Buzz Sawyer

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[KrisZ]

The Mad Dog is one of my all-time favorites working a manic style with his insane persona but he fails for not having enough high profile matches on tape in the early part of his career. You could see from the various important matches that we do have mostly from TV that Buzz could go with the best of them before he got terribly out of shape and his powerslam was probably the greatest version of all-time not to mention his own version of the Superfly Splash. Buzz was also a guy whose demons hurt him tremendously and if he had stayed even sorta straight he could've been one of the best around.

 

Buzz's work with Mid-South/UWF in 1985-86 was pretty damn great as his matches with Duggan were some of the greatest brawls of the era.

 

It's a shame that the key matches of the Rich feud in GCW from 82-83 aren't available because we would have a greater picture of both men.

[Grimmas]

Is there enough footage to justify Sawyer?

[goodhelmet]

Sure.

[JerryvonKramer]

I still maintain that DiBiase has the better scoop powerslam, even though Sawyer runs him close.

 

Buzz seems like he belongs but I think there's a lack of truly high end stuff in tape like Kris said. GCW guys are really hurt by lack of arena show footage. But he is pretty great at squashing jobbers.

[peachchaos]

His squashes and promos are the highlight of the 1983 GCW TV I'm working my way through.

 

(Les Thornton and Dory Jr. have also been pretty impressive in that setting. In fact, there's an unlisted Dory Jr. squash that I will need to upload for Parv at some point.)

 

Of course Buzz has a number of great matches in Mid-South and not much else to hang his hat on. I'd almost have to include him based on the strength of the Duggan matches and honestly I value a good squash just about as anything, I just can't help but feel that if we had more footage of longer matches, he'd be compared to Kurt Angle more often than not. As it stands, I have no evidence to back up my theory there, so to his benefit, he falls more into the Brock Lesnar category.

[North South]

I was watching random 80's matches on YouTube and Dailymotion when I came across Sawyer. The first match I watched of his was with Terry Taylor from Crockett (I'd say it's from 1985). The match just sucked me in from start to finish, thanks to Sawyer's performance. One of those wrestlers you just watch for the first time and just want to see more from, as soon as you can. Going on to watch more of his bouts from Georgia, Florida, Mid South, JCP, World Class and WCW just made me totally fall for him. Guy just oozed quality in pretty much everything I seen him in. I haven't even checked out is tag work yet.

 

 

He's got matches out there, from 1979-1990 with Terry Taylor, Jim Duggan, Tommy Rich, Tully Blanchard, Bret Hart, Arn Anderson, Jack Brisco, Ted DiBasie and Kevin Von Erich. Also a good amount of tags which I've yet to watch.

 

 

Going by what I've seen, and how much I've liked it, I just know Buzz is gonna have a spot in my top 100. I can see him anywhere on my list from #51 - #80. From looking at where he ended up in the 2006 poll, it seemed many at the time had not seen much (if any) of his work at that stage. He really seems like a wrestler with the talent who should at the very worst crack the top 150 this time.

 

 

That can only happen if more people take a look at him. To see for themselves if he belongs. I think so.

[Matt D]

Buzz is at the very end of my list right now and he's the guy who might not make it. In my own head, I have sort of a Brock Lesnar vibe with him, where he's so explosive and dynamic that I think I'm giving him more credit than I ought to as a total package for my list relative to the footage we have. It's making me want to fill the gaps with my imagination. We'll see.

 

EDIT: He's gone. It's AJ Styles fault.

[Phil Schneider]

He has to be one of the most guys helped by more footage showing up. We got Last Battle of Atlanta, a great JYD match, Babyface Buzz vs. DiBiase, Buzz and Bret versus the Roadies. Feels like a guy who we always knew was awesome, and we got the footage to back it up.

[El-P]

Ah, the infamous Bulldog Buzz Sawyer.

[Loss]

I have been organizing my footage for the last few months and found something about every single Buzz Sawyer squash in the early 80s to love. Whether he was the best wrestler in the world during those years or not, he was certainly the most compelling, to the point that I think literally every TV match he had from 1980 until he turned babyface in 1983 is a must-see. I like him after that, but to me, he wasn't quite the same after that. Still, he would definitely fare better for me this time than last time.

[Loss]

I should add that the early '86 match against Doc on the DVDVR Mid South set was the most slept-upon match on that set in my opinion. A top-tier selection that I think finished somewhere in the middle.

[KB8]

That match with him and Rick Steiner v Koko Ware and Italian Stallion from the '86 Crockett Cup also ruled. I voted for him last time and he'll likely be higher this time. 

[KB8]

On 4/9/2021 at 10:47 PM, Loss said:

I have been organizing my footage for the last few months and found something about every single Buzz Sawyer squash in the early 80s to love. Whether he was the best wrestler in the world during those years or not, he was certainly the most compelling, to the point that I think literally every TV match he had from 1980 until he turned babyface in 1983 is a must-see. I like him after that, but to me, he wasn't quite the same after that. Still, he would definitely fare better for me this time than last time.

Challenge accepted! 

I initially wanted to watch some short TV matches of someone to get me back into the swing of actually watching wrestling again, and I love Buzz and as Loss mentions he's an incredibly fun TV wrestler, and then Elliot went and watched basically every Tommy Rich match ever so I figured I'd attempt to do the same for Buzz. I can tell you with about 99% certainty that I won't get through everything, but we'll surely take a shot at it. I'll probably break this down into time periods as well, rather trying to run through everything chronologically.

 

The Babyface Year (1979)

Buzz Sawyer v Roger Howell (Memphis, 2/17/79)

- This is the earliest Sawyer match I've seen. It's also the most hair I've ever seen him with. He's listed as Buz with one 'z' on the TV graphics. This was a very decent three minutes. Sawyer is not yet a lunatic and it's worked as a short technical showcase, but Buzz has a great fireman's carry and they work nicely in and out of armbars. Sawyer then hits the fucking greatest German suplex you've ever seen in your life and your jaw hits the floor. No, seriously. This was originally an expiration of time match, but after the first fall Dennis Condrey and Don Carson come out and Carson challenges Sawyer to a match, which Buzz accepts. Carson is wearing an egregiously large glove because of an injury and it's so obvious he will load the thing that the referee probably should've disqualified him on sight. Dennis Condrey has MAGNIFICENT hair. 

 

Buzz Sawyer v Jimmy Golden (Memphis, 2/24/79)

- Perfectly fine 3-minute babyface v babyface studio bout. They work some nifty stuff for the time they have and get to roll out some pretty high end offence for 1979. 

 

Buzz Sawyer & Jimmy Garvin v Killer Khan & King Curtis (Florida, 8/79)

- This is the earliest I've seen Garvin. His hair and moustache are both incredible. Match lasted about two minutes and featured an amazing babyface miscue spot as both Sawyer and Garvin run a criss-cross sequence with King Curtis at the same time, which results in Sawyer hitting a backdrop on Curtis and Garvin then crashing head-first into Sawyer. Khan and Curtis immediately bust Garvin open and apply a DOUBLE Asiatic Spike! Khan also destroys Sawyer with an amazing running clothesline and already you can see how great a bumped Sawyer would be. 

 

Buzz Sawyer v Bret Hart (GCW, 10/21/79)

- What a cool ten minutes. It's pure babyface v babyface technical work and both get to stretch out a bit. Some of it looks a wee bit ugly, but in the good way where it comes across as a struggle and not necessarily because they're overreaching (even if they do maybe repeat some stuff towards the end). Solie tells us that this Bret Hart feller has brothers who wrestle and comes from a wrestling family, but Bret "appears to be the standout of the family." Who knows what may have become of him. At this juncture I would say he's not yet as fine a technical wrestler as Buzz Sawyer, but if he applies himself maybe he'll go places. This was really neat. 

 

I can't find any Buzz footage from 1980, where he spent a chunk of the year in Portland. Yes, there was at least on match against Buddy Rose, and no, we don't have it and I'd guess we never will. He then heads down to Florida for a few months. 

 

The Florida Heel Run (1981)

Buzz Sawyer v Cocoa Samoa (Florida, 8/1/81)

- This is a $5,000 challenge match, where Cocoa will win the money if he can pin Buzz. Sawyer has gotten his rope-running sequences down by now and I guess by 1981 he was already one of the gods of rope-running sequences (Buddy Rose being the other god of rope-running sequences). Cocoa catches Buzz with a big chop as Buzz is attempting a leapfrog, but the pin comes under controversial circumstances as Sawyer's foot appears to be under the rope. Sawyer beats him down afterwards and I guess Cocoa never sees that five grand. 

 

Buzz Sawyer & Eddy Mansfield v El Gran Apollo & Dave Sierra (Florida, 10/21/81)

- 4-minute tag; not a whole lot to see. I'm not very familiar with Mansfield but he and Sawyer are apparently a steady tag pairing around this point. 

 

Buzz Sawyer v Cocoa Samoa (Florida, 11/4/81)

- Only a few minutes long but a nice example of how great Sawyer was as a feeder. Cocoa is a pretty athletic dude and hits stuff cleanly enough, but Sawyer is just impeccable at using momentum to feed into armdrags and backdrops and all sorts. His timing is also impeccable as he'll smoothly transition from an awesome leapfrog into his own armdrag and then they run a criss-cross sequence and Sawyer just fucking obliterates Cocoa with the greatest power slam in all of the history. Buzz has the GOAT power slam anyway, but this was sheer perfection. 

 

Buzz Sawyer & Eddy Mansfield v Cocoa Samoa & Dave Sierra (Florida, 11/7/81)

- Another 4-minute Sawyer/Mansfield tag, and this has Cocoa Samoa v Buzz Sawyer and I guess those two have fun chemistry and oh look, there's Sawyer hitting another amazing power slam, this time by catching Cocoa coming off the top rope and just yanking him out the air. 

 

Buzz Sawyer v Jack Brisco (Florida, 11/18/81)

- Nice studio bout. This is a really cool match up on paper and sure enough they work well together. Brisco controls things with a short arm scissors and Buzz gets frustrated. Winner gets a World Title shot against Flair and Jerry Brisco is on commentary talking about how this might be Jack's last chance at winning the belt (again), and that he needs to use his wrestling skills against Sawyer while making sure Buzz can't tap into his craziness. Sawyer doesn't yet feel like the proper maniac he soon would, nor does he have that mad man (or mad DOG, if you will) aura yet, but it's getting there and there absolutely is an air of unpredictability about him. Cool finish, with Jack blocking the power slam and turning it into a Thesz Press. 

 

Buzz heads back to Georgia from here. I wonder if he does anything interesting there. 

[elliott]

AWESOME! 

[Childs]

Looking forward to reading this because Buzz has always struck me as amazing in theory but lacking substance in practice.

[strobogo]

Buzz Sawyer's catching powerslam was so much better than Rick Steiner's. Ricky should be ashamed at his weak ass tribute.

[KB8]

A Mad Dog in Georgia (1981-1984) (Part 1)

Buzz Sawyer v Keith Larsen (GCW, 12/12/81)

- Maybe it's because something about Sawyer in Georgia is just RIGHT, but this felt like the first real glimpse of the Mad Dog. Straight out the gate he's bullying Larsen and moves with all that suddenness and inherent danger and all that good stuff we associate with Buzz as a maniac heel. He has a swagger as well, and already he's caught the attention of Ole Anderson, who comes out and joins Solie on all of these Sawyer matches from the studio to sing his praises. Buzz has started using a double backbreaker into a big slam as a secondary finisher to the power slam and this was a super fun 6-7 minutes. 

 

Buzz Sawyer v Bob Russell (GCW, 12/19/81) 

Buzz Sawyer v Mike Davis (GCW, 12/19/81)

- Both of these are from the same show, I guess. Buzz makes relatively short work of both guys. 

 

Buzz Sawyer v Ken Hall (GCW, 12/26/81)

Buzz Sawyer v Wayne Balock (GCW, 12/26/81)

- Buzz picking apart two jabronis on the same show for the second week running. One quality that Sawyer has is his ability to feel like a proper bully with how he'll just dominate a guy with amateur wrestling. He does a picture perfect drop toe hold to one of these two and then twists him and tangles him up while rubbing his face into the mat and elbowing him in the ear. It's pretty awesome and looks super intense. 

 

Buzz Sawyer v Mike Jackson (GCW, 1/2/82)

Buzz Sawyer v Ric Thor (GCW, 1/2/82)

- Mike Jackson is ham-n-egger royalty so he gets to do a little something against Sawyer, who is fun milking that he maybe underestimated his unassuming opponent. Ric Thor is not ham-n-egger royalty and gets dispatched in short order. 

 

I'm gonna need to jump around to different time periods during this little project. Basically all of the footage from 1982 is from the studio and at a certain point you run out of things to say about thirty or so consecutive 7-minute studio matches. 

[concrete1992]

Will say more at later point (probably) but ranks SO high on Random Match Theory. Anything Buzz I throw on is going to be a great Buzz performance it seems. Sometimes that leads to a great match, sometimes that leads to him killing a jobber, other times you get matches like the Mike Jackson match brought up last post where he shows a little ass.

Buzz Sawyer, great at showing ass

[brockobama]

Man had a nice ass, it's true

[KB8]

Took a break for a minute. Turned into 14 months. It happens. 

 

A Mad Dog in Georgia (1981-1984) (cont)

Buzz Sawyer & Ole Anderson v El Gran Apollo & Archie Williams (GCW, 1/9/82)

- 5-minute semi-squash. I guess Ole was impressed enough with Sawyer to draft him in as a tag partner and they both stomp a pair of lower card fellas. 

 

Buzz Sawyer v Tommy Rich (GCW, 1/28/82)

- Pretty damn awesome studio match. It's supposed to be Rich against a ham n egger but Sawyer muscles his way in and Rich accepts the challenge. Flair - a few months into his first world title reign - is on commentary and says he's proud of Rich for actually accepting, but in a way where he's being fully condescending about it. Solie makes a comparison between Flair and Rich and Flair says "being not quite as good as the best of all time is no insult," but really it was an insult. Sawyer hits a scoop slam and an armdrag to start and really revels in it, self-congratulatory like he's actually done something. Rich comes back with a scoop slam and armdrag of his own, in much quicker succession than Sawyer hit his, then hits a second armdrag as Sawyer has to bail. Just good, simple, tried and true match-building. Rich works a headlock for most of this and it's a really strong headlock segment. Sawyer rolls out the ring and Rich keeps the headlock applied as he rolls out with him, drags him back in with headlock still applied, Sawyer then jumps over the top rope, but Rich maintains that headlock and yanks him back in over the rope. When Sawyer finally comes back he does it with a big hip/butt attack that catches Rich in the face, and as Rich flies backwards out to the floor Sawyer takes the time to sell his own butt! The running KO spot at the end looked killer and I thought for sure it was going to result in a double knockout, but they both get back up and this really just felt like the opening stretch of what probably would've been an amazing arena match. One without a cage anyway.

 

Buzz Sawyer v Tommy Rich (GCW, 2/6/82)

- This is just the same match as above (not as in "they work the same match move for move" but actually the same match under two different dates). 

 

Buzz Sawyer v Rusty Roberts (GCW, 2/13/82)

- A merciless 4-minute mauling of our good man Rusty Roberts. Sawyer is just an awesome bully, cackling every time he inflicts some horrendousness on this gentleman. Hits an AMAZING powerslam and an AMAZING dropkick and crushes Roberts with a top rope kneedrop/headbutt thing. Roberts was lying stiff as a board before it so I imagine he thought Sawyer was legitimately going to try and kill him. Piper is on commentary here and now I'm very sad that we'll never see that Piper/Sawyer dog collar match from the Omni. 

 

The Mad Dog in Mid-South/Houston (1985-1986) 

 Buzz Sawyer & Dick Slater v The Fantastics (Mid-South 10/26/85)

- This looks like the first competitive match Sawyer had since arriving in Mid-South. Nice 7-minute TV tag. If nothing else it convinced me that a Sawyer/Tommy Rogers singles match would rule. Buzz slaps him a couple times and Tommy pops him in the mouth so Buzz goes flying through the ropes with that amazing signature bump. They do two rope running sequences here that were perfect, particularly the one at the end culminating with Buzz absolutely drilling Rogers with a flying forearm that would bring a tear to Tito Santana's eye. Dark Journey has a kick at Bobby Fulton on the floor and Watts says "I'm sorry, I may sound like a chauvinist but I think a woman should be pretty and in the home" and at least he apologised ahead of time, I guess.

 

Buzz Sawyer & Dick Slater v The Fantastics (Mid-South, 10/27/85)

- On paper there's very little chance of this not being good and sure enough it fucking ruled. I think Sawyer and Slater were only together as a team for a short while, which is pretty unfortunate because they were an awesome pair of bruisers here. Buzz was having one of those nights where you bought him flying off the rails any minute. During the Fantastics' entrance he was covering his ears and rocking back and forth, the shrieks from the audience's female population and the droning of ZZ Top's 'Sharp Dressed Man' clearly setting him on edge. The early shine segment was strong as you'd expect, but things got really good when Buzz and Slater took over. The transition was great, with Rogers going for a sunset flip on Slater, Slater countering by just dropping on top of Rogers and drilling him in the mouth. Sawyer works a great side headlock, grinding his chin across the neck and head of Rogers, really cranking back and forth on the hold, then we get an incredible rope running sequence where Tommy crashes and dies off a missed crossbody. The surlier Sawyer and Slater get the more agitated Fulton becomes, the easier it is to then goad him into the ring, to draw the attention of the referee, so the more opportunities arise for Sawyer, Slater and even Dark Journey to pile in on Rogers. Slater really squeezed as much heat out of that hot tag as he could, waiting until Rogers was just about able to reach Fulton only to drag him back by the trunks, then a second time, then a third, so when Fulton actually got the tag the crowd was set to blow the roof off (we assume anyway. This was one of those matches where we had no crowd audio and instead it was Joel Watts doing commentary from his bedroom or whatever). Rogers fucking wastes Slater with an amazing dropkick during the scramble at the end, and then the finish with Sawyer and Slater hitting a Hart Attack was great. A very badass tag, in a great year for tag wrestling in the US. 

 

Buzz Sawyer v Hacksaw Duggan (Mid-South, 11/11/85)

- What a grimy, blood-soaked masterpiece. It's the first time I've watched this in about 13 years, a match I've pretty much set as my own personal gold standard for out of control brawling, and by christ does it hold up. I'm not really arsed about comparing it to the DiBiase cage match because both are incredible and different enough that the comparison is maybe a little pointless, but either way our man Hacksaw is involved in two of the greatest brawls in all of history not but eight months apart. He was an ungodly walking tall maniac and spends a fair amount of the match cussing out Sawyer and the ref'. Carl Fergie tries to talk him down so Duggan cocks his fist and shouts "You get the fuck away from me!" and you better believe Fergie gets the fuck away from him. "Come on Sawyer, you son of a bitch!" he shouts as Sawyer feebly tries to crawl away from the inevitable. Sawyer is a complete mess after two minutes and Duggan is punching and biting the cut and throwing him into barricades while people are going ballistic. These are some of the best barricade shots ever and Sawyer takes them full on right in the face. Sawyer taking over firstly by trying to tear Duggan's eyes out was amazing, then cementing the transition by mule kicking him in the balls was doubly so. Of course Sawyer gets his revenge with the barricade shots and now the people front row are going ballistic for another reason. There was one point where Sawyer chucked Duggan over the barricade and hopped over after him, then hopped straight back because I assume he figured someone would stab him in the kidneys. Think about how real a threat must be for fucking Buzz Sawyer to go "wait a minute now maybe I won't actually antagonise these folk any further." He picks up a big wooden table, throws it at Duggan's head, rams his face into it, then tries to crush Duggan's skull with it like the table is some giant piece of machinery only for Duggan to move at the last second lest he is killed dead. Sawyer biting the cut and spitting the blood in the air Pirata Morgan style was...I had to step out the room for a second lest *I* break down in tears of jubilance. Duggan then outright punches Sawyer in the dick and there is your greatest revenge spot in the history of our great sport. The finish initially feels like a bit of a cop out, but I like the idea of Sawyer taking the count out just so he can blindside Duggan. Besides, the post-match makes up for it and some of the brawling there is even better than in the match itself. One of the all-time pull-aparts and pretty much what all hate feuds should aspire to. Duggan being dragged away by half a dozen grown men while shouting "kiss my fuckin ass!" is truly - truly - biblical. Honestly this might be one of the 30 or 40 greatest matches ever.

 

Buzz Sawyer v Hacksaw Duggan (Mid-South, 11/24/85)

- We're JIP five minutes in here, which is quite frankly a travesty because this was another awesome Sawyer/Duggan brawl. When we join the action Duggan is lying on the floor with a freshly opened wound. Sawyer bites him in the forehead, spits what looks like a chunk of flesh in the air, then CATCHES IT AGAIN IN HIS MOUTH! Truly gross. Sawyer applies a headlock at one point that's about as loose as a headlock could be, which is strange because Sawyer will usually work a really good headlock. You could've fit two heads in there on this one. But fuck all that because Duggan's eventual comeback is of course phenomenal and I love how him biting Sawyer in the head is what leads to Buzz bleeding. This wasn't Duggan biting an already-opened cut, it was the biting that drew the blood, which is appropriately grizzly for these two. A whole bunch of incredible Duggan punches and more cussing as Sawyer crawls around with blood in his eyes. "Come on, you son of a bitch!" At one point Sawyer tried to leap on Duggan and bite him in the face and Duggan caught him in a bearhug. Things break down eventually like you knew they would and the post-match pull-apart is one of the best ever, with one Duggan punch flurry that was legitimately up there with any Lawler/Dundee combo you'll ever see. They roll around pulling hair and digging fingers in eyes and punching each other in the ear while half-dressed jabronis futilely try and separate them, three, four, five times to no avail. Just when it looks like they've managed it...Duggan leaps out the ring and they're back at it again. This is a perfect pro wrestling match up. 

 

Buzz Sawyer v Nick Patrick (Mid-South, 12/14/84)

- More of an angle than a match, but Buzz Sawyer v future WCW/nWo referee Nick Patrick is a cool piece of history. Probably. Sawyer is pacing around like a nutjob pre-match, swinging a dog collar chain around, and I love how Boyd Pierce introduces him by saying, "SUPPOSED to be in the red corner, Mad Dog buzz Sawyer." There was a Slater/Reed confrontation at the desk that bled into another Sawyer/Duggan brawl, though Sawyer was able to first eek out a win by hitting the powerslam on Patrick. 

 

Buzz Sawyer v Jake Roberts (Mid-South, 1/4/86)

- Badass TV match. Sawyer was great here, really coming across as a vicious wee bastard. He backs Jake into the corner early and starts biting his midsection, then goes hurling into the ring post off a missed shoulder tackle in the corner. That sets up a nice run of Jake working the arm and Buzz is quick as always getting yanked into armdrags. When Buzz takes over he works the chinlock and uses the ropes for leverage, and I like how after he's caught and the ref' puts the count on him he uses that five count to PROPERLY lean into it, just to eek out that little extra juice before letting go. DQ finish might be somewhat unfortunate, but this was part of a TV title tournament - on TV, of course - so it's hardly unexpected. Really good stuff and a super fun Sawyer performance. 

 

The Mad Dog in New Japan (1987-1989)

Buzz & Brett Sawyer v Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Osamu Kido (New Japan, 1/2/87)

- This is JIP, we only get about five minutes of it and it ends in a no contest, but we thank the footage gods that any Buzz Sawyer v Yoshiaki Fujiwara exists. Fujiwara headbutts him - and Brett, who he headbutted right in the face - and Sawyer chucks Fujiwara into the post and is mystified when Fujiwara merely stares at him in response. Kido is you mild-mannered fellow who wants a wrestling match and instead Buzz just bites him in the ear.