire head was a flame.

So, he started doing the
flames on his suits and

his boots, and you'd look
out into the audience

and the flame everywhere.

Bam! Oh! Wow!

He was just massive,
but so athletic.

So quick.

Bammer, he did it almost
like a ballet dancer.

Bigelow can move
for a big man.

He knows what
he's doing in there.

Look at this 400-pound man
doing flips, cartwheels...

going through the ring,
this is crazy.

In his time in the 80s,
nobody was like him.

Like, this isn't right.

It wasn't just
"Rookie of the Year",

it was "Phenomenon
of the Year."

Bam Bam Bigelow!

Arriving on the scene
like a force of nature,

Bam Bam Bigelow catapulted
to the top of the

wrestling world and
never looked back.

You need a little excitement?

When you've been on top in
WWE and then you've

been on the tippety top top
in ECW, you know,

they beat the ----
out of each other.

Wrestling rewarded Bam Bam's
talents with money and fame,

but those rewards came
with a heavy price.

All the wear and tear,

you're not gonna
feel it right away.

But it's coming.

And that's when
it changed.

And everything spiralled
out of control.

You're selling your body,
you're selling your health,

to have fame, fortune and
everything that goes with it.

People had mouths to feed,
so guys did

what they had to do
to earn their living.

He was in pain, and there
was a doctor involved that

was willing to
take that away,

and things went
downhill from there.

But Bam Bam's addictions
eventually push him

beyond the point
of redemption,

destroying
everything he loved.

A trusted professional
gave him the thing

that was his
biggest demise.

This doctor,
he could have handed

a loaded machine
gun to our family.

It would have
been no different.

No different.

♪

♪

So, I'm just digging
through the vast archives,

we have Dad's calendar,

and then if you go to
November 15, 1987,

he got married,
and then, you know,

not even taking
a honeymoon.

Like,
he had a day off,

and then he was in
Des Moines, Iowa.

This is literally the first
four days of his career

with the WWF in 1987.

He definitely wanted
kids right away.

He was like, "I just want to
stay home and raise the kids.

You could go to work,
go to school,

do what you want to do."

And he was more
excited about being a dad

than he was when he
got Wrestlemania.

Hi, I'm Dana Breckenridge.

I was married to
Bam Bam Bigelow.

And when Ricci came,
I mean,

that was the
best thing ever.

'Cause alls he ever really
wanted was a daughter.

Oh yeah, he was a
giant teddy bear.

What fans saw in the ring
was not at all

what we saw at home.

It was love,
it was playing around.

My name is Ricci Bigelow,

and my father is
Bam Bam Bigelow.

We had this giant,
giant bed that

we would all cuddle up in.
Just jump around.

Yeah, it was a great time.

It was the last time
I saw him.

We were just
driving in the car,

and I was
2 or 3 years old,

but I remember seeing his
head slowly drop to his chest

and then come back up.

And whenever I think back
on how I went about

the situation I'm
always so baffled,

because I was so young, but
in some way I understood that

we were in some
sort of danger.

And as a toddler,
I went into panic mode.

"I gotta go to the bathroom!
I gotta get out.

Daddy, Daddy,
pull over, I can't!"

So we pulled over on the
side of the road,

and he looked at me
and gave me

this big toothless smile.

He's like, "Come on,
do you have to go?"

Like it was just on the
side of the road.

And I was like, "No, no."
But kind of stalling,

and then we just got
back on the road,

and it started
happening again.

This time we
were by a diner,

and we pulled
into that diner,

and the next thing I know
my car door was opened,

and a man just
scooped me up and

put me in the back of
this grey car.

And, from the backseat
I watched them

take my dad in
handcuffs, across.

That was it.

My mom came and
picked me up,

and she was real
gentle about it,

and she told me,
"You're probably not going

to be seeing Daddy anymore.
He needs help."

And that was the
last time I saw him.

He wanted to be a wrestler,

but he wanted to be
a father more.

And, um, everything
was taken away.

So, was wrestling
what took it away?

Or was Scott and all the
other outside influences

what took it away?
Like, how did this happen?

Oh here we go.

This is Dad sophomore year,
in high school.

Oh my God.

Right? They were Class A
North champions.

20 and 6.

That's probably the last time
you'll see him with hair.

[Laughing]

Everything around Asbury
Park is Bruce Springsteen.

The sound of Bruce Springsteen
is everywhere and

in everything that we did
when we grew up on The Shore.

Scott was a street kid from
Neptune who hung out in

the bars of Asbury,
you know,

driving the circuit
in muscle cars.

For our age and our crowd
he was definitely the man.

You know what, he was
probably the kindest,

most genuine person
of the group.

We were friends and it
was just a progression,

and then it was a whirlwind,
we were street kids.

Nobody thought about
where they were going.

I didn't go to college,
my friends didn't

go to college,
he didn't go to college.

God, the Jersey Shore was
like, the party place to be.

I was running a club
called Club Xanadu

in Asbury Park,
New Jersey.

The club is actually one
block from The Stone Pony,

and in the middle was this
place called Quack Quack.

It's DDP,
Diamond Dallas Page,

and I know Bam Bam because
I'm from the Jersey Shore.

-DDP!
-Oh!

We've got a new
world champion, guys.

I roll into the
Quack Quack and

I see this mammoth kid.

At some point, you know,
we're doing shots and

we just kind of clicked,
you know,

but I think he was
17 at the time,

but no one cared,

'cause he looked like
a full grown man.

He was, you know,
300 plus pounds,

and he could obviously
be very menacing,

but he also had that
fun side to him.

And they were calling him

"The Beast from
the East" back then.

He was a football player and
he was ranked in the state

for wrestling, and he was
feared on the mat and

on the football field.

This is the time when
heavyweight in

high school wrestling
was unlimited.

So, you're talking about a
320 pound teenager

who can bench 500 pounds,
walking onto a mat.

I'm Shane Bigelow.

My father is
Bam Bam Bigelow.

I heard a story from a high
school wrestling coach that

my father rolled his ankle
real bad and he couldn't

wrestle, but his coach
was just like, "Scotty,

I need you to just go up
there and just look mean."

So he gets up, he steps
up on the scale,

and he turns to the kid and
he just gives him this

big flex, just like,
"I'm coming for you!"

Lo and behold this kid is
shitting his pants.

So, he tells his coach,
"I'm not wrestling this guy,

he's going to rip my
----ing head off."

All my father had to do,
he hopped out on one leg,

got his hand raised,
and took the win.

Yeah, there was a group
of the boys and

they were rough drinking,
tattooed, like old sailors,

but not sailors,
they were roofers.

[Laughing]

And they were very
infamous around town.

Him and his brothers used to
jump off of billboards

onto mattresses on the
side of the road.

My grandmother would drive
past, she would be like,

"Oh look at those kids."
And then she'd realize that

it was her three boys
jumping onto, like,

five mattresses piled high.

Scott was very quiet.

You know, he was the
baby of the bunch.

They usually only
called him in

when they needed the
extra muscle.

I had heard he got into a
fight and he bit

some kid's ear off, it's
like, what? [Laughing]

But it's part of
the legend that went with

"The Beast from the East."

Tough dude.
He ran with rugged people.

He was all that and a bag
of chips, man, he was a,

he was a bad apple
when he wanted to be.

I am Taz.

Former ECW World
Heavyweight Champion,

and former opponent
of Bam Bam Bigelow.

Bam Bam Bigelow
all over Taz.

I've heard all the
stories about Bigelow,

and I believe them all.

There's a whole separate
legend before The Legend

Bam Bam Bigelow ever
became The Legend.

My name is
Scott Colton Bigelow,

and Bam Bam Bigelow
is my father.

I know that he was a bounty
hunter for a short stint.

I don't know much about
the backstory of it.

He was supposedly
commissioned to go and

bring back a young girl

who was taken out
of the country.

In the whole mayday
craziness of the thing,

his bounty hunting partner
ends up

getting shot in the
neck and killed.

And that's when my dad spent

six months in a
Mexican prison.

I heard he ended up in jail.

You know, in Mexico.
[Laughing]

So you'd just hear
little bits and pieces,

and with Scotty,
they could be exaggerated.

The story is he befriended
the judge because he used to

run through the walls that
were made out of, like,

the terracotta clay.

He used to just break through
the cells of the walls

so they couldn't
keep him in.

So the judge one day
apparently goes to him

and asks him, he goes,

"I need security from
all these cartel, mob,

whatever guys.

So you stand in front of me
and you stop these maniacs

from like, lunging at me,
and trying to kill me,

and I'll knock your
sentence down."

So the story is that a judge
took pity on my father

because my father
saved him from a

bunch of guys trying
to jump over and stab him,

and he ended up letting
him loose early.

He's basically a
New Jersey legend.

There's a story that, uh,
one night a house is on fire,

he's driving by, runs in
and saves some kids.

He pulled over, ran in the
house and saved the kids.

That sounds like a TV movie.

It doesn't sound like stuff
that really happens, you know?

And, uh, there were a
lot of stories like that,

just out there
floating around.

I'm Shane Douglas and I
had the pleasure of being

partners in The Triple Threat
with Bam Bam Bigelow.

Who's the [Beep]
world champion?

You know, as I had heard
that he got arrested,

I guess in Mexico.

You know, that
sounds implausible.

But then, like, over years
you'd hear other people

repeating these
stories and I'm just,

elevating that legend
that was Bam Bam.

Here comes Bam Bam
in the club,

and this is like '81-ish,
and it's packed.

My club was nice.

And I see Bam roll in with
like three of his

biker buddies, and I come
rolling up behind him,

put my arm around his back,
I'm like, "Yo, Bammer.

No trouble in here tonight,
right bro?"

"Aw come on Page,
I wouldn't do that to you."

And at some point
we're at the bar and

I bought, you know,
got the guys a shot,

and uh,
wrestling comes up.

And, you know, I said,
"You know, I tried that,

in '79." He goes,
"You tried wrestling?"

And I said, "But I had
three matches.

My third match I hurt
my knee, and I kind of

got swept away by the booze,
the broads, and the party."

But talking to him about it,
you know, I'm like,

"Dude, you're a natural."
He goes, "I've, I,

that would, that would be a,
that would be a

pie in the sky
dream for me."

So, Larry Sharpe was a
former amateur wrestler...

Who opened up the
Monster Factory.

My name is Dave Meltzer.

I'm the editor of The
Wrestling Observer Newsletter

and I've been covering
pro wrestling since 1971.

And, one day I guess Bam
Bam walked in the door,

and Larry saw, like
everyone did, money!

And he became
Scott's "manager".

Set him up on a couch,
threw him in the ring,

and trained him.

I saw footage of him coming
out of the Monster Factory.

You could tell, like,
his aptitude to learn

how to do this and get better
at this, his athleticism,

it jumped out to me
right away.

I mean, seeing a guy
like that, you know,

a guy that big, you know,
do a cartwheel, I was like,

"Wow." I mean,
he's super impressive.

For Scott,
professional wrestling,

it's like a double
edged sword.

It gave him life and
it took his life.

That's the ultimate
double edge, isn't it?

In 1985, Scott Bigelow was
on the brink of stardom,

having made a clean break
from a troubled past.

When he went to the
Monster Factory

with Larry Sharpe,

Larry really developed the
name Bam Bam.

With Scott, Bam Bam.
The strong babyface.

You're like, "Bam Bam,
from the Flintstones."

So, he became
Bam Bam Bigelow.

Probably the most
handsome wrestler

on the face of the earth.

The massive
head of Bam Bam,

and that big flame
bowl on that head.

That tattoo.

Who gets ink on their head
has gotta be crazy.

Nevertheless their whole head.

For those that
never got a tattoo,

they hurt as much as they
think, okay? [Laughing]

This guy got his
skull tattooed.

Just imagine how much pain,

and how many hours
that took to do.

This was the branding
of Bam Bam Bigelow.

See people love to hate,
and as long as

they wanna hate me,
I know I'm doing my job.

And it kind of just sent
that message to the fans and

to other wrestlers,
that's a bad dude right there.

And Bammer, do you have
anything to say about

all of this?
-I'm hungry.

Despite being a rookie
to the wrestling scene,

those with an eye for the
business see

Bam Bam's incredible
potential.

Especially soon-to-be
industry pioneer,

Paul Heyman.

Paul was doing wrestling
magazines at the time.

This was before he was
actually running around

the business as a manager.

And in his magazines he was
always promoting

Bam Bam Bigelow like this,
this phenomenon.

And the guy had never
even had a match.

Paul worked at Studio 54,
he was doing publicity

at the time, and he got this,
you know, gig.

Bam Bam Bigelow's
first match.

And I looked at it, and I
was just like, "Oh my God.

This guy is like 380 pounds,

and he's coming
off the top rope."

At that point, you know,
I'm going, like,

"This guy is
gonna be like, it."

[Crowd cheering]

In wrestling, like, he's gonna
be the biggest thing.

I was like 19 when
we started dating,

and I was with his brother
and a couple other friends,

and we went to his show,
and he got up there and

he wrestled, and they were just
in awe of what it all was.

I just was like, "Oh
you know, he's at work."

I didn't really know
too much about it

until the WWF came back.

At some point I'm running
another really big club

in '86-ish, and I'm
flicking the channels,

and all of a sudden
I see him wrestling.

I'm like, "Oh my God!
That's Bigelow!"

Take a good look,
because we're bringing him

from one end of the
world to the other.

Next thing I know,
he's with Hulk Hogan,

he's in the WWF, and I'm like,
"Oh my God."

From Asbury Park,
New Jersey!

He made it.

-Bam Bam Bigelow.
-[Cheering]

Not only is Bam Bam
headed to the WWF,

but he's coming in with
the full support of

company owner,
Vince McMahon.

WWF brought him in,
and, you know,

they tried to make him
into the next big thing.

You know, they did the thing
where all the managers were

bidding on him to make
him extra special.

I'm here to introduce
Bam Bam Bigelow.

Vince loved big guys, and now
you've got the most agile

380 pound guy that
anyone has ever seen.

I mean, they brought him in
to be Hulk Hogan's

tag team partner, to be
right there with Hogan,

and he was gonna
main event there,

and he was gonna work
with the top guys.

He signed the WWE contract
and we got married

November 15th, 1987.

And he went on the road
November 16th, 1987.

We were watching TV,
and he was like...

[Laughing]

"Wanna get married?"
[Laughing]

And I was like,
"Okay!" [Laughing]

And that was
basically it,

there was no fanfare.

I saw him ten times a year,
I don't even know.

Maybe that's why our
marriage lasted so long,

maybe that's why I don't
have anything bad to say.

He was on the road and
hit the ground running,

and it was on from there.

When he was home, you know,
he did regular things.

So he remained
very humble.

Scott was who he
was around here.

But you know, it was
cool to see him on TV.

He was in the first
Nintendo game.

Like I said, he was just
breaking into the business

and he worked,
and he provided.

He knew to take advantage of
that situation and to take

advantage of everything
that was given to him.

What a monster!

Everybody that gets a
pair of boots and tights

wants to be the world
champion, right?

And they think they're
ready for it yesterday.

For me it was 11 years
before I saw a world title.

So, when I did get that
belt I understood

the responsibility
that went with it.

So I would think that
Bam Bam being thrown

that quickly into main
events with, you know,

Hulk Hogan or one of
these massive names,

it would have
been intimidating.

He never had to
crawl his way up.

There's always going to be
jealousy especially when

you've been in the
business 15 years,

and he's been in the
business for two, or one,

and he's on the
top of the card.

He was young and these
guys were big and it was

George "The Animal" Steele,
and King Kong Bundy.

And it was just people that
he always saw on TV and now

all of a sudden he's standing
in the middle of the ring

in the Survivor Series, and
the older guys were like,

"You know what,
you need to step in line."

The eighth wonder
of the world.

I remember, there was
an André match,

of course André the Giant
was the biggest man

you'll ever see.

André got him in the ring
up against the ropes,

and wrapped the rope
around his neck.

Scott was like,
"He's gonna ----ing kill me.

Yeah, he's gonna kill me."

♪

Look out!

Even Bam Bam looks
small next to this guy.

So, you know André,
he was on top of him and

he was pounding on him.
I mean, hard.

It was a bad night
at the office

for Bam Bam Bigelow.

And André said something
to him, like, "Young boy."

You know, "'You're a little
green for us."

Like, "This is how
it works."

Like, "You're gonna learn."
And André really just

stuck it to him, but,
you know, they were just

letting him know he had
to pay his dues.

He was green, and you
need to wait your turn,

'cause it's not right now.

[Laughing]

After only a year
in the big leagues,

Bam Bam Bigelow's match
with André the Giant

marks his exit
from the WWF.

He had gotten
such a big push,

but at a certain point
they did sour on him.

Bam Bam Bigelow
paid the price here.

And it may have been,
ego-wise,

the other guys
not liking him.

My father, just knowing when
things get a little too thick

and it's not his time,
he moved on.

Now on his own, Bam Bam
travels the country

working for various US
promotions before receiving

a lucrative offer to
wrestle in Japan.

I don't even know
what years these are,

but judging by the suit,
probably early '90s.

This is one of his
original Japanese suits.

There was more money for
him to be had overseas.

When he went to Japan
he was on for two weeks

and then home
for two weeks.

So he had longer
stretches of time home.

The contract.

And it was time for him to
come back to the States.

I 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.

So this is his, uh,
coming out to the ring attire

when he was in his
second run in the WWF.

He would have pyrotechnics
underneath here,

and they would shoot,
like, fireworks out.

Oh, wow!

I don't fill it out as much
as, as much as he did.

♪

He said he used to look
like a tulip in it.

In 1992 as the WWF struggles
with declining popularity,

Vince McMahon brings
Bam Bam back to the roster.

Once again proving to
be a top level star,

Bam Bam gets thrust
into the main event

of WrestleMania XI...

Wrestlemania 11!

When McMahon books him
against of the NFL's

most celebrated players.

Lawrence Taylor.

Probably the most

media frenzied time of
my father's career.

That was Scott's idol,
like, LT and the Giants.

Like, "Now I'm gonna
wrestle him." You know?

"I'm gonna
wrestle with him."

That build up and that whole
pomp and circumstance of

being the main event
at Wrestlemania.

Lawrence Taylor,
it's just me and you!

This was a match not
for wrestling fans.

The media hype
around this match

has been absolutely huge.

This was a match for
the general public.

And the idea was by being in
the match all the exposure

from the football press,
and the mainstream press,

would then make
Bam Bam's name bigger,

so then he could be
the big star that

they wanted him to be.

That 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.

It was a paycheque
bigger than

a lot of people
make in one year.

I see a lot of videos online.

People all, "Oh, it's the
worst Wrestlemania."

You know what?

There's not another person
that could have carried

Lawrence Taylor
to do that show.

You know, Vince trusted
my father enough to be the

person to pull that off.

Bam Bam soon learns that
being the company's go-to

big man comes with
certain sacrifices.

It definitely took
a toll on his body.

I mean every time he sits
in a chair and stands up,

he just squatted 400 pounds.

A lot of wear and tear
on your knees.

Your back, your neck,
your shoulders.

I mean the thing that made
him so great was,

you know,
an agile big guy.

The problem with the agile
big guys is that by doing

that stuff, a smaller guy
can take that stuff longer,

and the big guy it starts
wearing down on you, a lot.

He definitely had some
knee surgeries and

an elbow surgery or
sholder surgery.

You know his body was
starting to take

a little bit of a lickin'.

That's one thing I didn't do.

I didn't worry and
I didn't stress out.

It was his job and he was
an entertainer and

he was an athlete, and I was
too young to think about

the lifelong lasting effects
of wrestling and

what it would have on
his body and his mind.

But 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.
So, that was a no-no.

I'm not letting the
opportunity walk by me.

That heavyweight championship
is gonna be mine!

[Sighing] Probably pain pills
like everybody else.

But I do remember, you know,
that was so commonplace

among wrestlers then.

It 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?"

So you just gave em'
to your boy.

You know, because he
needed em' right there.

When you see this symbol
you can be assured of

drug free entertainment
you can be proud of.

Vince tested for marijuana
and performance

enhancing drugs, but you've
got a prescription,

you're good.

Through that 80s and
then into the 90s,

there were two things
that coincided.

Running, if this is
the wrestling industry,

running right next to that is
the pharmaceutical industry.

And the pharmaceutical
industry is now coming up

with better, more accessible
opiates, OxyContin,

which I did have
a problem with.

I've seen it, uh,
so much in my career,

so many of my peers during
that time just left us

way too early because
of addiction,

and especially pain pills.

He um, was diabetic and he
had an endocrinologist.

Not a pain management
doctor, and he would call,

and, "I need Percs,
I need Vikes, I need Oxys,

I need something
to keep me going."

If you were at the pool
party and ol' Doc came by,

it was well, "I happen to
have a refillable script of

OxyContins in return for
autographs." Or, you know,

tickets to local shows
here and there.

It's a pretty powerful thing
to have over someone.

They might as well have just
put heroine in a bottle and

called it OxyContin. I can
guarantee you before that

prescription was done,
he was probably addicted.

♪

In 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.

I mean, one reason he went
to ECW was because

he liked how it was local.

Obviously, if he was in
Asbury the whole family

would get together,
we'd all go.

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.

There is only one
Bam Bam Bigelow!

I think it was a little
too hardcore for me,

being so young.

♪

Our fans were riding with us.

That was the whole gimmick.

We were renegades,
well dammit,

we, the fans,
we're renegades too.

From fit to finish
those shows were chaos.

I remember this crowd
just like a mosh pit.

And this dude who
is drunk as a skunk,

comes barrelling and just
absolutely face punches me,

and chucks me
right into the ground.

You know, like
10, 11 years old.

Like I've never been
hit by a grown man,

and it's that type of, like,
where you're like- [Gasping]

You can't catch your breath.

So I remember
going backstage,

and I don't even think I
told my father anything,

he just like saw it.
And he's like,

"What happened?"
And I'm like,

"I don't know,
this guy punched me,"

like went through the crowd,
he's like, "Find him."

The gentleman who did that
was escorted to the back

for a conversation.

I witnessed this
quasi conversation,

I'll never forget it.

And all you hear is, "So,
you wanna hit kids?"

And you know that like,

this dude is getting the
life smacked out of him.

I don't know how else to
put it, it was very bad.

[Laughing] I'm sure
everybody's OK now.

But the fans in turn are
fuelled by ECW's over the top

ultra-violent brand
of extreme wrestling.

In ECW, we were a
bunch of wrestlers

that most of the
bigger promotions,

they didn't want us, kinda.

And we were like the
land of misfit toys.

And it incorporated a lot of
new stuff into pro wrestling

in a revolutionary way.

I mean, you had to be tough
to be in our company,

and Bigelow was a very
tough guy, a legitimate guy.

And he really started to
come into his own,

the months that
we were doing.

The stuff that these
guys were doing,

jumping off the rafters,
through tables,

getting thrown
into the stands-

It's just as hardcore
as hardcore can get.

Belly suplex!

We weren't just trying
to hurt each other,

we were professionals.

What happens in that
ring is built on trust.

So, the infamous
Taz and Bigelow

go through the ring
in Asbury Park.

So I get this phone call from
Paul Heyman, and um, he says,

"You and Bigelow, he's
gonna beat you for the belt,

and he's gonna put you
through the ring to do it."

He goes,
"What do you think?"

And the first thing I thought
is, "I'm gonna die."

So, the way a ring
is constructed,

it's a steel frame,
and then there's these

thick wood boards,

and then there's
kind of like a, uh, cushion.

It's not as big as a mat.

And then a canvas.

So these wood boards
were cut first.

So then the boards were just
moved out of the way,

then opened a trap door.

And Bam Bam
was concerned.

"What about Taz's head?"

Like, "His heads gonna hit
the frame of this thing.

How are we going to
clear this hole?"

I almost feel dirty
explaining this on here.

[Off-screen]
[Laughing]

I'm so old school,
it's ----ing like, unbelievable.

So, basically, we fought,
fought, fought.

We were outside the ring
for quite some time fighting

until we get the signal
that this door is open.

It's got both champion and
challenger back in the ring.

So, if you watch closely...

He's got it!
He's got it locked up!

When I have the choke on him-
and I'm really pulling it

back this curtain all
the way here, right?

So, Bam Bam,
he's tapping first.

Then he puts his hand
on the top rope.

Under his hand is a little
piece of white tape.

That white tape was the
measurement to clear my head.

[Cheering]

We hit that crash mat
hard as hell.

[Chanting]
ECW! ECW!

The ring engulfs us.
And we heard the people.

[Cheering]

My eyes lit up,
I was so happy.

And the first thing
he says to me,

"Are you okay?"
That's Bam Bam Bigelow.

And he goes,
"We ----in' did it!"

And we were laughing,

because the place
was rumbling.

He waited for the people
to come down a teeny bit,

and then once they
saw him come out first,

we knew the pop would be
loud but I don't know

if we knew it was
gonna be that loud.

I mean, i was just...

I'll never forget it
as long as I live.

And we've got a new...

I get goosebumps.

...World Television
Champion!

There are so many things
that could have gone wrong.

You could break your back,
you could break your neck.

Uh, but Scotty never
ever said no to anything.

It's a small miracle
that Bigelow is moving.

You would see him come out,
he'd have, you know,

giant gashes on his head,
and he would just put some

superglue on it,
close it up,

and then we would go
have a cheesesteak.

I can't tell you how many
times he's been

sewed up in our living room.

Doctor just would come over
and just sew him up

in the middle of the night
while he was half asleep.

So the injuries were the
beginning of the end.

He had stenosis in the
entirety of his spine.

He had crushed discs.

He had sections fused of
his back at that time.

You could run your finger
down his spine and

you could feel,
almost like brail.

Pills just allowed him
to move.

If you didn't go out and
you didn't put on a show,

you weren't getting paid.

So, I understand the aspect
of having to take something

to basically push
you through that.

I did see Bigelow struggling
a little bit physically,

but he, he hid it well.

He wouldn't tell you, if you
had to go over a match,

"Hey dude, I'm hurting here,
my shoulder hurts,

my neck hurts,
my back hurts."

He was just, "Let's go."
You know, "Let's do it."

You know,
whatever it was.

The pain pills Bam Bam
Bigelow consumes allow him

to continue performing
at the highest level,

but they also take a toll on
his life away from the ring.

He was never, never,
never aggressive.

And he was always
very respectful.

And he became angry.

He would, at times,
be very coherent,

and at times be
very incoherent.

And he would be like,
"You are just crazy and

you're making things up.

I'm under a doctor's care,
and this is, you know,

what I have to do to be
in the business."

It was a doctor.

An MD, who get paid
a lot of money,

to treat him for
one disease,

and gave him another,
a whole other one.

The pill bottles
from that doctor,

I've never seen pill bottles
of that size

in my life before.

100 pills?
300 pills?

His doctor was a fan,

and he would have done
anything that Scott wanted,

regardless of his license,
and he did.

Scott was in denial
and so was the doctor,

because I would
call him and say,

"Stop writing these
prescriptions.

You're destroying our lives.
You're ruining our family."

And that doctor's response,

he would call my
father and say that,

"The warden's calling me
telling me not to come over."

Undermining my mother
to my father

in an already
weakened state.

Nobody's paying attention
to these doctors.

You're a drug dealer.

'Cause he was not
a pain doctor.

It's a tragedy.

Scott sold his soul
for OxyContins.

And he would have stepped
over us in the street

to get them.

♪

Bam Bam Bigelow's addiction
continues to get worse,

fuelled by an endless supply
of OxyContin from his doctor.

OxyContin is one of
America's new wonder drugs.

Since the drug came on the
market the number of annual

prescriptions has risen
to nearly 6 million.

Contributing to the
problem are pill mills,

where doctors write
prescriptions for

non-medical reasons.

He wasn't going to buy
drugs off the street.

He was home
taking OxyContins.

And then I got pregnant with
Ricci, and then the promises,

you know, "This is
gonna be different.

We're gonna get
through this."

I think he tried to pull
himself together because

he said he always wanted a
daughter his whole life.

It was like beyond anything
to have this daughter,

and when she was little he
used to put her to bed

every single night, and he
would get a pillow and

he would lay on
the floor next to her,

and he would sing her songs,
and hold her hands.

And he was in her room
on her floor every night.

Wednesdays.

Every Wednesday my dad would
pick me up from preschool.

Big red truck.

Eat all the Doritos
you could imagine.

Paint pictures.

Just, normal father-
daughter relationship.

When he was around he was
focused on being with us and

spending time with us.

How you doing, boy?
[Laughing]

His body was a
little hindered,

and he was starting
to feel the pain.

But, you know that didn't
stop us from going to

every opening day
for fishing.

Every opening day
for hunting.

He got to be a dad.

So with Dad being on the road
300 plus days a year.

Those are the
fondest memories.

There's no pension in
professional wrestling.

So, he needed to make as

much money as he
could with the

body that he had, 'cause he
knew it was deteriorating.

He even says that he's
the highest paid loser

in the world, because
he'll take a loss

as long as that loss pays.

I'm the guy who helped
bring Bam Bam in to WCW.

When he heard that
I was wrestling,

somehow he got my number,
he's like,

"Dude, you're doing it."

Like, we grew up maybe
7 miles from each other.

These two Jersey Shore boys.

But now we're
tag team champions.

I never felt like he was
under the influence

in the ring but, you know,
eventually, you know,

people start to go back to
their old habits and

that's why so
many guys died.

Over consumption of pills.

Because when you're
taking five at a time,

'cause three
stopped working.

[Sighing] I'm not,
you can't remember

if you took them or not,
so you take five more.

You know, and before
you know it-

[Gagging]-
you're that guy.

He went on the road and

he would not show up to
shows or tapings.

He was in Arizona, and, um,
friends of ours were there,

and he didn't make it to the
show and they called home.

And I was like,
"What do you mean?

He's there." It got to
the point where

he was a liability, and
that's what they said.

And they paid him the rest
of his contract to stay home

because he could
not function.

I saw a man broken.

He's away from his family,
and he's not in the best

physical shape because
he's in constant pain.

You know, having to take a
pill just to get up.

And not just a pill,
multiple pills.

But the trade off
of that is

it completely
dulls your senses,

it completely just destroys
your sense of person.

15, 20 OxyContins, easily.

Yeah.

It was dangerous.

And a situation happened
with the youngest

where it became
very dangerous.

I had wrote a paper about it

when I was in 8th grade.

And I went back and read it
last night understanding that

what was happening was,
I'm writing about

my father nodding out,
driving.

And when I wrote that
in 8th grade

I had no idea that's
what was going on.

And I remember the officers
were asking me

all these questions,
like, I mean,

for a three-year-old,
they're asking me

my address,
my phone number,

my mom's phone number,
like all this information,

and I'm just like, "I don't
know. Where's my dad?"

So when I went back
last night and read it,

really knowing
what was going on,

what was in his system,
it just hits ten times harder.

As Bam Bam Bigelow's
addiction sends him

crashing to rock bottom,
he's charged with

endangering the welfare
of his daughter.

He was given an
ultimatum. I'm like,

"You've either
gotta go get help,

or you have to go."

He wouldn't get help,
and he went.

He didn't see that he had a
problem the way that he did,

and the way
that addicts do.

And you know, Dad's not
gonna be home anymore,

they're getting a divorce.

That's when he picked up and
basically went to Florida.

He was married to a drug.

So to watch a man who
would choose that

over his children, when I
knew that that was

the most important thing,

was just the
worst thing ever.

And I got to talk to him on
the phone, but it would be,

like, spans of where it
would be really quiet,

because I could
hear him crying.

He was struggling to
form the words, "Hi."

I went down to Tampa,
spring break my senior year.

I wanted to go down there to
see my friends but I really

just wanted to go down
there to find my dad.

And um-
[Sighing]-

His girlfriend
answered the phone,

said he wasn't available at
that point in time,

and then I got a phone call
when I landed back in

New Jersey from my
father, apologizing.

And uh, you know I kind of
aired him out a little bit,

told him how I felt,
um...

and then he died.

Three weeks later.

I was in school,
teaching,

and a phone call got
patched to my classroom,

and it was his
brother, Todd.

And Todd said,
"He's gone."

I was like,
"What do you mean?"

He's like, "He's gone."

And he was
crying hysterically,

and I just hung up the phone
and ran out of the building,

and Shane was in college.

Yeah, I got that call.
I'll never forget it.

I'm walking back
through the quad,

there's kids going to class,
and I got a phone call

from my father's
childhood friend.

"Your father died
last night."

And it just like...
everybody around you is

moving fast and
you're just still.

I just remember being numb.

[Exhaling sharply]
It rocked me.

What I heard, um,
at that time, he was, uh,

you know, going through
a tough time.

I thought of his
family instantly,

because I know how much
he loved his family and

his wife, you know,
I just felt for them.

He died of an overdose.

Accidental overdose, but...

you know the word
accidental and overdose

should just not be in
the same sentence.

How do you accidentally,
"Oops!" Took one too many?

He took one too many
for a long time.

♪

On 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.

I didn't grieve.

There was none for me,
because I was scrambling.

I had kids, they couldn't
see me break down.

They couldn't see me weak.

And that's all I became,
was a provider.

Like, I didn't have time
to coddle and nurture.

That's the hardest
part on me now.

Towards the end it was very
difficult with my mother.

Just because, that was
my dad, that was my hero.

My mom had to make a
really tough decision.

You know, for a while I
never understood

why we couldn't
just go see dad.

And when you don't
understand

you just think it's selfish.

But then when you do,

you become appreciative
that you weren't

exposed to something
that would've been

just so heart breaking.

As a father I think it just
digs into you that

when you think, if there was
no compunction for

Bammer to reach out for
some kind of help,

that he must have thought
that he had it under control.

He must have figured this is
not really a problem.

Because of how much he
talked about his kids.

It's been just-
[Sighing]-

honouring the
legacy of Bam Bam.

Now collision course!

I never really got to stop
and acknowledge my own pain.

You always think about if
you had one last chance

what you would say.
I think there's more ask.

Just why?

His kids lost their dad
at a young age.

It's sad, you know, because
Bigelow like so many of us

wrestlers during that time,
was on the road a lot.

You know,
you're not around.

You're making a living
for your family.

You mother----er.

But, through
years of therapy,

I know you had no control.

It's not your fault.
I don't blame you.

♪

You know nobody wakes up
in the morning and says,

"I'm gonna be
a drug addict today."

You wake up every morning
and you're like,

"Today is gonna
be a change."

But I would call him a
mother----er first.

Just 'cause he
would expect that.

I can't fault him
for what happened.

You had to keep going.

That's how you put the
bread on the table.

I signed all the rights
over to the kids,

so they got all the
royalty cheques.

So he, in his death,
still supported them.

Nobody.
There's nobody.

When I think of pro wrestling
I think of power,

I think of size,
I think of my father.

World heavyweight champion,

The Beast from the East,
Bam Bam Bigelow!

He was a great person,
and how he lived and

all the wonderful things
that he did for people,

and the great father
that he was,

should be what
is remembered.

Not how he died, because
that's a terrible story,

but he left such a legacy.

Bam Bam!
Look at that maneuver!

[Laughing]

He was that 1%.

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