The next time you watch WWE Network episodes of WCW Nitro in 1998, keep an eye out for a one eyed man. He tends to hang out with some leather jacket wearing, chin scratching, flannel sporting men in a conspicuous Flock. Before the patch he was also one half of a tag team that epitomized the youth, white meat fresh babyface archetype in The American Males. If you catch some Extreme Championship Wrestling in 2000, you might also see him with two working eyes and a taste for betrayal.
I’m talking about Scotty Riggs. Riggs was always fascinating to me. To wrestle with an eyepatch is an achievement in itself. While the Flock was about disenfranchised Gen Xers in rebellion, Riggs looked like a pirate but wrestled with intensity, efficiency and technical prowess.
While looking back at the American Males (sporting one of the worst theme songs in pro wrestling history), it definitely feels like they had an unfair hand dealt to them, but it at least culminated in one of the first real acts of betrayal between a WCW member joining the New World Order. Marcus Bagwell shed his babyface exterior and turned his back on Riggs. The two waged war against each other, culminating in a strap match at Uncensored 97. Soon after, Scotty found himself face to face with another Scotty in Scott Levy: Raven. Raven gave him a drop toe hold into a chair, injuring his eye and leading to his best known look. Despite the attack he joined The Flock. Riggs was one of the members that Raven didn’t really want behind the scenes but later felt was a good choice in the end, happy to have his friend in the faction.
Eventually his time in The Flock ended, and a little over a year later his time in WCW ended. He entered ECW as one of the best friends of Rob Van Dam. Call him a hypocrite, but Riggs learned nothing from the taste of being turned on by Buff Bagwell. Anton cost RVD his two year undefeated streak and joined The Network stable.
While never working in the WWE, Scotty worked in pro wrestling until 2009, retiring due to injuries. Real name Scotty Antol talked to P.A.W. on The Main Event Zone last week about his career.
Scotty Riggs on…
“I never got into wrestling to be a superstar. That’s a Vince McMahon creation. I was a wrestler.”
“I wasn’t some superstar. That’s a loaded word Vince wants to use. He doesn’t have wrestlers, he’s not a wrestling company. He’s an entertainment company.”
“Me and Marcus had chemistry from moment one. The only thing that worked against us (being the American Males) is they characterized us as that babyface 80s tag team. It was the 90s now. We were kind of getting that old, pure white babyface tag team that wasn’t getting over. Had that mixture of boos and cheers. If we were heels, had that arrogant young babyface type thing, it would have had more staying power.”
“That whole gigolo thing (Buff Bagwell) was doing was a work. It was just a TV spot he did that he really wasn’t doing the gigolo work. He was just doing the TV show.”
“We did the first pay per view against each other at Souled Out and had a great match with Bagwell, longest match on the show. Started a little rough but when the match got going we got into a great flow. We had a great chemistry against each other and we had great chemistry as a team. And I actually came up with his Buff Blockbuster finish in the hotel room that night.”
“Paul Heyman was the first guy to sit down with me, even from the five years I was in WCW, but I found out I was wrestling Bagwell at the gym until his girlfriend saw it on TV. The office didn’t even tell me, Marcus’ girlfriend told me. In the ECW group, Paul Heyman, the Dr. Frankenstein that he is, he’s laying out this entire thing. It happened almost by the letter as he said. That’s what kind of creative genius he is in professional wrestling. So it was an honour to work with him.”
Fantastic work by P.A.W. Stay tuned tomorrow for Part II where the former Scotty Riggs shares his love of Mixed Martial Arts and more!
