Bruce Alan Woyan (June 14, 1959 – February 7, 1992) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Mad Dog" Buzz Sawyer.[2][1]
Professional wrestling career
Sawyer started wrestling in 1978 (other sources state 1979) in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) affiliate Jim Crockett Promotions.[5] He stayed there with some stints in Georgia Championship Wrestling until 1984. He mainly teamed with his brother, Brett Sawyer.[3] Buzz had a feud with The Road Warriors after he left their manager Paul Ellering's Legion of Doom.[3]Pez Whatley was the first wrestler to pin Sawyer on live television.[6] He also had a feud with Tommy Rich that led to many bloody matches,[5] the most notable of which was billed as the "Last Battle of Atlanta" and for the first time featured a completely enclosed cage; Rich won the match.[6][5] It also featured manager Paul Ellering suspended 20 feet above the ring in a smaller cage.[6] This is the match that Shawn Michaels credits for inspiring the Hell in the Cell concept used by WWE.[5] The stipulation for this match was that Sawyer and Rich would never wrestle one another again.[6] WWE released the entire match on the WWE Network on September 5, 2016.[5]
Sawyer had a short World Wrestling Federation (WWF) run in 1984 as "Bulldog" Buzz Sawyer (since the moniker Mad Dog was being used by Maurice Vachon) with Captain Lou Albano as his manager. Sawyer's gimmicks included a dog chain, a lot of barking, and a new bulldog finisher. After his WWF stint, he surfaced in the NWA territory Championship Wrestling from Florida, under the mind control of Kevin Sullivan. He feuded with Mike Graham, Dusty Rhodes, and Adrian Street. In 1985, Buzz went to Mid-South Wrestling (which became the Universal Wrestling Federation in 1986) and became a protégé of Dick Slater's. After Slater won the North American title, he gave the 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.
Sawyer was a graduate of Dixie M. Hollins High School, where he was a state champion in the 191.5 pound weight class.[3] In 1976, he placed third nationally, losing in the semifinal to eventual champion Dan Severn.[9] He would use his amateur skills,[6] while in New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 1989, against the Soviet amateurs Salman Hashimikov, Victor Zangiev, Vladimir Berkovich and Wahka Evloev, that joined the promotion.[3]
Sawyer was known for his antics both in and out of the ring, including his drug abuse and fighting with police outside a bar.[10] Most notably, he was known for scamming aspiring wrestlers who wanted to be trained by him - Sawyer would often take their money, beat them senseless, then skip town. Mark "The Undertaker" Calaway recounted on Joe Rogan's podcast The Joe Rogan Experience that he was a victim of this scam, however also highlighted that at that time this was a common way to whittle prospective wrestlers to only those dedicated to becoming professional wrestlers (though Calaway also indicated Sawyer's service was still a scam).[11][12] Jim Cornette has stated his reason for breaking Buzz's nose with a tennis racket during a spot was due to him taking liberties with other talent (Cornette included, as Sawyer threw a shoot punch at Cornette during a match).
^Will, Gary; Duncan, Royal (2000). "Texas: NWA Texas Heavyweight Title [Von Erich]". Wrestling Title Histories: professional wrestling champions around the world from the 19th century to the present. Pennsylvania: Archeus Communications. pp. 268–269. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "(Dallas) Texas: NWA American Tag Team Title [Fritz Von Erich]". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. ISBN978-0-9698161-5-7.
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