Buzz Sawyer vs Jim Duggan (Mid-South - 11/11/1985)

I fucking loved this when I watched it 3.5 years ago (Holy shit it has been that long!) and remember giving it a monster rating. It is one of the most chaotic, bloody brawls of all time. Just an amazing hate-filled street fight. Mortal lock for the Top 100.

Hacksaw Duggan vs Buzz Sawyer - Mid-South 11/11/85

"Kiss my fucking ass!" - Hacksaw Jim Duggan to Buzz Sawyer in the post-match fracas from Hell.

Hacksaw Duggan is for real! His run in Mid-South should go down as one of the best "everyman" brawler types in the history of Mid-South. The DiBiase matches are exceptional, but you can point to them being propped up by the angle the matches with Mad Dog Buzz Sawyer are just unadulterated violence. At this time, Dicky Slater & Buzz Sawyer were the lead heels in the Mid-South territory soon to be Universal Wrestling Federation and Duggan and Butch Reed were among the lead faces. While Slater & Reed were feuding over the North American title, Duggan was left to face Dicky's gatekeeper, the crazed Mad Dog.

THIS IS A BLOODBATH! Duggan jumpstarts the match with fists of fury that sends Buzz packing. I love the Duggan Superman pose juxtaposed with his goofy ass face. Duggan obliterates Sawyer's face into the guardrail and busts him WIDE open. Buzz does his best Chris Webber is asking for a timeout, but there are NO TIMEOUTS in wrestling, you fool! Hacksaw continues the onslaught of punches to the head. The ref takes pity of the pathetic bloody heap that is Buzz Sawyer and tries to hold Hacksaw back. Ruh roh! Buzz tries to claw Duggan;s eye out and then kicks him in the balls. Hacksaw takes an equally wicked bump into the barricade and now he is busted WIDE open too. Buzz slams a table on him! I love this raucous mayhem. There is no real story other than two guys kicking the absolute shit out of one another. Hacksaw is trying to mount a comeback, but does not have much in the tank. When Hacksaw stops Sawyer from slamming his head into the turnbuckles, this feels like the most important thing in the world given the amount of effort both men are putting in. Hacksaw wins out and hits a back elbow. WEDGEBUSTER~! The Mad Dog heads for the hills and the crowd is on his case. Buzz ain't yellah; he races back into the ring and blasts Duggan. The ref throws this chaos out. Buzz wants to maim the hero of Mid-South with a piledriver , but Hacksaw reverses and kicks ass. The wrestlers come to break it up, but they are just getting started. Duggan breaks free and jumps Buzz in a crazy moment! Crowd is chanting bullshit. This is incredible! We see Buzz get dragged back to with his friends and he is moaning and groaning. Then Hacksaw is coming to the back and Buzz breaks free again. Holy shit an absolutely nuts brawl breaks out again! Hacksaw is screaming kiss my fucking ass as Buzz Sawyer is left wailing. The whole shebang is the epitome of pro wrestling. All the stars in the world for this! Hacksaw Duggan is my hero! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! *****

At the summit we talked about how off putting it can be when two guys who are supposed to hate each other start off in a standard collar and elbow tie up. That was NOT an issue here. Duggan is teeing off on Sawyer right at the start, giving him quite the ass kicking and busting him open. Sawyers blood is in Duggan’s fists and then his body. Whenever Sawyer tries to turn it around he is going right after Duggan’s face or going low. Duggan is busted open as well and Sawyer is vicious.

Duggan makes a great comeback. The end comes when Sawyer is knocked out of the ring. He’s walking off and it seems like he’s had enough. The ref counts him out, and as soon as the bell rings and duggan starts celebrating Sawyer sprints back to the ring to attack. I loved that. The post match is a wild seen, they hate fight to the back and can’t be kept apart. Awesome, exciting brawl.

What a grimy, blood-soaked masterpiece. It's the first time I've watched this in about 13 years, a match I've pretty much set as my own personal gold standard for out of control brawling, and by christ does it hold up. I'm not really arsed about comparing it to the DiBiase cage match because both are incredible and different enough that the comparison is maybe a little pointless, but either way our man Hacksaw is involved in two of the greatest brawls in all of history not but eight months apart. He was an ungodly walking tall maniac and spends a fair amount of the match cussing out Sawyer and the ref'. Carl Fergie tries to talk him down so Duggan cocks his fist and shouts "You get the fuck away from me!" and you better believe Fergie gets the fuck away from him. "Come on Sawyer, you son of a bitch!" he shouts as Sawyer feebly tries to crawl away from the inevitable. Sawyer is a complete mess after two minutes and Duggan is punching and biting the cut and throwing him into barricades while people are going ballistic. These are some of the best barricade shots ever and Sawyer takes them full on right in the face. Sawyer taking over firstly by trying to tear Duggan's eyes out was amazing, then cementing the transition by mule kicking him in the balls was doubly so. Of course Sawyer gets his revenge with the barricade shots and now the people front row are going ballistic for another reason. There was one point where Sawyer chucked Duggan over the barricade and hopped over after him, then hopped straight back because I assume he figured someone would stab him in the kidneys. Think about how real a threat must be for fucking Buzz Sawyer to go "wait a minute now maybe I won't actually antagonise these folk any further." He picks up a big wooden table, throws it at Duggan's head, rams his face into it, then tries to crush Duggan's skull with it like the table is some giant piece of machinery only for Duggan to move at the last second lest he is killed dead. Sawyer biting the cut and spitting the blood in the air Pirata Morgan style was...I had to step out the room for a second lest *I* break down in tears of jubilance. Duggan then outright punches Sawyer in the dick and there is your greatest revenge spot in the history of our great sport. The finish initially feels like a bit of a cop out, but I like the idea of Sawyer taking the count out just so he can blindside Duggan. Besides, the post-match makes up for it and some of the brawling there is even better than in the match itself. One of the all-time pull-aparts and pretty much what all hate feuds should aspire to. Duggan being dragged away by half a dozen grown men while shouting "kiss my fuckin ass!" is truly - truly - biblical. Honestly this might be top 30.

A match that would be great no matter what but man does the filming REALLY amp it up to legendary tier. The darkness of the shadows and space outside the ring area, and the intense brightness of the lighting on the ring contrasts so strikingly, it really sears this match into your memory. That visual effect, the way it's shot, and the lack of commentary really do so much to amplify this as a quintessential gritty territories brawl. As for the work, they go all out and really sell the hatred. Plenty of great moments like Sawyer trying to crush Duggan's head, Sawyer's low blows and Duggan getting his revenge with a punch to the balls later on, and how at times they'd just wrap their arms around each other and try to drag the other down to the canvas as an offensive move. The spill Sawyer takes off Duggan's tackle is also a great visual. Contender for my Top 100, probably on the lower end.