Buzz Tyler Buzz Tyler is a retired American professional wrestler who competed in North American regional promotions during the 1970s and 1980s including the National Wrestling Alliance , most notably teaming with J . J . Dillon and " Bulldog " Bob Brown in NWA Central States during the early 1980s . Career . Early career . Tyler began wrestling for NWA Mid - America during the late 1970s eventually being chosen by NWA Mid - America Tag Team Champion Gypsy Joe in February 1978 to replace Dutch Mantell who had previously forfeited his half of the title . After losing the titles to George Gulas & Tojo Yamamoto two months later , he would compete for NWA Central States and later wrestled Dewey Robertson in tag team matches with Matt Borne as well as several 6 - man tag team matches against Kerry Brown & Tommy Sharp and faced Dick the Bruiser in an interpromotional event between the NWA and the WWF on November 7 , 1980 . He later lost to Terry Taylor in a match for the vacant NWA Central States Television Championship in January 1981 shortly before winning the promotion ' s heavyweight championship from " Bulldog " Bob Brown on April 1 . After three months , Tyler lost the title to Bob Sweetan on July 23 , 1981 . Teaming with J . J . Dillon several weeks later , he and Dillon would defeat Bob Sweetan & Terry Gibbs for the NWA Central States Tag Team Titles on August 27 , although they were forced to vacate within two months . The following month , he faced Terry Gibbs and Bob Sweetan in singles matches and later lost to Sweetan and Bob Brown in a tag team match with Gene Lewis on September 20 , 1981 . He also teamed with Steve Sybert in the NWA North American Tag Team Championship Tournament and was eliminated in the opening rounds by Dusty Rhodes & Bugsy McGraw in late 1981 . Facing NWA World Heavyweight Champion " Nature Boy " Ric Flair in several matches during 1982 , he later began teaming with Bob Brown defeating Dewey Robertson and Hercules Hernandez for the Tag Team titles on September 20 , 1982 . Although losing the titles to Yasu Fuji & Kim Duk on March 3 , he and Brown would regain the titles in a championship tournament on May 26 . He and Brown also won the NWA International Tag Team Championship from Timothy Flowers & Terry Adonis in Vancouver , British Columbia on May 30 , 1983 . Eliminated by Jerry Blackwell during the opening rounds of the NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship Tournament on July 15 , he and Brown would feud with The Sheiks ( Roger Kirby & Abdullah the Great ) over the tag team titles throughout the year before Brown was injured by 666 during a match in December 1983 and forced to vacate the titles . Regaining the title from Super Destroyer on October 20 , he would later over the title with Tully Blanchard , " Crazy " Luke Graham and Ted Oates before losing the title to Hacksaw Higgins on October 6 , 1983 . During his last year in the promotion , he and Luke Graham especially would face each other in a series of steel cage matches eventually loosing to Graham in Kansas City , Missouri on May 10 , 1984 . He would later defeat former tag team partner Gypsy Joe for the NWA Central States Television title on September 22 , 1984 before loosing the title a month later to Marty Jannetty . Mid - Atlantic Championship Wrestling . Moving on to the Mid - Atlantic territory , Tyler had a brief yet violent feud with Wahoo McDaniel before siding with The Assassin in his feud with Paul Jones ' Army later teaming with The Assassin at Starrcade ' 84 to defeat The Zambuie Express ( Elijah Akeem and Kareem Muhammad ) with manager Paul Jones in an Elimination Tag Team match on November 2 , 1984 . With The Assassin and Charlie Brown , he would defeat Superstar Billy Graham , J . J . Dillon and Paul Jones in a 6 - man tag team match on January 6 and later faced Graham in both tag team and 6 - man tag team matches later that month . Defeating Ron Bass for the NWA Mid - Atlantic Heavyweight Championship on March 16 , he was scheduled to defend his title on Jim Crockett ' s " Championship Wrestling from Georgia " in its first episode since Black Saturday , however , the main event was canceled after an accident caused the middle ring rope to snap during a match between Black Bart and Ron Rossi on April 6 , 1985 . Months later , he would team with " Ragin ' Bull " Manny Fernandez and Sam Houston to defeat Abdullah the Butcher , The Barbarian and Superstar Billy Graham at the Great American Bash ' 85 on July 6 and later teamed with Fernandez and Houston to defeat Ivan Koloff ' s Russian Team for the NWA Mid - Atlantic Six - Man Tag Team Championship in July 1985 and successfully defended the titles against before losing the titles back to Russian Team later that year . He would later forfeit the NWA Mid - Atlantic Heavyweight Championship after leaving the promotion in July 1985 , however he refused to return the title claiming then booker Dusty Rhodes withheld money owed to him and a third version of the belt was eventually used .