On the September 16 episode of "Saturday Night", Bagwell formed a tag team with Scotty Riggs called The American Males as they defeated State Patrol in their debut match. The newly formed team defeated Harlem Heat to win the World Tag Team Championship on the September 18 episode of "Monday Nitro". They lost the titles back to Harlem Heat on the October 28 episode of "Saturday Night". Bagwell participated in the first-ever World War 3 battle royal at the namesake event for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship, which was won by Randy Savage. American Males received a rematch for the tag team titles against Harlem Heat on the December 4 episode of "Nitro", which they failed to win. The team would find no success afterwards and would lose most of their matches throughout 1996. During this time, Bagwell made only two pay-per-view appearances; the first at The Great American Bash, where he lost to Diamond Dallas Page and the second at World War 3, where he participated in the namesake match with the winner earning a title shot for the World Heavyweight Championship, but failed to win the match.