"Mad Dog" Buzz Sawyer started wrestling in 1979 in the
National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)'s
Jim Crockett Promotions. He stayed there with some stints in
Georgia Championship Wrestling until 1984. He mainly teamed with his brother,
Brett Sawyer. He had a huge feud with the
Road Warriors after he left their manager
Paul Ellering's Legion of Doom.
Buzz also had an epic feud with
Tommy Rich that led to many bloody matches, the greatest of which was billed as the
Last Battle of Atlanta and for the first time featured a completely enclosed cage. It also saw manager
Paul Ellering suspended 20 feet above the ring in a smaller cage. This is the match that
Shawn Michaels credits for inspiring the
Hell in the Cell concept used by the
WWE. Tommy Rich won the Last Battle Atlanta match. Another stipulation for the match was that Sawyer and Rich would never fight again - which they did not in Georgia Championship Wrestling. They did meet again in WCW about five years later.
Sawyer had a short
World Wrestling Federation (WWF) run in 1984. He was called "Bulldog" Buzz Sawyer because Mad Dog was being used by
Mad Dog Vachon. During Sawyer's only TV appearance, he was managed by
Captain Lou Albano. Sawyer's
gimmick included a dog chain and a lot of barking.
In 1985, Buzz went to Mid-South Wrestling (which would become the
Universal Wrestling Federation in 1986) and became a protege of
Dick Slater's. After Slater won the North American title, he gave Mid-South TV Title to Sawyer to defend for him. The promotion tricked Slater into letting Sawyer defend the North American Title (which he promptly lost), and Sawyer then refused to give the TV belt back to Slater.
In 1986, Sawyer left the UWF for
World Class Championship Wrestling. He formed a team with
Matt Borne and they won the
WCWA Tag Team Championship. He also won the
WCWA Television Championship and the
WCWA Texas Heavyweight Championship and feuded with
Brian Adias while there. He got into a feud with
Dingo Warrior and he lost his tag team titles to Warrior and Lance Von Erich before reportedly being fired after failing a drug test.
He returned in 1989 as part of
Gary Hart's J-Tex Corporation that was feuding with the
Four Horsemen, and he had several matches against
Arn Anderson. He then joined
Kevin Sullivan's "Slaughterhouse" stable in 1990. However, at
Wrestle War '90, he fractured his wrist and never returned to WCW.
