| American Males | |
|---|---|
| Tag team | |
| Members | Marcus Bagwell Scotty Riggs |
| Billed heights | Bagwell: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[1] Riggs: 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1] |
| Combined billed weight | 460 lb (210 kg)[1] |
| Billed from | Georgia |
| Debut | August 1995 |
| Disbanded | November 1996 |
TheAmerican Males were aprofessional wrestlingtag team inWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW) composed ofMarcus Bagwell andScotty Riggs. Theirgimmick was of two "pretty boys" who were fond of their own bodies and popular with women.[2] Riggs was Bagwell's third partner with whom he won theWCW World Tag Team Championship, the previous two being2 Cold Scorpio andThe Patriot.[3] The American Males won the tag team title soon after they began teaming together but soondropped the belts back toHarlem Heat, the previous champions. Bagwell and Riggs did not return to main-event status, and they eventually split up andfeuded with each other.
Marcus Bagwell had competed in the tag team division in WCW since 1993, during which time he held the WCW World Tag Team Championship with two different partners. Teaming with 2 Cold Scorpio, he held the title belts for three weeks. He later won the title twice more while teaming with The Patriot, a team that was dubbedStars and Stripes due to the patriotic theme both wrestlers were using at the time. After being left behind by both partners, he expressed a desire to form a new tag team to challenge for the title again. According to WCW's storylines, his former partners believed that he was too demanding, and he was unable to find anyone interested in teaming with him due to his reputation as being "difficult to work with".[4]
The team was formed in August 1995 when Scott Antol signed a WCW contract and was placed with "tag team specialist" Marcus Alexander Bagwell.[5] In the process, both men changed theirring names, Antol changing his last name to "Riggs" and Bagwell shortening his name to simply Marcus Bagwell. Once together, they both wore short shorts andleather vests (later wrestling tights and suspenders) to the ring and began clapping their hands over their head in time with theirentrance music,[6][7] which sang their praises between choruses of the team name being repeated over and over.[8] They wrestled on the first episode ofNitro, defeating World Tag Team ChampionsDick Slater andBunkhouse Buck in a non-title match.[9] Their first major appearance together came at theFall Brawl pay-per-view, where they defeatedThe Nasty Boys in a match that aired onMain Event.[10]Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine stated that the team "work[ed] well as a unit and could soon challenge for the belts".[9] Bagwell commented on the team in a scripted interview, saying that he believed that his previous tag teams had failed because they were in a rush to win the title belts and that he planned to work slowly toward a title victory with Riggs.[9]
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On the episode ofNitro after Fall Brawl, Riggs and Bagwell won the World Tag Team Championship after defeating then-champions Harlem Heat (Booker T andStevie Ray) in an upset win in an impromptu match. The American Males had been scheduled to faceThe Blue Bloods, but Harlem Heat attacked both members of the Blue Bloods prior to the match and volunteered to take their place.[11][12][13] As champions, the pair defeated Harlem Heat and the team of Dick Slater and Bunkhouse Buck.[14] However, Bagwell and Riggs lost the titles back to Harlem Heat a month later on 10-29-95Saturday Night.[15][16] The American Males remained top challengers for the title belts for the rest of 1995, but were unable to regain the championship from Harlem Heat.[17][18]
By the end of 1995, The American Males were no longer beingpushed by WCW; they competed atStarrcade 1995 in adark match and defeatedThe Blue Bloods.[19] Through most of 1996, they competed in the tag team division with no major storylines and never reached the same heights as when they were champions.[20] They were able to defeat othermid-card teams like theFaces of Fear, and they competed in a dark match prior toSlamboree 1996, defeatingThe Shark andMaxx.[21] They were consistently defeated by the company's top tag teams,[22] andPro Wrestling Illustrated noted that they were getting lost in a "very deep" tag team division that includedThe Road Warriors,Public Enemy, Harlem Heat, The Nasty Boys, the Blue Bloods,Lex Luger andSting,Four Horsemen,The Steiner Brothers, andThe Outsiders, among others.[1][23][24]
In October 1996, the team began showing signs of splitting,[25] which intensified over the weeks.[26] AtWorld War 3 on November 24, 1996, the frustration came to a head as Bagwell attacked Riggs following both men's elimination from the three-ring battle royal that served as the main event.
The next night onNitroEric Bischoff, representing theNew World Order (nWo)stable, informed all WCW wrestlers that they would become targets of the nWo if they did not join the group within 30 days. Bagwell and Riggs walked to the ring shortly after Bischoff's statement, with Bagwell looking to join and Riggs trying to talk him out of it. Bagwell decided to join the nWo,turning on Riggs and dissolving the team in the process.[27][28] In a scripted interview, Bagwell stated, "Who needs Riggs anymore when I have the nWo?!"[27] He also later stated that the team's lack of success after their first title reign was the fault of Riggs' ineptitude, stating "I couldn't make up for all his weaknesses."[20]
Following the breakup, the former partners feuded for a while with Bagwell getting the better of Riggs.[20][29] Riggs would go on to briefly feud withRaven, later joiningThe Flock,[30] while Bagwell formedVicious and Delicious with Scott Norton before suffering a severe neck injury that kept him out of action for a while.[3][5] Bagwell later returned to WCW, teaming withShane Douglas to win another tag team championship.[24] After losing the championship, he formed another tag team, pairing withLex Luger to form Totally Buffed.[31]
When Riggs joinedExtreme Championship Wrestling in 2000, he did aparody of the American Males gimmick by calling himself "The U.S. Male" and using their overhead clap taunt.[32]
American Males: As if Marcus Bagwell and Scotty Riggs as Chippendales weren't bad enough, they had the worst song in the history of man for their entrance music.
Your Winners: American Males via pinfall to become the new WCW World Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.
it's looking like the American Males are heading for a split with Bagwell turningheel and Riggs staying aface
This match was another in a seemingly endless string of set ups for the coming split of the American Males.
Bagwell embraced the the [sic] members of the nWo. Riggs hesitated so Bagwell gave him a Rude Awakening.