Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match# 84: Hacksaw Duggan vs. Buzz Sawyer (11/11/85)

Alright, I took a break of a day before this one. After all the greatness on this disk we get two guys I’m not a huge fan of work wise. Sure, Duggan was in my tentative # 1 match, but that was an anomaly. I don’t assume Sawyer will be showing up in any lost classics, but I wanted to go into a house show match with a clear head. So here we go with the perennial babyface of Mid South, versus a grumpy tough guy in Buzz Sawyer.

Starts out in the ring with Buzz trying to jump Duggan. Duggan is Superman, of course, so that doesn’t fly. He wins the punch battle and they go to the outside where he brawls around with Sawyer, beating him up with sloppy offense and selling. If it wasn’t over with the fans, I’d fast forward it right now. Sawyer is busted open bad though, and the crowd is hot.

Duggan likes calling Sawyer a “Son of a bitch” and doing his goofy hands –on-hips pose. Whatever. Duggan throwing Sawyer into the steel barricades was great, but what else is there. Though both move and work very oddly. Some might like it, but it’s not my cup of tea. Back in the ring for a beating, and back out. At some point I’d assume Sawyer cheats to get a short heel advantage for heat.

Yep, Sawyer double eye gouges and nails Duggan with the ball shot. Sawyer gets more intense (the bllod helps) by sending Hacksaw outside and then over the rail. This would be a good but not great Tommy Dreamer match in ECW (the 90s version), but you can argue if weapons would enhance or detract. Sawyer’s offense is as irrelevant as Duggan’s, but he does try to drop a table on his head.
Duggan is bleeding a bit when he gets back in, or it at least looks like he is. Just a ringside camera shot for this one. Duggan with a comeback that wasn’t much, but when they face off and Duggan stomps they pop. Short lived as this is just Duggan clubbing and Buzz eye gouging. It does have a very tough guy feel to it and the crowd is lively, as noted. That’s probably why it’s on here.

Ten minutes in. Duggan was such a puffy looking big man. His spear move looked cool though. Buzz sells it by getting knocked out of the ring and then starts to leave. Count out win for Duggan in 12 minutes. Buzz then comes back to jump Duggan, but Duggan makes a comeback from that too. Christ, they just keep smacking at that horrible sounding bell at ringside. Guess I should be factoring in this as part of my score (post match)but I just want it to be over. Lots of workers out to break them up, but they still go at it. More bell ringing!! Great brawl though. Great shot of Sawyer in the hallway after they get him out of the ring. Hacksaw stomps in the ring, and you get a sense this isn’t over. He’s headed out of the ring.

Here’s why this is o the set. They go at it in the locker room/hallway too after the short intense juice match with the hot babyface backing the brawler down. Buzz isn’t dead, Duggan didn’t get his pinfall, and this has slowly grown on me. I’m especially moved by Duggan’s cursing and a bloody Buzz on the floor screaming “Duggan!” emotionally. You can feel the hate, and if I saw this when I was younger I’d still be talking about it today.

You know, I’d have crapped on this for not being my cup of tea if I didn’t just realize I need to be fair and judge this not only by the old ECW standards (still have the love), but put aside my newer cups of tea that made me love long Flair matches. This, as a brawl for its time, is awesome, and it was unique and strong for its time. Also, other brawl stuff on here was lame to me (always involving Duggan or Watts), but this did resonate as it went on. So for those things, and trying to give a nod to something I often dismiss these days, the brawl gets good marks. It’s not a transcendent moment for this style, like Raven vs Dreamer ECW June 1997 or CZW vs ROH April and July of 2006, but it’s on the next rung down. 3 ½ and 6.8/10.

Match Discussion Here