Former WWE Preliminary Wrestler Mike Bell Passes Away

jeffk

http://www.sescoops.com/misc/Former_WWE_Preliminary_Wrestler_Mike_Bell_Passes_Away_At_Age_37.shtml




"Mad Dog" Mike Bell, a Northeastern independent wrestler best known for his enhancement work in WWE and a regular performer during the latter end of ECW's run, passed away Sunday afternoon. He was 37 years old.

Bell was heavily featured in the recently released documentary film Bigger, Stronger, Faster. The film, produced by his brother Chris, was a study of anabolic steroids in both sports and the Bell family itself, where two of Chris' brothers (Mike and Mark) use them to further their own careers in professional wrestling (Mike) and bodybuilding (Mark).

At the moment, there is no known cause of death, although in the documentary, he had previous health issues that were noted. When the film started getting reviewed, it was reported in the national media that Bell had previously attempted suicide.

Bell broke into the wrestling business in the early 1990s, and despite all the years he worked in wrestling, he's probably best remembered by fans for an incident that took place in May 2001 before a Raw television taping. In a match in which he was scheduled to job to former WWE star Perry Saturn, Bell botched an arm drag, dropping Saturn on his head. Saturn appeared to become enraged and legitimately attacked Bell. Saturn threw Bell out of the ring with reckless abandon, then stiffly smacked his head into the metal steps outside the ring. Saturn ended up with a lot of heat over the incident at the time and it was rumored that Saturn's gimmick involving a love affair with a mop was punishment for the attack.

WWE used Bell in his enhancement role as late as 2003, but was never signed to a contract by the company.

gimmick

I think Mike Bell said in this that he saw no problems whatsoever with using steroids. He was freakishly string. Think he benched something like 700 pounds.

Was he in "beyond the mat" as well?

ShawnRaven

Damn right he was freakishly strong, he was able to survive Saturn going completely ape on him back in 2001. And Saturn is no lightweight when it comes to working stiff either. Although from what i remember of that incident, Saturn was knocked completely goofy from that botched arm drag and didn't remember half of what happened after the match.

Shame that was the highlight of Bell's career and what he'll be remembered for.
Mike Bell, Rest In Peace.

Dancor

Feck, Im guessing suicide. He was not a stable person from watching that film and I think he tried to kill himself after that film was released.

RIP

ShawnRaven

Wouldn't say suicide. He was fairly big, as gimmick said, benched over 700lbs too and was a steroid advocate. If i was to stab a guess with all of those, i'd say roid induced heart failure. Won't be too long before we'd hear about it anyway.

AlphaMale 3OO

ShawnRaven wrote: »

Wouldn't say suicide. He was fairly big, as gimmick said, benched over 700lbs too and was a steroid advocate. If i was to stab a guess with all of those, i'd say roid induced heart failure. Won't be too long before we'd hear about it anyway.

I posted this topic in Fitness the other day as we had already discussed the movie at length there. Probably would have been more appropriate here. As far as I remember from the movie, which I only watched last week, it wasn't Mike who benched 700lbs, it was his powerlifting brother Smelly(nickname). There was loads of wrestling footage in the movie. Bell wrestled Bret and was put in a body bag by Taker. It also showed him doing WWE promo tryouts in 2003. He moved from NY to LA to hopefully finally make it in wrestling.

RIP

Dancor

ShawnRaven wrote: »

i'd say roid induced heart failure

If thats the case it kinda contadicts a main point of the movie, That steroids are mostly harmless.

AlphaMale 3OO

ShawnRaven wrote: »

i'd say roid induced heart failure

Missed this. Why do you say that?

gimmick

dancor wrote: »

If thats the case it kinda contadicts a main point of the movie, That steroids are mostly harmless.

I don't think this was the point of the movie at all. The point, at least I thought, was that steroid use is pretty much rampant in popular culture in the states, and goes on to given an unbiased account of peoples experiences from the grieving family who lost a son from his steroid abuse to the magazine editor advocate.

forbesii wrote:

Missed this. Why do you say that?

Bell admitted steroid use in the movie. I assume thats what was meant.

6th

ShawnRaven wrote: »

Damn right he was freakishly strong, he was able to survive Saturn going completely ape on him back in 2001. And Saturn is no lightweight when it comes to working stiff either. Although from what i remember of that incident, Saturn was knocked completely goofy from that botched arm drag and didn't remember half of what happened after the match.

Shame that was the highlight of Bell's career and what he'll be remembered for.
Mike Bell, Rest In Peace.

All I really remember from that is that it led to "mop".

Dancor

gimmick wrote: »

I don't think this was the point of the movie at all.

Thats why I said a main point. Which it is. Remember the cartoon piece and talking to the HIV lad who uses steroids to stay alive. And they aint even prescribed steroids he is using. I think it said only something like three deaths ever can be related to steroids.

gimmick wrote: »

grieving family who lost a son from his steroid abuse

Did he not hang himself or something?

gimmick

^ Think so, but they blamed this roid use, and I thought you said the main point rather than a main point!

Dancor

gimmick wrote: »

^ Think so, but they blamed this roid use

Which is so easy to blame in situations like that.

AlphaMale 3OO

dancor wrote: »

Which is so easy to blame in situations like that.

Exactly. Antidepressants can have a paradoxical effect far more profound than anything steroids can do to you. Steroids do not change your mental perception of situations. Roid rage isn't even a common thing and it's questionable as to whether it even exists at all.

slicus ricus

I was quite sad to hear about this the other day. I watched the movie a couple of weeks ago and by the end of it, I was really rooting for the guy. He didn't come across as the most stable of individuals but he came across as being very likeable. I was hoping he would do just fine, but sometimes life sucks like that.

I think it's his brother, nicknamed smelly, who can bench 700lbs. Don't think Mike had quite reached that level.

As has been said before, it's pretty lousy that he will be remembered in wrestling circles as that guy who saturn went bananas on.

RIP Mike Bell.

slicus ricus

forbesii wrote: »

Steroids do not change your mental perception of situations. Roid rage isn't even a common thing and it's questionable as to whether it even exists at all.

Of course it exists! As i'm sure you're probably aware, steroids are basically synthetically produced versions of hormones that are naturally produced by the human body. Testosterone for example is the primary male hormone and the most basic form of anabolic steroid. Pretty much every other form of anabolic steroid is either derived from testosterone or is some variation of testosterone.

The reason i've pointed the above out is that anything that significantly alters the natural levels of male (or female) hormones body will in the vast majority of cases result in a modification in behaviour. In the case of a significant increase in testosterone, masculine behaviour is a by-product and one of the inherant masculine behavioural features is agression. It's like this - how can you expect high quantities of synthetically produced hormones to have physical masculinising effects (muscle growth, body hair growth, deepening voice, etc etc) without having psychological masculinising effects?

Why do you think teenagers undergo a shift in behaviour during puberty? A dramatic change in the level of male or female (depending on gender) hormones.

Red Sleeping Beauty

ShawnRaven wrote: »

Damn right he was freakishly strong, he was able to survive Saturn going completely ape on him back in 2001. And Saturn is no lightweight when it comes to working stiff either. Although from what i remember of that incident, Saturn was knocked completely goofy from that botched arm drag and didn't remember half of what happened after the match.

When Saturn got up he kicked him and fell backwards!

ShawnRaven

alan dunne 27 wrote: »

When Saturn got up he kicked him and fell backwards!

Exactly! He was knocked totally goofy!

AlphaMale 3OO

slicus ricus wrote: »

Of course it exists! As i'm sure you're probably aware, steroids are basically synthetically produced versions of hormones that are naturally produced by the human body. Testosterone for example is the primary male hormone and the most basic form of anabolic steroid. Pretty much every other form of anabolic steroid is either derived from testosterone or is some variation of testosterone.

The reason i've pointed the above out is that anything that significantly alters the natural levels of male (or female) hormones body will in the vast majority of cases result in a modification in behaviour. In the case of a significant increase in testosterone, masculine behaviour is a by-product and one of the inherant masculine behavioural features is agression. It's like this - how can you expect high quantities of synthetically produced hormones to have physical masculinising effects (muscle growth, body hair growth, deepening voice, etc etc) without having psychological masculinising effects?

Why do you think teenagers undergo a shift in behaviour during puberty? A dramatic change in the level of male or female (depending on gender) hormones.

Thanks for the lesson but your talking to the foremost authority on steroids in the country here. Ok that was a joke but I guarantee I'm more informed than anyone on the pro wrestling and maybe even the fitness boards. I've gone over the juice subject too many times to want to get into it again, so I'll agree with you that roid rage exists if you agree with me that it doesn't! (or at least not in stable individuals)

slicus ricus

forbesii wrote: »

Thanks for the lesson but your talking to the foremost authority on steroids in the country here. Ok that was a joke but I guarantee I'm more informed than anyone on the pro wrestling and maybe even the fitness boards. I've gone over the juice subject too many times to want to get into it again, so I'll agree with you that roid rage exists if you agree with me that it doesn't! (or at least not in stable individuals)

I wasn't implying that you didn't know what you were talking about, it's just there are various plausable arguments on the topic on steroid induced agression/rage.

I think the main thing that gets in the way of sensible discussion on this is that people when they hear "roid rage" tend to think of someone flying around in a monsterous rage 24/7 (which is plain ridiculous)!! What i would refer to as "Roid Rage" is the increased tendancy to become more agressive and the increased tendancy to express a high level of anger/rage for very short periods of time. The Bigger, stronger, faster movie even alludes to it when they showed the clip of the tasmanian devil.

Should have really qualified that in my first post on the subject