Butch Reed v Buzz Sawyer (Dog Collar Match) (12/31/85)
In a world where Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine didn't try to mutilate each other with a chain this might be the best dog collar match in wrestling history. It's easily one of the best matches under 10 minutes there's ever been. I don't remember there being a specific issue between these two leading up to this, but Sawyer wants the dog collar stipulation so Reed obliges on the basis that there'll be no disqualifications. Sawyer howls like the mad dog he is as they're being hooked together by the chain and you can tell Reed was staring a hole through him the entire time. Sawyer regrets his hubris immediately as Reed just knocks lumps out him for about five minutes solid. It was a phenomenal five-minute stretch and I almost wanted to watch it twice. Reed throws some of the best chain-wrapped punches ever, just absolutely clobbering Sawyer under the jaw. His chain whippings don't have the same rampant disregard for flesh as Piper and Valentine's did but you forget that pretty quickly when he grabs a length of chain and starts grinding it back and forth across the cut on Sawyer's forehead. Sawyer squeals like a pig and you'd maybe feel sorry for him if he wasn't a HOODLUM. Also he asked for this. Reed roars and raises his arms to the sky like a wild animal driven to find this side of himself and it was biblical. Sawyer is feral at points fighting from below, biting Reed in the thigh and swinging lengths of chain blindly. Reed was almost shocked when Sawyer tried to take a chunk out his leg, looked at the bite mark, then at Sawyer, then kicked him in the face. When Sawyer finally comes back with a chain-wrapped fist of his own he drags Reed outside and busts him open, a man who knows his way around a dog collar match better than anyone. I don't remember if he bit the cut although I'll strongly assume he did as this is Buzz Sawyer but what he absolutely did do was try and whip Reed in the face with the chain. Reed was lucky he moved out the way or he might've been DISFIGURED or at the very least in some distress. Reed sawing the chain across Sawyer's MOUTH was fucking nuts and then the finish is even crazier. Sawyer is the master of this sort of match and sometimes that's because he knows exactly the right shortcuts to take. This time he unhooked his own collar and tied it to the bottom rope, then as Reed went to undo it Sawyer grabbed him in a bulldog and ran him across the ring, letting the chain still attached to Reed's neck snap him back as it went taut. Truly brutal stuff and a finish that's stuck with me since I first saw this over 15 years ago. One of my favourite matches ever and if not for Dick Murdoch and Jim Duggan it might've been both men's career match.
No comments:
Post a Comment