Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

He was a celebrity with a name all wrestling fans knew

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published January 20, 2007

HUDSON - Scott Charles Bigelow, better known as Bam Bam Bigelow, the well-known former professional wrestler with the trademark tattooed flames on his scalp, was found dead Friday morning in his small stucco duplex. He was 45.

There were no obvious signs of foul play or an immediate cause of death, said Doug Tobin, a spokesman for the Pasco sheriff's office. His girlfriend found his body. The medical examiner is doing an autopsy.

Bigelow's girlfriend didn't return a message left at her home, and neither did his ex-wife. A burly man responded Friday to a reporter's knock at the duplex with a short burst of profanities.

Bigelow last talked with the Times in November 2005 in his girlfriend's home in Port Richey.

"Being Bam Bam Bigelow," he said then, "it doesn't really get you anywhere."

The month before, he had a motorcycle wreck on State Road 50 in Hernando County. His girlfriend was on the back and got hurt. Driving under the influence charges were filed.

The wrestling celebrity with the name fans can't forget was looking at up to five years in prison for driving under the influence with serious bodily injuries.

It wasn't always this way.

The Wrestling Observer named Bigelow rookie of the year for all of pro wrestling in 1986. He weighed about 400 pounds but was known for his remarkable agility and ability to jump off the ropes and onto his opponents in the ring.

He wrestled with Hulk Hogan and against Andre the Giant. He was the headliner in WrestleMania in 1995.

He was a star.

But he had back problems and knee surgeries. He retired briefly in 2002 and then for good in 2004.

Life after wrestling for Bam Bam Bigelow meant time in rehab for painkillers, calls from creditors, an expensive divorce, three kids he no longer saw and unpaid child support.

He left his native New Jersey and lived for a while in rural Pennsylvania on a road called the Hideout.

The last address for Bigelow in court documents was in Port Richey, not the duplex - but the duplex was where he was living, the sheriff's spokesman said.

He and his girlfriend recovered from their injuries from the wreck. But six weeks after the accident, he said the bills were piling up - medical bills, child support.

"And you can't pay what you can't afford," he said then.

In November, in a full courtroom, Circuit Judge Jack Springstead asked Bigelow if he was going to be able to hire a private attorney. Bigelow looked at the ground and mumbled that he lived on only a monthly disability check. Springstead assigned the public defender.

Then at a pretrial hearing Jan. 12, he had on black high tops, baggy warmup pants and a big gray rumpled shirt. He looked bigger than he did even the month before, fatter and slower. His girlfriend held his hand as he walked down the center aisle.

Staff writer Thomas Lake contributed to this report. Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or 352 848-1434.

[Last modified January 20, 2007, 00:37:01]