Buff Bagwell says his addiction became so severe that he was swallowing 40 Soma pills every day—and the former WCW star believes an undiagnosed heart problem helped drag him into that nightmare.
Bagwell opened up about the darkest stretch of his life while speaking with Kings of the Ring, powered by the Digital Bricks Network. The conversation started with his time in TNA, but Bagwell admitted he was already too deep into pills and alcohol to make the most of that opportunity.
The former nWo member said his addiction took off after he broke his neck in 1998. WCW’s schedule gave him enough structure to keep the problem somewhat hidden, but everything got worse once that safety net disappeared.
“I feel like I was just too far gone, brother. I was too deep into my addiction. I broke my neck in ’98. In ’98, ’99 and 2000, I had gotten really bad in my addiction with pills and drinking, but I was able to hide it because of that WCW leash.”
Bagwell said losing the structure of WCW—and later WWE—sent him into a much faster spiral. The problem did not disappear after one trip to treatment. Bagwell said he entered rehab five times over the next several years, but none of those attempts stuck.
“It was a good leash, but when there was no WCW leash and no WWF leash, I got bad really quick.”
“I went through several rehabs. I did five rehabs over the next five or 10 years, and none of them worked.”
Bagwell then explained the medical issue he believes was tangled up in his drug use. He said he had undiagnosed sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation, leaving his heart beating irregularly without him understanding what was happening.
“I had a crazy sleep apnea thing that I didn’t know I had. When you have sleep apnea, you get a thing called atrial fibrillation. Your heart doesn’t beat evenly.”
Soma became Bagwell’s drug of choice. He said the muscle relaxer seemed to make his heart feel better, even though he had no idea why the pills appeared to ease his symptoms at the time. By the time doctors diagnosed the problem and shocked his heart back into rhythm, Bagwell said the damage from his drug use had already been done.
“Of all things, my favorite pill—my favorite drug of choice—was Somas. A Soma is a muscle relaxer, and your heart is a muscle. So when I would take the Soma, it would make my heart feel better. I didn’t know why. I didn’t know any of this was going on.”
“Finally, I get diagnosed with sleep apnea and AFib, and they shock my heart back into rhythm, but now I’m swallowing 40 Somas a day.”
Bagwell said treatment fixed the physical issues that had been making him feel sick, but it could not erase the addiction he had developed while trying to manage those symptoms.
“It wasn’t like I learned it and then did it. I got hooked on these drugs and alcohol because of my symptoms. But then, once I was fixed and I had a mask for my CPAP for my sleep apnea, and I got my heart shocked back into rhythm, I was fixed—but now I’m a drug addict, bro.”
Even rehab brought another medical problem. Bagwell said he developed what he called “testosterone flu” after getting sick from using too much testosterone while attempting to get sober. Bagwell knows how insane the entire chain of events sounds. He went into rehab fighting a massive pill and alcohol addiction, only to deal with another health scare on top of it.
“Then, at one of the rehabs I went to, I got a thing called testosterone flu. I got myself sick on too much testosterone.”
“Nobody goes to rehab and then also gets testosterone flu, but I did. It was crazy, bro.”
Bagwell survived the broken neck, the pills, the drinking, multiple failed rehab attempts and a daily Soma habit that reached an unbelievable level. His wrestling career may have taken the hits everyone saw on television, but the fight that nearly destroyed him was happening when the cameras were gone.
What do you make of Buff Bagwell revealing that he was taking 40 Soma pills a day at the height of his addiction? Leave your feedback in the comments and let us know your thoughts.
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