SCOTT BIGELOW, who wrestled professionally under the nickname “Bam Bam,” was found dead on Friday in Hudson, Fla. He was 45.
The cause of death was unknown. There didn’t appear to be foul play, but the Pasco County sheriff’s office was awaiting autopsy results.
Bigelow worked for WWE, ECW and WCW extensively throughout his 20-year sports-entertainment career. A former ECW Champion, ECW Television Champion and WCW Tag Team Champion, he was perhaps best known for his rivalry with Lawrence Taylor that culminated in the main event of WrestleMania XI in 1995.
Bigelow’s death shook friends and family, as well as the wrestling community. Survivors include daughter Ricci and sons Shane and Scott, who live with his ex-wife in Ocean County, N.J.
“He was a good guy, very good, with a good heart,” wrestler Jerry Sags, one-half of the renowned tag team The Nasty Boys and a longtime friend of Bigelow’s, told The Tampa Tribune.
Sags and Bigelow had worked together recently on local and regional American Combat Wrestling promotions for which Bam Bam often gave advice to ACW wrestlers like “Roughhouse” Ralph Mosca, Sideshow and David Mercury.
“In a lot of ways he was just a big teddy bear that had that New Jersey attitude about him,” Sags said. “My last conversation with Bam Bam, I saw the state he was in and I said, ‘Man, we’ve lost 40 of our friends (in recent years). I’m tired of going to funerals. Don’t let it happen to you.’ ”
Bigelow, who finished third in the 1979 New Jersey state wrestling tournament for Neptune High School, was known for the fiery tattoo that covered his skull and uncanny agility for a man of nearly 400 pounds.
Brian Knobbs, the other half of The Nasty Boys, was a friend of Bigelow’s, as well as a foe in the ring.
Bigelow “not only had the look, but he was a tremendous athlete. He did tons of crazy stuff off the top rope,” Knobbs said. “Me and him had a WCW hardcore championship of the world match in St. Louis. We fought all over the building, even in the concession stand. He wound up beating me.”
In the mid-1980s, Bigelow performed drop kicks and other aerial maneuvers, and perfected a finishing move he called “Greetings From Asbury Park.”
But his bone-crunching approach probably shortened his career.
In an interview last year, Bigelow said that he once was 6-foot-3, but was then 6-1. He attributed his diminishing frame to back surgeries.
