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- '90s Wrestler Buff Bagwell Feels He's 'Gained Two Legs' After Getting Above-The-Knee Amputation (Exclusive)</p>
<p>Mark GrayAugust 7, 2025 at 12:29 AM</p>
<p>Maven Huffman/YouTube</p>
<p>Marcus Bagwell on July 10, 2025, after his leg was amputated.</p>
<p>Marcus Bagwell was involved in a car crash in 2020, which severely damaged his kneecap</p>
<p>The former WCW wrestler was unable to bend his knee for five years</p>
<p>"Amputation was on the table, I think, instantly, but we tried to save the leg," he says</p>
<p>Former professional wrestler Marcus "Buff" Bagwell had a portion of his right leg amputated, the result of injuries sustained in a 2020 car accident and, subsequently, five of the most "miserable" years of his life.</p>
<p>"I have a completely new mindset. I'm super excited about the future. I'm overwhelmed with joy that the ugliness is cut off," the World Championship Wrestling star told PEOPLE exclusively. "I was very ashamed of it."</p>
<p>In 2020, Bagwell, 55, severely injured his leg, specifically his kneecap, after crashing his car into a freestanding restroom in Atlanta while admitting to being under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Although many of his injuries healed over time, the same couldn't be said for his leg, which no longer bent at the knee due to his kneecap essentially "exploding" during the car accident. For the next five years, the former tag-team champion lived with a stiff, straight leg.</p>
<p>"I was faced with something that I had never faced before, which was that I couldn't fix this injury," he said. "Amputation was on the table, I think, instantly, but we tried to save the leg."</p>
<p>The former NWO member attempted multiple routes to find a remedy for his leg, including undergoing over 40 surgeries, 21 of which occurred during a seven-week hospitalization. One procedure he received was called "flap surgery," in which his calf muscle was moved up to the knee to improve blood flow. Bagwell contracted a staph infection quickly after, much of which he spoke about on his YouTube Channel.</p>
<p>After Bagwell began his sobriety journey (he's nearly three years sober), other surgeries followed, as did more infections. In 2024, the famed '90s wrestler underwent a "right knee extensor mechanism repair," which he says is a "fancy term for a kneecap repair."</p>
<p>"I never came out of that surgery well," said Bagwell, who was a top star in WCW from 1991 to 2001. "The pain was better and things like that, but now I was dealing with a much stiffer straight leg that was never going to bend again. Again, amputation was the furthest thing from my mind."</p>
<p>https://people-app.onelink.me/HNIa/kz7l4cuf</p>
<p>As time went on, Bagwell searched for ways to fix his unbendable, straight leg, but the surgery still left him unable to bend his knee. Activities such as getting in and out of a car, getting up from the couch and exercising proved to be difficult.</p>
<p>"When you can't bend your leg, it's devastating," he said. "I was very depressed about how it looked. I would always wear pants. Here's Buff Bagwell, ashamed to wear shorts. I would not be in public with it."</p>
<p>Chris McGrath/ALLSPORT</p>
<p>Marcus "Buff" Bagwell in 2001 in Sydney, Australia.</p>
<p>Eventually, Bagwell was presented with a scenario that included having three surgeries in a year, skin grafts and a straight metal rod in his leg forever. But, after hearing that there was only a 20% chance of all that working, in addition to the 40 surgeries he'd already had with minimal results, Bagwell decided to go through with an "above-the-knee amputation" and get a prosthetic leg.</p>
<p>On July 10, his leg was removed during a five-hour surgery.</p>
<p>"There's no preparing you for waking up. When I first woke up, I looked down and I went, 'Oh my God.' And it took my breath. I went, 'Why has my leg gone?' And your brain's trying to kick out of the fog of anesthesia and everything," he said. "So I'm trying to kick out, and at the same time having an anxiety attack over looking at my leg. It seemed like a couple of minutes, but it was probably 10 seconds long, and at the end of that 10 seconds, I was like, 'Do you remember how your leg looked, buddy?' After those 10 seconds, I knew I had made the right decision. There was no doubt in my mind."</p>
<p>By the end of August, Bagwell is set to be fitted for a prosthetic leg and "won't even look back."</p>
<p>"I'm about to cry, because I'm thinking I'm losing a leg. At the end of this thing, I have gained a leg. I will have a leg now," he says. "And when you can't bend that leg, you can't do anything with the other leg… I have really gained two legs back by getting this amputation, and that's the first time I've said that, but it's the truth. I went from not being able to exercise my left leg to exercising my left leg, and I'll have a prosthetic. I have gained two legs out of this. I feel great now."</p>
<p>"That leg was in my way. I was miserable," he continued. "I just didn't realize how miserable I was until it was gone. I am happier right now with no leg than I was with a leg over the last five years of my life."</p>
<p>Seeing this as a new lease on life, the larger-than-life wrestling personality plans to hit the gym and "get back into Buff Bagwell shape." He also hopes to get back into the wrestling ring. His ultimate goal is to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.</p>
<p>on People</p>
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