Mike Bell

**Michael Bernard Bell** (March 18, 1971 – December 14, 2008) was an American professional wrestler who worked for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and the original Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as Mike "Mad Dog" Bell. He was the brother of Mark Bell and Chris Bell director of the 2008 documentary, *Bigger, Stronger, Faster*, and the 2015 follow up documentary, *Prescription Thugs*, in which Mike Bell's life and death by prescription drugs are explored.

## Early life

Michael Bell struggled with weight issues as a child and was called "Pugsley" whenever he entered his school bus, which inspired him to begin weight lifting and playing football. Bell got his nickname “Mad Dog” by beating up the bullies that teased him during school.

Eventually, Bell became captain of his high school football team, and enrolled at the University of Cincinnati on a football scholarship. Bell played Division I football until a knee injury ended his aspirations. In college, when Bell thought he was no longer his football team's biggest and strongest player, he switched to wrestling as he grew up watching the sport. He and his brothers would often imitate the moves they saw on television.

## Professional wrestling career

Bell worked as a jobber for WWE (then-designated, the World Wrestling Federation, or, WWF) during the early-1990s, even performing on its flagship TV show, *Monday Night Raw*. Like many jobbers of that era, Bell worked on a match-by-match substructure for the WWF, never being under continuous contract with the promotion. He would occasionally tag team with fellow jobber Tony DeVito, even teaming with him upon Bell's debut, where they lost to The Natural Disasters.

Bell faced various wrestlers such as The Undertaker, Razor Ramon, The 1-2-3 Kid, and Owen Hart, all in a losing effort. During his time in the company, he additionally used steroids to stand out against the other wrestlers, but this further led to increasing drug use and depression.

This was featured in the documentary *Bigger, Stronger, Faster*. It can also be seen in *Prescription Thugs*, a documentary created by his brother about prescription drug abuse in America. As the company stopped calling and Bell never obtained a full time contract, he said "I had a bottle of liquid lead, a bottle of nyquil, and like four boxes of sleeping pills. I went down to the river, down by the railroad tracks, parked my car and took everything. There’s no way I should be alive right now", indicating he was going to commit suicide.

He had a run in Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW), where he won his first and only championship, the UPW Heavyweight Championship, in November 1999 by defeating Aaron Baker.

Aside from his run in the 90s, Bell was best known in the wrestling community for an incident with Perry Saturn during a taped WWF match for Jakked/Metal on May 17, 2001. Bell and Saturn both botched a snapmare armdrag, causing Saturn to land on the mat head first. Saturn legitimately attacked Bell in retaliation for this perceived lack of professionalism and in-ring ethic, at one point tossing Bell out of the ring and causing Bell himself to land on his head on the safety mat.

Neither performer sustained serious injury, and both were able to resume their respective roles and finish the match as planned, without most spectators realizing what had actually happened. Saturn would be punished by management for the incident as he would suffer a kayfabe concussion and fall in love with a mop aptly named Moppy. Bell's final match with the company was on October 13, 2003, where he and brother Mark teamed up to face Garrison Cade and Mark Jindrak in a losing effort.

Bell later worked with the original ECW, facing the likes of Chilly Willy, Matt Bentley, and Balls Mahoney in 2000, and Billy Wiles in 2001, all in a losing effort. From that year until 2007, Mike Bell spent the rest of his career around many different promotions on the independent circuit.

## Death

On December 14, 2008, Mike "Mad Dog" Bell was found dead at a rehabilitation facility called the Ramona House in Costa Mesa, California by a roommate at 2:30 PM. His cause of death was ruled to be an inhalation-induced heart attack brought on by inhalation of difluoroethane in Dust-Off, a compressed gas product used for cleaning objects like computer keyboards. Bell had reportedly been sober for the past 60 days since checking into the facility.