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Apparently Wayne Sawyer (aka Avalanche Buzz Tyler) passed away in November but word is only getting out now

Per the new WON

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Wayne Sawyer, a thick journeyman performer who wrestled as Avalanche Buzz Tyler, passed away on 11/11, but this didn’t really get out for the most part until this past week.

Tyler was born November 4, 1948, making him 73 at the time of his death.

Tyler wrestled regularly from 1976 to 1985, and was a headliner in the Central States territory.

He had the powerlifter look. He was probably 5-foot-10 and 280 pounds, with thick legs, a big chest and shoulders. He wasn’t particularly flashy and most of his career was spent with smaller promotions.

He was born in Spartanburg, SC, and debuted as part of a tag team with established wrestler Rip Tyler, as relatives, for what was left of the IWA promotion, run by Johnny Powers. The IWA, which was started by Eddie Einhorn with the idea of getting television in all the major markets and running against the established WWWF and NWA promotions, failed in that goal quickly Einhorn pulled out after money losses. But Powers established the group in the Carolinas, where they had some success promoting out of Winston-Salem, including running a Mil Mascaras vs. Lou Thesz world title match.

In 1977, Rip & Buzz Tyler beat Powers & Bulldog Brower to win the IWA tag titles. He also had some shots at Brower’s North American title. After losing the tag titles to Powers & Nick DeCarlo, he left for the Nick Gulas territory. There he held the Mid American tag team titles with Gypsy Joe as his partner. Joe & Dutch Mantell were champions but the team split up and Joe chose Tyler as his partner.

He arrived in the Central States in 1980 and it was his main territory until leaving for Crockett Promotions in 1984. He held the heavyweight title four times, the tag team titles four times, three times with Bulldog Bob Brown and once with J.J. Dillon, and also held the TV title. Brown also brought him to British Columbia in 1983 where they defeated Timothy Flowers & Terry Adonis to win the tag titles.

During that period he also regularly wrestled in St. Louis. On August 8, 1980, he had a shot at WWF champion Bob Backlund, at Kiel Auditorium, losing of course. It wasn’t as big as it sounds as it was fourth from the top on a sold out show headlined by Harley Race defending the NWA title against Ken Patera and underneath matches with the Von Erichs among others. He also had a fourth from the top singles match that year losing to the area’s biggest favorite, Dick the Bruiser, as well as losing a Missouri title match to Ted DiBiase.

In 1981, he had a lot of prelim time limit draws in St. Louis, including to Bruce Reed (future Butch Reed), Bob Brown, Terry Taylor and even Pat O’Connor. He also formed mixed tag team with wife, Sandy Partlow. The two were only married for a short period of time. He also worked regularly in tag matches.

The Central States were a tough promotion, as there were a lot of $50 nights and you really only made real money when working St. Louis, but getting over in St. Louis could make your career.

He was known as Avalanche Tyler in Florida in 1981-82 as well.

He was of the Missouri State title tournament on July 15, 1983, at Kiel Auditorium, losing in the first round to Crusher Jerry Blackwell.

He also toured with All Japan in 1983-84, facing virtually every top native star there in singles matches including Giant Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu, as well as working tag team matches against The Funk Brothers. On the tours he teamed with people like Stan Hansen, Manny Fernandez, Terry Gordy, Harley Race, Tor Kamata, Billy Robinson, The Destroyer, Gypsy Joe, Bobby Heenan, Brad Rheingans, Tiger Jeet Singh and Umanosuke Ueda among others.

His full-time career ended with a 1984-85 run with Crockett Promotions. He had a feud with Wahoo McDaniel and then was a babyface teaming up against the Paul Jones Army. He beat Ron Bass to win the Mid Atlantic title on March 16, 1985.

He left the promotion in July over a money dispute and never returned the title belt.

He never wrestled for a major promotion after that.

 

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  • Harold "Pepper" Martin, who wrestled from the late 50s through the mid-70s all over the world, and later was in movies and TV shows as an actor, passed away on Friday at the age of 85. Martin was one of the first wrestlers to do television announcing while still an active star in California and Oregon. He had been suffering from lung cancer and the 2/14 Observer had a long feature on him. Greg Oliver also has a story on him.

 

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Ronald Cadman, who wrestled from 1977 to 2019 as Caveman Broda in the Winnipeg area, passed away this past week. He was 68. When Chris Jericho was starting out setting up rings, he noted that he was to lay here to take a kneedrop from Broda and was scared to death. Broda was named after Bruiser Brody, who was sort of a caveman character, although this Broda was closer to 5-foot-7 and 160 pounds. Up until the pandemic, even with his health failing he continued to work for the CWE doing nostalgia shows in their annual Rumble event, even at times when his body had to be detached from medical tubes that were permanently connected to his chest later in life to get in the ring. Broda was trained by Walter Shefchyk, and because of his size, started his career as a manager. Broda held junior heavyweight titles in a number of area independent promotions in the 80s and 90s. His prime years were for New Brand Wrestling in the early 80s when he was known for his ability to control the crowd. He also was known for his ability to fart at will, often in the faces of his opponents. He used to brag that he held the world records for shitting on himself, both on purpose and accidentally, when doing his farting gimmick

 

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This part is important to me and should be seen by as many eyeballs as possible.

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/daily-updates/daily-update-rocky-king-raw-walemania

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William Boulware Jr., better known as Rocky King, passed away yesterday at the age of 64. He wrestled from 1984 to 1990 with Jim Crockett Promotions and also used the name Little Richard Marley for a short stint as part of The Freebirds. We'll have more on him the issue but it should be noted that after wrestling the guy was one of those ultimate good Samaritans, working with churches and civic groups, putting on shows aimed at kids, running a gym to help give underprivileged kids a direction and he'd bring food and clothes in poorer neighborhoods in Atlanta for those down on his luck. Before he got into wrestling he was homeless and he never forgot where he came from.

 

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I just heard about Rocky King. He was also in a current storyline once more than mentioned IIRC with JYD vs the Horsemen. He was special because he was one face that a certain group of fans saw every week, whose faced scratched that rasslin itch. That group of fans was.........us people who only got Worldwide and the Pro lol! And a great guy by all accounts. Obviously that article covered it but he also comes up in shoots and podcasts sometimes. 

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Yeah IIRC the Horsemen kept beating him up for weeks and eventually JYD came in to even the sides. Wasn't King also in the "Dudes With Attitudes" stable after JYDs debut?

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  • 2 weeks later...

World of Sports star Tony "Banger" Walsh passed in the last few days. Probably best known for his expose of wrestling as a work to the press in 1985, he was pretty well known in the West Midlands as a businessman and a public speaker. Regular Big Daddy opponent back in the day, and also the first pro-wrestler I ever met, very friendly man.

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Adam Bryniarski, who wrestled as Adam “The Royal Stud” Windsor, a protégé of Dory Funk Jr., passed away on 4/21 at the age of 40. The story was that Bryniarski came from a well to-do family and because of that became someone Funk Jr., pushed as the top star with his BANG promotion in Ocala, FL, for most of his 1999 to 2005 run. He was also the Florida champion for Howard Brody’s NWA Florida promotion out of Tampa, which was roundly criticized because other wrestlers said he wasn’t nearly at that level. After his original training and Funk Jr. putting him over as the local champion, by 2002, he became a coach at Funk Jr.’s school, produced their local television show and was co-booker of the promotion until the two split up in 2005. Funk Jr., got him some outside dates during that period including a match in Calgary for a Stampede Wrestling revival promotion in 2002 where Funk Jr., at the age of 61, teamed with Windsor against Teddy & Bruce Hart. He was originally from Coventry, England and returned to England but never really did much in wrestling past some indie shows after that point. He later married Jade Adams, the daughter of Chris Adams & Jeannie Clarke, who was Clarke’s daughter when she married Steve Austin. He was the perennial BANG champion during most of the 2000-2005 period

per the new WON

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As someone put it,  Adam Windsor might be the most famous modern wrestler nobody has ever seen wrestle.  Unfortunately not for the right reasons.  

For old school CZW fans, it has been announced that former manager Big Mack Smack has passed away as well

 

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