A match full of lost potential and greatness, as Adams, Sawyer, and Borne should have been so much more on the national stage in the 90s.

Before this they preview next weeks TV main event—Sawyer versus Kevin Von Erich. I’m sad that match didn’t make the set. Buzz Sawyer is the Texas heavyweight champ. Chris Adams is the World Heavyweight champ. Neither belt is on the line, obviously.

Sawyer handles the lock up with Adias rough and tumble like I like my wrestling. Adias shows him up, then Borne. Borne is really good at the little things. Borne and Adias create movement, and Adias actually looks good when he is in there. The Adams/Adias team continues to one up the fun heel team, which bumps and makes them look great. Everyone is wrestling a smart match. The formula is simple: take it up a notch, then let the faces grab the upper hand. Adams/Adias are tagging well, and this match is moving well with them taking 70% of the first several minutes.

Sawyer/Borne cheat to make tags, but they don’t stay in control for more than moments. The good guys use wrestling holds and speed to stay in control. Adams traps Borne’s arm in the ropes and works it over, which is a cool spot, and leads to an illegal kick to Adams’ balls so the heel heat segment can begin. The fans chant for Adams, who plays face in peril. Pile driver from Borne. Sawyer hits a stun gun on the top rope. Adias runs in to take his shots, but it hinders his partner. Adams gets a hope spot and Sawyer just plants him with a pile driver. Hot tag to Adias after Sawyer misses a top rope splash. Back body drops for everybody. Everyone fights in the right. Borne knocks ref Lubich out and we get a visual pin of Adias rolling up Sawyer. The finish is clumsy, as Borne should have been DQed, he kind of clotheslines Adias, and Sawyer makes an awkward pin. The finish wasn’t great,, but the heels stole the victory.

This Borne/Sawyer team is great. Would have liked to have seen more of the pair. I liked the way the faces took 80% of the first five minutes with holds and speed, constantly a step ahead. The heels sold well and it was fun leading into the heel heat segment. That segment was solid while it lasted. Loved Sawyer’s piledriver on Adams. After the hot tag it fell apart slightly leading to the finish, which I blame on booking and Borne. The heels should have been DQed, but even with the logic gap this was a good TV main event. 3 stars and 6.2/10

So excited to see the mad man, Buzz Sawyer, bring his heel act to Texas against a quality opponent in hot babyface Chris Adams.

This is a one fall, twenty minute time limit match worth $3000 dollars. Adams is the TV champ, and this is for the belt. Sawyer is in rare crazed bad guy form. He starts off fast, but can’t keep Adams on the mat. A minute later Sawyer goes shoulder first into the ring post. Adams takes over, staying on the shoulder. There’s a great spot where Sawyer crawls under the rope to the floor to escape the Adams’ shoulder lock, but Adams hangs onto it and back into the ring. Sawyer tries a few shortcuts, but Adams always finds a way back into the shoulderlock. Finally, a hair pull and cheek bite gives Sawyer momentary control. It doesn’t last. Fun first five minutes.

When Sawyer does get on offense it looks really good, and it’s interesting that Adams is actually wrestling the duller match as the face. Very clever and tactical as he finds new ways to out-wrestle and embarrass Sawyer by going back to the shoulder lock. What makes this great is the movement they create in between the shoulder locks. Great stuff. Sawyers moved well and was dynamic.

Sawyer ducks a crossbody, and then suplexes Adams on the outside. Sawyer’s control includes a few near falls, and then a very convincing bear hug. But Sawyer sparks that moment with one hell of a belly-to-belly suplex at the ten minute mark. Ten minutes remain in the time limit. Body scissors lock on Adams on the mat. All the little things are done right here. Adams comes back, but Sawyer holds onto the ropes to avoid a drop kick. More near falls peppered with wear down holds. This has gotten rough and tumble, with Sawyer fighting off the hope spots and grounding back to the bear hug. Sawyer gets his legs on the rope for extra heat. Adams punches the ear until he can get to his feet, then hits the superkick. Sawyers sell job is great. Sawyer gets a powerslam and they both lay on the mat with fifteen minutes gone and five remaining.
This is seriously a good finish away from being top 25 material for my ballot. It’s that good. Back and forth they go, the intensity level high. Adams puts the breaks on into the buckle, dives back to do a twisting crossbody, and hits. Sawyer rolls through, grabs the tights, and gets the three on Adams at seventeen minutes. Sawyer rolls out and sucks wind on the floor. Sawyer is the new TV champ and wins $3000.

This one starts out simple but so effective. The first seven or so minutes is Adams finding ways to get Sawyer back into a shoulder lock, and he actually wrestles the duller match. When Sawyer gets loose he’s explosive, but such a smart ass, over confident cheating jerk that Adams putting him on ice is fun to watch. Then this moves into a new faze or two, with Sawyer having more control. This built and built, and then had a solid finish with Sawyer grabbing the tights for the TV title win and the money. I really enjoyed the hell out of this match, and like with John Tatum, wished for more from the career of Buzz Sawyer. 3 ½ stars and 7.2/10

We start out in progress (a minute in) from Houston. Boesch is giving us the details. I like the match up on paper. Chavo Guerrero is a hot head with good work ethic and Buzz is a wacko character that also has a flare for entertaining. Won’t be a technical classic but more likely a brawl. Oh yeah, and it’s no DQ, so that might be why I’m assuming that.

We get cheating, a chair shot, and brawling at ringside from Sawyer. A good drop of Chavo on the steel barricade and Chavo sells it very well. Jim Ross is also on commentary lending a lot of credibility. Chavo bleeding so Buzz gets to play crazy. He bites and he crawls around. There’s a weird vibe to it that I’ll call confused homosexual anger. Perhaps that’s why Sawyer had issues: self-hating gay? Already, it’s got no real basis, but it’s a thought.

Chavo bites back. It’s a comeback and it’s good. Buzz Sawyer bleeds and bumps. Vioent brawl at ringside Chavo wins. Getting better.

Back in it’s a lot more intense. Chavo hits great punches that Buzz sells with a bump and pop-up. Chavo wins right there with a shoulderblock twist thing. These matches should be quick in this context, but that was just starting to get good. It was maybe 8 minutes…

Wait. Buzz challenges Chavo to come back on the mic. Cursing and yelling. Chavo comes in hard. Buzz has him but the ref won’t count at first. Awesome powerslam though. Chavo ducks an elbow and then gets another pin. I say Buzz was robbed, nut that was very good. Buzz still thinks he won. You tell’em Buzz! 2 ½ and 5/10.

Match Discussion Here

Just in the first minute you see the level of greatness you’re dealing with here. With the exception of Bill Eadie (Sorry Masked Superstar), who isn’t horrible either, this is a solid main event level gathering of five stars and a decent friend. Buzz Sawyer starts out acting all crazy, charging Hacksaw, and then bumping for all the face teams great punches. Crazy to see Dibiase and Williams teaming with Jim Duggan. I wonder what the make up angle was after Dibiase/Williams went face. I’d kill to see that TV episode.

Buzz crawls to and tags Murdoch who tells Hacksaw to back off. Murdoch really wants a hand shake, and they milk the audience for reaction to that. Dibiase gets in to offer his hand to his former rival, and asks for a tag. they’re doing nothing and I love it just for the subtext.

Duggan, the village idiot, of course milks it too long. almost four minutes later (legit) we actually have a short shake with no tricks and then go into a lock up. Duggan takes the wind out of my sails momentarily. Sawyer tries to grab Hacksaw on the ropes but Murdoch talks him out of it and keeps it fair. You can tell it’s all building up to some heeling, but I love the dynamic of the crazy heel being calmed by the evil psychological mastermind heel. Murdoch is just wrestling psychology brilliance in an aging man, as per his usual.

Murdoch uses nice realistic leverage to stand up Duggan against the ropes while in a headlock. Duggan breaks clean and Murdoch doesn’t take or give a shot. He just pats Duggan on the chest. Duggan does something great here. He immediately looks to Dibiase as if to say, “you would never have done something so noble” or “he doesn’t seem to be as evil as you guys”. It’s also bothering Buzz Sawyer.
Another collar-and-elbow tie up. They move off each other, Murdoch looks to his corner with a smile, and tries to punch Duggan. But the smart babyface that he is, he blocks the shot and give Murdoch one good punch. The only bump (a big one off the punch) in over five minutes. Real smart opening.

Murdoch goes to plan B: he sends in Sawyer, who acts crazy but ends up bumping for Dibiase. Murdoch breaks up a pin and Dibiase runs in to brawl with his arch-nemesis. All six men brawl in the ring. Faces clear out the heels, and now it’s time for healing between a proactive Dibiase/Williams unit and Duggan. High-fives and handshakes all around.

A frustrated Murdoch gets in for act two. He’s trying to hide an object. Duggan hits him and takes it, then uses it before throwing it to Dibiase. Better than it reads. Dibiase in and Murdoch bumps for him.
Superstar in and he actually bumps better then Murdoch for this stretch. Doc in for shoulderblocks and headlocks. Doc makes it look great, especially when Sawyer comes in to work with him. Sawyer is so good selling for Dr. Death that Dibiase comes in to try out Sawyer. This also rules.

Dibiase loses momentum when a well placed Murdoch breaks up a pin attempt with heavy boots. Masked Superstar joins in. Superstar really does look fine here on offense. He holds it together and does what the role demands. Murdoch comes in to decimate his rival similar to Stan Hanson. Brutal stuff.

Sawyer gets in and pulls out a perfect suplex. Dibiase as face in peril is good stuff. False tags and short hope spots. All the good stuff combined with heel cheating, a ref in bad positions, and cutting off the ring.

Murdoch decides to end the match once it breaks down again with the faces beating on the heels. He cracks Dibiase with a chair, which prompts Duggan to clear house with chair shots all around. Even Doc is still nervous, as he asks Duggan for a time out to check on the fallen Dibiase. DQ win for the faces, and it furthers Murdoch vs Dibiase.

This match played like a great RAW main event from the late 90s glory period. It was just a step off, but comparable to the great five on five the WWF presented on RAW in early February of 2000 from Dallas. Really want to reward the thought and not kill it for the break down and DQ finish. It was a solid character driven outing. 3 ¾ stars and 7.8/10.

Match Discussion Here

Buzz is such a heel he yells on the mic like a stereotypical wrestler, and then complains of hair pulls when they first lock up.

The early head lock stuff is awesome. Anyone who reads my reviews knows I’m a sucker for a good head lock with a story. So simple and so good. Also love body slam spots that get taken to a narrative level inside the match. So here Doc has him tight and grinds him up, and Sawyer is one hell of a bucking bronco. When he finally get Doc off, after they go all over the place with the head lock, Sawyer does an awesome drop down-leapfrog (that he shouldn’t be able to do any more than Murdoch) while Doc runs the ropes hard. Doc catches him and holds him up until press slamming him. Even Sawyer’s sell of the slam was cool and unique. The first minute was so good that the match can only get worse from here.

Doc drags Sawyer back into the ring, and back to the hard headlock. He won’t be thrown off. Sawyer tries a suplex. Nope, Doc absorbs the blow, and now they’re on the mat in the head lock.

Doc maintains a side headlock, as Sawyer tries to slide out under the ropes. It gets loose, but Doc clamps it out tighter on the outside. Even better, they struggle around the ring, bouncing off the camera and the barricades, and then Sawyer rolls back in. All this and Doc won’t let go. If this was ROH the crowd would have popped when they got back into the center of the ring. As it is, I’m marking out at home.

Doc is rolled up in the head lock, but after a few counts the ref notices Sawyer has the tights. Rope breaks, Sawyer punches, but can’t hit. Back into the head lock. It’s totally fluid too. I can’t go on move by move, but Doc keeps finding ways back into the headlock, while Sawyer tries the tights and the hair pulls to gain advantages.

Sawyer finally shoves Doc off and pushes him threw the ropes when he comes back. He finds a way around the ref to slam Dr. Death’s back into the barricade, and then body slams him on the concrete. Advantage Sawyer.

The first 6 minutes is so entertaining if you love the detail work, and it’s all based around the head lock.

Sawyer’s work is very back based, following what he injured on Doc. BIG suplex back in. Bear hug on the ground into pins. Doc was all headlock and Sawyer is all back. The most well thought out match since Murdoch and Nightmare.

Bear hug almost goes to long, but Doc does try to come back after doing the hands drop gimmick. Sawyer kills his back with stiff elbow drops, but Doc presses him off for the second time on a pin attempt.

Crap. Sawyer back to the bear hug. It was okay the first time for an old-time submission of the territory years, but now it’s too much. Doc is clubbing his way out of it, so that builds well. Again, Sawyer cuts off the comeback hard with a belly-to-belly.

Third time is always the charm in wrestling, and the third comeback always come sooner after the second one the two comes after one. Third comeback works, and I love that Doc back body drops and than grabs his back and goes to his knees. He gets up, makes the 3-point stance charge for a wobbly Sawyer, and gets tosses passed Sawyer and all the way to the outside floor.

Sawyer follows to the outside, enough head trauma for Williams to blade. Sawyer’s heel;ing is great here, as he laughs like a wacko, draws the section around hi m into a frenzy, and keeps going out to do more damage. Buzz Sawyer is legit crazy!

The beating on Doc is all focused on head trauma and the cut. Boots one by one. Slowly Sawyer goes from being the scary one to being scared. Doc is rising, bloody face, looking ferocious. Crowd starts really going off. Doc bites Sawyers face and he gigs huge, then feeds Doc’s punches. Clothesline of decapitation. Punches from the mount. Buzz tries to leave. Wild brawl to the outside. Buzz finally does leave, and both are counted out.

20 minutes that built from technical and intense, but paced, to an all out speed brawl of beauty. Doc’s stomps at the end, and Buzz Sawyer’s reactions of fear as he looks on from the aisle, are the perfect period to this match. Very little was missing, and I’d be wrong to go much below a four stars. 4 stars and 8.3/10.

Match Discussion Here

It looks like the Babyface Butch Reed was set to have a friendly run of the mill match with the evil Buzz Sawyer when Sawyer demands they have a dog collar match while the two are in the ring. Smart, considering he’s recently beaten Hacksaw Duggan, the other big fan favorite in Mid South, in a recent dog collar match. Butch Reed accepts as long as the fight is No Disqualification. Sawyer, who acts and looks like what you’d imagine a serial killer is, seems pleased with himself.

Tug of war and Reed gets the advantage early with forearms, punches, and choking with the chain. Sawyer was really good at going from imposing to selling, while still keeping a tough guy aura about him. Fans are vocal early as the hero pounds on Sawyer.

Nothing mind blowing in what is done, but it’s not suppose to be. A violent match that it seems Sawyer is a great architect at building as a heel. Reed actually mounts him and grates the chain over his face. Sawyer is busted open and staggers to sell the blood loss.

Sawyer gets an opening and takes Reed right to the floor. Biting, barricade shots, and otherwise violence with the chain. “GO Reed GO” chant from fans. They’re practically in the crowd. Sawyer drags Reed in and they do a good visual of Reed bumping for each chain-wrapped fist.

Reed makes a comeback and drops fist after fist (wrapped in chain) on Sawyer. Here’s where it loses me. Neither guy is a cardio machine and its showing. They also seem to run out of ideas or momentum, and Sawyer makes a full comeback after a million fists of chain to the head. It’s a quality control lapse not usually seen in Mid South. Sawyer tries twice to throw Reed to the floor, but Reed won’t go through the middle ropes. He just hits and stays. O-kay. He sends him down, and they start talking after Sawyer almost hits him in the face legit on another miscommunication.

They get it back after the pow-wow. Sawyer misses a move off the second rope and Reed capitalizes. Lots of silly looking chain shots to the gut and head first turnbuckle shots. Both go down after a clumsy shoulder block spot. Reed goes to the outside and the clever Sawyer puts his dog collar on the bottom rope (tied like it had been to his neck). Reed is trapped, Sawyer takes advantage with a big finisher, and he gets the win.

Post match Dick Slater is put to attack since that feud is still going on. Sawyer hits Reed with the chain until Hacksaw Duggan makes the save, and the fans go bonkers for him. The heels get the better of him too and deliver an awesome chain clothesline to him. They leave when Reed recovers.

Match was pretty good. It was quite as good as the Duggan-Sawyer dog collar, and I still don’t believe Reed is a top level worker with all opponents, but he wasn’t horrible here. I did like the finish too. Not a match to write home about, but it had its moments early. 2 ¾ and 5/10.

Match Discussion Here

This is a blood feud that surprised me not only for its intensity and also my own interest in it. Dog collar matches are big risk-big reward in terms of quality, so let’s hope they continue to impress. I’m usually not gung ho about either of them, but I’m coming in with an open mind.

It just dawned on me that the ring announcer is Brother Love, so as Bruce Pritchard does the announcements I laugh at his voice. Buzz looks ready, and he gets heat. Both are good things for atmosphere. Pritchard announces if Buzz Sawyer loses, he leaves town. Hacksaw comes stomping in.
Odd to see the heel in mid-ring with the collar already on, with the face taking his time. Usually they play it with the heel afraid to commit. An interesting choice. Sawyer not afraid might be a cool depiction.

Early Duggan dominates. He beats “Mad Dog from the mount, with the chain, and even when Sawyer tries to run and ask for a time out (short lived). Considering their mutual styles, the dog collar match actually works in their favor. They’re ungraceful stiff brawlers.

Duggan takes him outside and send him to the rails. He beats Sawyer boxing, picking him apart. First pin is a two count for Duggan.

Once we get our reversal Duggan blades soon after from chain and barricade shots. Sawyer isn’t as intense as I’d like him (or maintained it I should say), but Duggan’s blade job does bring a sense of drama. Crowd gets behind Duggan as he sells. It’s just a bit slow with Sawyer on offense.

5 minutes in Duggan hulks up on Sawyer, who sells a barrage of shots poorly but one perfectly. Go figure. Now Sawyer is bleeding with Duggan the bloody-faced aggressor. Sawyer bails again but he’s dragged back in and held up for heavy fists. Cool choke spot with Duggan pulling Sawyer against the rope.

Sawyers first attempt to get a chair is fruitless, but the second time he’s thrown outside he grabs it. He’s pulled up to the apron and smashes Duggan with the chair. That’s it. One shot by the heel. No DQ. That’s actually a good finish if you watch the match more than once, which I did. The chair is deadly. It’s only legal here. The babyface beat Sawyer to death, he kept trying to quit, and only with chair use did he escape. Puts a lot of heat into a return match.

I didn’t think this was as inspired as I’d hoped, but it wasn’t horrible. I might be in the minority of thinking the one or two dog collar matches I’ve seen this decade were better, but I think it’s true. Anyways, this was a strong effort around the last match they had in terms of cumulative score. 3 ¼ and 6.4/10.
Match Discussion Here

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

We know who the faces are in this (It’s the Fantastics if you don’t follow this blog). The heels I know from the Mid Atlantic territory. I’ve heard Dick Slater is someone to follow through the territories as he doesn’t get the credit. Sawyer is said to be just crazy, and he’s been dead quite a while. Now that I’ve downed this intro, let’s get to the match.

Woman and kids love the Fantastics. I have no idea why, but they push forward almost to the ring to touch them. This is from Oklahoma City and was broadcast on Mid South’s Pro Power Wrestling show. Tommy Rogers and Buzz Sawyer start. Rogers would do well in today’s ROH if he dropped dead weight Bobby Fulton. Fans do the faces don’t tag thing where the heel gets upset and charges the ring , distracting the ref. It’s silly, but it’s cute. The beginning of this match falls in the fun/cute zone, especially when Fulton is in there (not always a compliment).

Mostly arm bars with tags to the other face for some hot move at the time that was flashy then but isn’t much now. They’re athletic, but there’s not much to the Fans at times. Slater is like Tracy Smothers in ECW, which isn’t the worst thing. It is entertainment.

Sawyer in with Rogers is fun because he’s smaller and Sawyer is a goon. Plus Roger’s runs the ropes a lot to create moement, distracting from the fact these two don’t have much to do with one another. Roger wipes out just diving towards Sawyer, and Dick Slater beats up Rogers on the outside. Couldn’t really see it with bad camera angles. Glad they are getting the heat on Rogers, who I think is much better at selling and comebacks. Fulton is better at the hot tag Robert Gibson role.

Roger’s fight for the tag and hope spots are great, and his selling of moves is equally big. He redeems the match for me. Hot tag, cluster with Fulton moving/diving a lot without doing much of anything, and he gets caught by Slater. They finish him quick with a primitive looking “Hart Attack” (the old Hart Foundation finisher), and that’s it. Abrupt ending to a short match for a house show. Perhaps the Fantastics were leaving the territory.

A decent little match that would barely get a nod or tip of the hat if it was on RAW next week oe anytime in the last ten years. Even for its time, just some solid spots and small things, not something put together as a whole. 2 ¼ and 5/10.

Match Discussion Here