Old School Beefcake: Scotty Riggs

If you were watching World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the mid 1990s, you may recall the tag team of Marcus Alexander Bagwell and Scotty Riggs. Billed as The American Males, Bagwell and Riggs held the WCW Tag Team Championship title for a mere eight days before losing it to the tag team they won it from in the first place, Harlem Heat. After Bagwell turned heel in 1996, the duo broke up and feuded with each other. Riggs signed with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 2000 and then left in 2001 to wrestle for various independent promotions. He retired from professional wrestling in 2009. Watch the promotional video for The American Males here. And then there's this 4-minute music video featuring a mostly shirtless Riggs and Bagwell in a love triangle...you just have to see it for yourself. 

 

Riggs early in his in-ring career.

Old School Beefcake: Marcus Bagwell

Don't expect to see any Buff Bagwell pics here. I was not a fan of how WWE turned Marcus Alexander Bagwell into a ridiculous cartoon character (something they do very well with charismatic wrestlers). Instead, here's Bagwell in his earlier days as The Handsome Stranger and as one-half of the tag teams Stars and Stripes and The American Males. Read about him here. Watch Bagwell as The Handsome Stranger go up against hunky Al Perez here. (To watch more of The Handsome Stranger's matches, just type "The HandsomeStranger vs." in the YouTube search field.)

As The Handsome Stranger

With Too Cold Scorpio

Stars & Stripes: with The Patriot (aka Tom Brandi)

The American Males: with Scotty Riggs

Whatever Happened To Marcus Bagwell?

If you've been following Marcus Alexander Bagwell's career since his Handsome Stranger days, you may know that he reinvented himself first as Marcus Bagwell and then as Buff Bagwell (he actually made his wrestling debut in 1990 as Fabulous Fabian) . But what became of Bagwell after wrestling? What career did he pursue? Behold, Marcus the gigolo. No seriously, Bagwell is now a high-class male escort with Cowboys 4 Angels, which peddles itself online as a service providing "Straight Elite Male Escorts For Women." Click here to go to Marcus' page (you can view his rates there). The pictures below are from his page. (Click here to see a TMZ story on Bagwell circa 2014.)

Here are some classic Bagwell pics.

As The Handsome Stranger

With Scotty Riggs, his tag team partner in The American Males

As Buff Bagwell

Body Shots (USA Edition)

Arya Daivari

A.J. Styles

Derek Sanders

Joe Coleman

Mike Taverna

Adam Cole

Clay Moore and Marcus Alexander Bagwell

Domination's The Name Of The Game

One of the most riveting sights in pro wrestling is when one wrestler, usually the aggressor, dominates his opponent. Here are some examples.

Can anyone identify the man on top?

Blake Warning

Buff Bagwell (aka Marcus Bagwell)

Can anyone ID the wrestler being dominated here?

Billy Kidman

Josh Daniels

John Cena Dominates Wade Barrett

Valkabious is victorious.

Sexxxy Eddie gets dominated.

Recognize This Fella?

Do you recognize who this youngster with dreams of becoming a pro wrestler is? He was one of pro wrestling's best-looking men in the 1990s.

The good-looking kid in the pics above is WCW star Marcus Alexander Bagwell. Bagwell made his pro wrestling debut wearing a mask and calling himself The Handsome Stranger. Much later on, he reinvented himself as a heel called Buff Bagwell. My favorite Bagwell period as when he and Scotty Riggs teamed up as The American Males. They feuded bitterly after the team up broke up, but whether they were together or apart, they were hot to watch!

With Scotty Riggs (The American Males)

Riggs vs. Bagwell

Good Guy vs Bad Guy

Here's an older match between two hot and stunning competitors. The Handsome Stranger (aka Marcus Bagwell/Buff Bagwell) is the classic good guy/face; good-looking, well-built, dressed in white ring gear and boots, and well-loved by the fans. Al Perez is the perfect villain; ruggedly handsome, masculine, and wearing the "bad guy" uniform of black ring gear and black boots. Watch them battle it out (although the video quality isn't that great) in this clip.