A whole lotta Buzz (Sawyer)

A few years ago, in preparation for the 2026 PWO Greatest Wrestler Ever project, I started running through every Buzz Sawyer match we have on tape. I did not get through everything nor will I ever, but I did write about stuff I never posted. You're all devastated, I'm sure. Well be devastated no longer. 

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 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 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 dropkick and crushes Roberts with a top rope kneedrop/headbutt thing. 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. OR maybe we will, if our boys and girls running the WWE Vault on youtube do us all a solid...

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 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 Pirata Morgan style, 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. You could fit two heads in there. 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. 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. 

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. 

Revisiting 00s US Indies #42

Low Ki v Xavier (Ladder Match) (ICW Last Stand at the Elk's, 6/30/01)

I thought this was shockingly good. If I've written about five ladder matches here in the last 10 years then I've mentioned five times that I'm pretty much over ladder matches as a concept, but I watched this because to hell with it and I certainly didn't regret it. I was a wee bit worried initially when Xavier set up a ladder across the ring apron and guardrail, because at that point naturally I'm thinking they're going the route more conducive to nonsense and less conducive to making it look like they're trying to actually win a match, but it didn't really veer too far into that and they grounded it with enough brutality to make it work. This happening a quarter-century ago is also sort of crazy because a lot of it wouldn't look out of place today. Those Hardys/Dudleys/Edge & Christian matches happened within the year prior to this, but what Ki and Xavier were doing here felt closer to something you'd see in 2025 rather than 2000. Innovative and all that. The big spots were wild, pretty much all of them landed on the money, and they only used two ladders the whole time and not one of them broke in half so all of those bumps must've SUCKED. Ki also kicked the living shit out of Xavier whenever he could. There's one part where Xavier is hanging upside down with his leg stuck between two ladder rungs and Ki is just teeing off on him with hellish roundhouse kicks. Xavier climbs the ladder and Ki almost yanks his trunks off trying to pull him down, but Xavier just keep trying to climb bare-arsed and Ki chops him as hard as humanly possible on the exposed buttocks. Pretty cool that they injected Shawn Michaels influences into things, I guess. Xavier's seated springboard moonsault to the floor was nuts and then the Ki Crusher off the ladder at the end was bonkers. I mean truly fucking bonkers. 

Rugged Ronnie versus The Snake!

Jake Roberts v Ron Garvin (GCW, 11/6/83)

This was a really nice 10 minutes. They didn't do a whole lot and there wasn't anything complex, but the way they approached everything, the way they injected character, especially Roberts, made what they did do feel important, like it truly mattered. I loved Jake in this. He comes across like a real slimeball, Snake by name, snake by nature. Even the way he takes bumps has a slithering quality to it, as does how he'll slink out the ring to regroup when he needs to. I've never personally seen a snake wind its way through a desert sand but I'm sure it moves just like Jake did here. I'd bet a goodly sum of money on it, in fact. The first five minutes were about him and Ellering trying to sucker Garvin into a mistake only for Ron to outsmart them and throw those hands of stone every time. The first shot he threw had Jake loopy and sure enough he slithered out the ring as soon as he could shake the cobwebs. When Jake takes over he goes to the armbar, nothing properly urgent, maybe more containment, but then there's the call for four minutes remaining and I love how he instantly upped the intent behind it. He even turned and held up four fingers as if to confirm, then wrenched on the hold upon receiving confirmation, grabbing Garvin's leg to turn the armbar into a sort of bow and arrow, reaching for the ropes for extra leverage. He knew time was short, he wanted to win the TV title and you bought him trying to actually force the issue. I liked the finish too, with Garvin pressing for the win himself and throwing punches, Jake huddled up in the corner, then as the ref' tries to move Garvin back Jake undoes the tag rope and uses it to clothesline Garvin in the throat. And Jake's DDT never did look anything short of sensational. 

Jake Roberts v Ron Garvin (GCW, 12/17/83)

This was quality too. It was rugged as fuck, which I guess makes sense with Garvin in there. When he goes after Jake's arm early he throws a bunch of neat and nasty little wrinkles in, like barring that arm while stomping on the fingers of Jake's free hand. Jake's attempts at shaking Garvin or taking him down feel less like something you'd see in a wrestling match and more like what someone might do in a street fight. There was nothing scientific about it, sometimes he'd just try and grab Garvin and drag him to the mat or kick him away. When Jake eventually takes over he works the leg and Garvin shows great desperation at trying to avoid all of that. It was super gritty stuff and a lot of it had a nice sense that it was not cooperative. It was something you'd see Ian Rotten do in a cage match in front of 72 people 20 years later. There was a point where Jake took Garvin's leg, wrapped it around the bottom rope and started yanking at it in really ugly fashion so Garvin just headbutted him in the face. The finish seemed kind of whiffed or mistimed, but nothing major and they at least got across the point that Ellering on the floor would interfere when possible. 

Lord Knows Piper's a Mess Sometimes, He Struggles to Keep it Clean. One Minute He's Walking a Thin Straight Line, then He'll Fall Right off the Beam

Roddy Piper & Rick Martel v The Sheepherders (Portland, 5/3/80) - GREAT

The long 2/3 falls Portland TV main event is a beautiful thing. This got about half an hour to build and like many a Roddy Piper tag in Portland, it gave us a look at him working a long traditional tag match where he took up several roles over the course of it. The first fall was basically 10 minutes of Piper and Martel trying to tear off Luke Williams' arm. They made quick tags, sometimes legal and sometimes phantom, and the people ate it up while Miller on the apron and Rose on the floor lost their mind. Martel would jump into the ring with stomps to the shoulder and Piper would bar the arm and take Williams down over and over again. When it looked like Williams would finally make it to the corner either Piper or Martel would do something to distract Miller yet again and before they knew it the chance was gone. In the end Williams couldn't take any more and submitted! I mean, it makes sense that he would, given the punishment he'd endured and in theory the idea that he and his partner still have two falls to win, but it was nice surprise either way. Plus it made Piper and Martel look like a well-oiled machine. I loved Williams coming out for the second fall with the arm bandaged up, just to put over what he'd sustained already. Obviously the Sheepherders - and Rose who's skulking about on the floor - won't be denied forever and in the last couple falls we get a bit of Martel in peril AND a bit of Piper in peril. Both those guys are two of the best babyfaces ever so getting to see them sell and EMOTE while the other chomps at the bit to get in there was great. I've said it a hunner thousand times but Piper's energy is damn near unparalleled and so is his scrappiness and TENACITY and whatever else. He was so fucking good, brothers and sisters. This might not even be a top 10 Portland match of the year, you know. 

Complete & Accurate Hot Rod