Bam Bam

many of you know that for the better part of my life i was a professional wrestling fan. growing up i loved the action, excitement, and spectacle of pro wrestling with their larger than life characters and soap opera esque story lines.

in many ways pro wrestling is/was the modern day equivalent of the variety shows of decades passed. the blend of comedy, action, song and dance, and more made for a particularly enjoyable hour or two of television.

unfortunately, however, the life of a pro wrestler is often times a difficult one filled with emotional hardship and physical pain that comes from the constant wear and tear of travelling and performing around the world almost every day of the year. night in and night out these men and women put their bodies through tremendous amounts of punishment often leading to chronic injuries that are either a constant source of discomfort or worse, and they rarely get to spend time with their families and loved ones who they work so hard to support.

it is perhaps for these reasons (the physical and mental toll that the life requires) that many professional wrestlers over the years have turned to drugs (mainly pain killers) and alcohol to cope (i say this not as an excuse for their choices, but merely as fact). and as you might imagine (or might know) the use of such substances chronically leads to a large number of premature/unneccessary deaths among pro wrestlers.

and so it is with great sadness that i am here today writing about the too soon passing of another one of pro wrestlings all time greats. as yesterday Scott “Bam Bam” Bigelow was found dead in his Hudson, Florida home.

those familiar with pro wrestling (even casually) might recognize Bam Bam Bigelow by name, but more likely would recognize him by his massive size and his tattoo covered bald skull. he most famously feuded with and then wrestled Lawerence Taylor in a highly publicized match at Wrestlemania XI.

but my relationship with Mr. Bigelow runs deeper than that of a fan of his in ring work.

Scott Bigelow was born and lived for many years in Asbury Park, New Jersey (which for those of you unaware is the next town over from where i grew up). He could often be spotted around town riding on his motorcycle, and anyone who ever interacted with him would tell you that he was always especially gracious and kind, a lesson i learned for myself in the spring of 1997.

1997 was my senior year of high school, and as a vice president of our school’s DECA (business) club it was my job to help raise money to support the unexpectedly large number of club members who had qualified for nationals to be held that year in Anaheim, CA.

we (that is myself, our president, Jason Fromer, and several other members) had chosen for a fundraiser a “Battle Of The Teachers” event that would pit members of the faculty from different departments against each other in numerous “athletic” and “cerebral” events (dress em up relay, dizzy bat spin, tug of war, a trivia contest, etc).

we spent weeks acquiring local business sponsors to offer prizes for raffles, and hours convincing teachers and the administration to not only allow us to move forward with the plan, but to also participate (which basically meant making asses of themselves for our cause).

thankfully, things progressed relatively smoothly, and as the event approached we thought that we had things pretty much under control. but, of course, being the ambitious young men and women that we were, we thought that perhaps there might still be a way to ensure a greater success for the fundraiser.

now at the moment I can’t quite recall how the idea was raised or who raised it, but somehow we came up with the idea to see if we might be able to get our local celebrity Bam Bam Bigelow to agree to help us out and appear as a “guest referee.”

so, one afternoon after school (having failed in our attempt to acquire a contact phone number - being unlisted) Jason Fromer and I drove to Mr. Bigelow’s then known place of residence (and by known i mean rumored) and rang the doorbell.

a young woman (who we later learned to be his wife - since divorced) opened the door, and we asked to speak to Mr. Bigelow. at first she played coy, but after explaining our purpose in seeking out his help, she admitted that we did in fact have the right house, but that Mr. Bigelow was currently out of town.

she invited us inside and I remember the large amounts of Bam Bam paraphernalia that adorned the walls, honoring his numerous achievements from around the world. we then continued to further explain who we were, what we were doing, and why we wanted his help. finally, she said that she thought that he would be interested and she gave us their number to call back later in the week upon his return.

when we did finally speak to him and once again explained who we were and what we were doing, he instantly agreed to help us out and appear as the guest referee. then on top of that he also suggested that we charge money to people for autographed photos with him and that we keep and use all the money to help as well.

after relaying all this to our teacher and advisor, he insisted that we offer him some kind of appearance fee for being so generous. but, Bam Bam refused, saying that he was happy to do whatever he could for us, and that one day his son (who was in our school system) would be attending our high school, so he felt obligated to do what he deemed no big thing.

but, still our teacher felt somewhat uncomfortable in that we might be taking too great an advantage of his generousity, not to mention part of how he made his livelihood at the time(selling memorabilia - at that point he wasn’t wrestling too much) and so eventually, after we persisted, he suggested that a 6-pack of beer would make us square (and our teacher agreed to provide it), and so we were set.

the night of the event arrived and having done our job in promoting Bam Bam’s appearance that week in school, what we had projected to be a mildly profitable endeavor suddenly became a huge success.

hundreds of students, parents, and friends lined the gym’s bleachers to watch the teachers battle it out for department supremacy, and Bam Bam played the role of guest referee to perfection (even going so far as to at one point film a comedic wrestling segment with some of the people from our school’s tv program, spartan update, where he crushed one of the reporter’s wrestling alter ego in an impromptu match). at the intermission he set up for photos and autographs, and the money rolled in.

by night’s end, we had made almost enough to send everyone to Anaheim (eventually, appealing to the school board for the remaining amount - and receiving it, in part, due to the effort we had displayed in organizing the fundraiser).

unfortunately, due to my responsibilities as one of the organizers, i never got the chance that evening to get an autograph or a picture with Bam Bam, and for a while I always regretted not having it as a keepsake.

but, now, looking back, it’s easy to see that i got something worth a whole lot more than a photo and an autograph that night. i got something that i will have with me to remember the man and all that he did for me and the rest of us, even if it can’t be framed and hung on a wall…a story to tell.

RIP
Scott “Bam Bam” Bigelow
9/1/61 - 1/19/07