Butch Reed

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Butch Reed
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Bruce Reed, "The Natural" Butch Reed, "Hacksaw" Butch Reed,
Billed height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Billed weight	260 lb (118 kg)
Born	July 11, 1954 Detroit, Michigan
Billed from	Kansas City, Missouri
Debut	1978

Butch Reed (born Bruce Reed on July 11, 1954 in Detroit, Michigan) is a professional wrestler best known for his stints in the World Wrestling Federation and the National Wrestling Alliance/World Championship Wrestling..

1 Career
2 In Wrestling
3 Championships and accomplishments

[edit] Career

Butch Reed started wrestling in 1978 in the Kansas City territory after briefly playing professional football for the Kansas City Chiefs. Early on he’d wrestle as Bruce Reed adopting the “Hacksaw” nickname over time. Reed and Jerry Roberts beat Mike George and Bob Sweetan for the NWA Central States Tag-Team titles in late 1980 and lost them to The Kelly Twins in January of 1981, this is believed to be Butch Reed’s first major title in wrestling. His next title also came as one half of a tag team when he and Sweet Brown Sugar (Not Koko B. Ware but Skip Young) won the Florida version of the NWA North American Tag Team Championship]] when they beat Dory Funk, Jr. and David Von Erich in 1982. Reed wrestled mainly for the NWA in the early 1980's and made a name for himself in their Florida Championship Wrestling and Georgia Championship Wrestling territories.

[edit] Mid-South

Reed established himself as a force to be reckoned with while competing in Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling from 1983 through early 1986. In Mid-South he was known as “Hacksaw” Butch Reed and came into the territory as a tag-team partner for the main Face in the territory the Junkyard Dog. Reed immediately came face to face with ”Hacksaw” Jim Duggan over the “Hacksaw” nickname. Back in 1983 Duggan was part of the Heel group the “Rat Pack” along with Ted Dibiase and Matt Borne and used every dirty move he could think off to beat Butch Reed. Reed and Duggan would feud over the “Hacksaw” name until Jim Duggan turned face. Duggan’s face turn resulted in Butch Reed’s heel turn when Duggan was picked to be the Junkyard Dog’s tag-team partner over Butch Reed who was JYD’s regular partner.

Reed appeared on TV stating that “Butch Reed is going to start looking out for Butch Reed”, which prompted the Junkyard Dog to join him in the ring. After arguing back and forth Reed attacked JYD and was soon joined in the attack by Ted Dibiase. On July 16, 1983 Butch Reed won the Mid-South North American Championship and proceeded to turn back JYD’s challenges in subsequent months. In October of 83 Butch Reed’s arrogance made him agree to let the Mid-South fans pick a challenger for the North American title letting them pick from the Junkyard Dog, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, newcomer Krusher Darsow and Magnum T.A.. The fans picked JYD but Reed dismissed the choice, he also said Duggan and Darsow did not deserve a shot and instead gave the title shot to a very young and inexperienced Magnum T.A. As fate would have it Magnum beat Reed to win the title, then lost it 12 days later to Nikolai Volkoff.

On the same night that Reed lost the North American title he and partner Jim Neidhart beat Magnum T.A. and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan to win the UWF Tag Team Championship. After a few weeks the North American title was returned to Reed claiming that the title match with Magnum T.A. was not legal since the fans chose JYD. Reed’s run as a double champion did not last long as JYD got his title shot with Dusty Rhodes as the special guest referee. After losing the North American title Reed and Neidhart focused on the tag-team titles defending them against all comers. When Magnum and Mr. Wrestling II challenged for the titles they felt that the challengers had to put up something of their own: Mr. Wrestling II’s mask. Mr. Wrestling did not unmask that night as they took the gold from Reed and Neidhart in a Steel cage match on Christmas 1983. Neidhart and Reed started to blame each other and had a short, brutal feud.

The Neidhart feud was soon replaced with a feud with Terry Taylor who came out to save Neidhart from being beaten down with a football helmet after a match. The Reed / Taylor feud raged all through the spring of 1984 and was instrumental in establishing Terry Taylor as a star in Mid-South. The feud soon expanded to include”Nature Boy” Buddy Landel as Reed’s tag-team partner and saw Reed attack Taylor with a “Coalminer’s Glove” on several occasions. After fighting with Terry Taylor for months on end Reed’s attention turned from Taylor back to his old enemy the Junkyard Dog. During a match Reed and Landel attacked JYD as he performed under a mask as “Stagger Lee” and painted him yellow. The war between the two brought in Sonny King and later Ernie Ladd to team with Junkyard Dog, after the tag matches came the brutal singles matches such as Dog Collar Matches

Just as the feud was about to reach it’s heated highlight the Junkyard Dog left Mid-South and signed with the World Wrestling Federation without informing booker Bill Watts’ of his decision. This meant that the federation was without their biggest face and the shows had to be hastily rebooked. Watts brought in ”Master G” to take JYD’s place but the feud between Reed and “G” never took off forcing Watts to rethink his options. When “General” Skandor Akbar entered the Mid-South and started to build a stable of heels he presented Buddy Landel with a golden Rolex watch with the understanding that it wasn’t actually for Landel but for someone else Akbar was trying to recruit. When Landel tried to give the watch to Reed he became incensed (storyline wise), stomped on the watch and started to brawl with his former partner. Akbar and his cronies came to ringside which prompted Reed to rant on them getting the crowd behind him as he told them he didn’t need back-up. When “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan came to his rescue from a 3 on 1 attack Reed’s face status was cemented. The two Hacksaws feuded with Akbar’s army of Landel, Ted Dibiase, Steve Williams, and Hercules. Two Hacksaws were successful at first, until Reed came up against Kamala who proved to be too much for Reed, beating him all over the Mid-South territory before Reed quietly left the territory.

Reed would go to the American Wrestling Association for a short stint as Jimmy Garvin’s bodyguard but would return to Mid-South in the middle of 1985 only a few short months after quietly leaving it. In October of 1985 Butch Reed beat Dick Murdoch for the North American title. Around this time, he had a famous one-hour time-limit draw with NWA Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair and feuded with Dick Slater when Slater helped Ric Flair keep the world title. In January of 1986 Slater won the North American title from Butch Reed through underhanded means

After leaving the Mid-South Reed returned to Kansas City and the “NWA Central States” territory run by Bob Geigel. In Kansas Reed initially teamed with Rufus R. Jones as the Soul Patrol. Reed later turned on Rufus and joined manager Slick’s group in 1986. After a brief feud with Rufus R. Jones Reed got involved in a feud with Bruiser Brody. That summer, he lost a loser leaves town match to Bruiser Brody and left the territory along with Slick.

[edit] WWF

Butch Reed and Slick signed with the WWF and was brought in as a package. Reed dyed his hair blonde and became "The Natural" Butch Reed, an updated version of “Sweet Daddy Siki”. Reed made his PPV debut at WrestleMania III where he defeated Koko B. Ware. He initially feuded with Superstar Billy Graham and according to the storyline injured Graham so badly that he had to retire from wrestling. When Graham started managing Don Muraco, Reed targeted the Hawaiian as well. After the feud with Muraco ended Reed targeted then Intercontinental Champion Ricky Steamboat. A myth has spread that Butch Reed no-showed the match where he was booked to win the title and ended up in the WWF's dog house because of this. Reed himself has said this is untrue in a shoot interview. In fact, when the Honky Tonk Man won the title, Butch Reed was shown celebrating with Honky and the other heel wrestlers in the locker room. Reed went on to participate in the main event the first Survivor Series but was eliminated. He was also eliminated in the first round of the Wrestlemania IV Championship Tournament to eventual tournament winner "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

[edit] NWA and WCW

Shortly after WrestleMania IV Butch Reed and the WWF parted ways, Reed’s manager stayed with the federation while Reed struck out on his own once more. Butch Reed resurfaced in the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions as "Hacksaw" Butch Reed. He more or less immediately resumed his Mid-South feud with The Junkyard Dog. He was briefly managed by James J. Dillon before his contract was "sold" to Hiro Matsuda's "Yamasaki Corporation". Reed did not see much success in the early parts of his run with JCP, the highest he ever rose was as an unsuccessful challenger to the |NWA Television Champion ting at the Chi-Town Rumble on February 20, 1989. During the summer of 1989 Reed would flounder in the mid card as Jim Crocket Promotions grew to become a national wrestling organization.

The Steiner Brothers were involved in a storyline with ”Woman” whom promised Doom for the two brothers but never specified what exactly this “Doom” was. At Halloween Havoc 1989 Woman unveiled her threat, a couple of brawny, hard hitting masked African Americans. It was quite obvious to most wrestling fans who were under the black masks, Ron Simmons and Butch Reed. They had both been on WCW television shortly before Doom debuted and they were the only two African American wrestlers in the federation that had the same massive physical appearance but the announcers kept up the storyline. Doom won their debut match against the Steiners when one of the members of Doom pinned Rick Steiner after a headbutt with an illegal object in his mask. Doom followed up on this success by defeating Eddie Gilbert and Tommy Rich at Clash of the Champions IX, looking very strong in the process.

Unfortunately Doom’s next PPV outing did not come with the same success. Along with the Steiner Brothers, the Road Warriors, and the Samoan Swat Team they were entered in a one night, tag-team round robin tournament but did not score a single point ending dead last in the tournament. Doom’s misfortune continued as Woman soon dropped the team and left the federation. Then on February 6, 1990 Doom hit rock bottom when they were defeated by Rick & Scott Steiner and as a result of the stipulation were forced to unmask. When Doom unmasked no one was really surprised to see Ron Simmons and Butch Reed underneath the black hoods. Freed of the masks and now under management of former referee Teddy Long, Doom began to prosper. Free to use their full movesets and not trying to hide who they were, Doom earned another shot at the Steiner Brothers.

At Capital Combat Doom shocked the world when they beat the Steiner Brothers, a team that at that point in time did not lose very often. Doom won the tag-team titles and quickly set about defending them against the former champions the Steiners as well the rest of WCW’s very talented tag-team division. In the fall of 1990 Doom soon got their hands full with The 4 Horsemen and defended against them in two inconclusive tag-team title matches at Halloween Havoc 1990 and Starrcade 1990. At Clash of the Champions XIV Doom lost a non-title match to Sting and Lex Luger in a match that foreshadowed the trouble that lay ahead for Doom.

On February 24, 1991 at WCW’s 1991 Wrestle War PPV Doom took on former tag-team champions The Fabulous Freebirds and lost due to miscommunication between Reed and Simmons. After the Freebirds left the ring Reed turned on Simmons and beat him up, turning Simmons face and ending the team of Doom forever. Teddy Long sided with Butch Reed as the former Doom partners engaged in a short but intense feud. The feud culminated at SuperBrawl I where Ron Simmons pinned Butch Reed in a Steel cage match (referred to as a "Thunder-Doom" cage match). After the PPV Reed left the company for a short while only to return in 1992 siding with The Barbarian and Cactus Jack. Reed and the Barbarian teamed up to defeat Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham at Clash of the Champions XX but left WCW for good shortly afterwards.

[edit] Independent scene

After leaving WCW Reed went to the United States Wrestling Association where once again started feuding with long time opponent the Junkyard Dog. Reed even managed to beat JYD for the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship on October 12, 1992. Reed only held the title for a week before he lost it to Todd Champion. Reed left he promotion before 1992 ended.

The next time Butch Reed appeared for a notable promotion was in 1994 when he started to wrestle for the Global Wrestling Federation during it’s last days of existence. Reed became the second to last GWF North American champion on June 4, 1994 when he beat Rod Price for the held up title. The title had been held up the previous day after a match between Reed and Price got out of hand and ended inconclusively. Reed held the title for almost a month before losing it to ”Gentleman” Chris Adams who would be the last GWF North American champion.

Reed continued to work on the independent scene on a part time basis so that he could participate in the rodeo circuit in Kansas City. When Ron Simmons formed the Nation of Domination in the WWF the rumour was that Butch Reed would be one of the members, but nothing ever came of these rumors. In 2000-2001 Butch Reed started working for Harley Race's WLW promotion. Reed beat “Luminous Warrior” for the WLW Heavyweight Title on March 31, 2001 and held the title until Dennis McHawes beat him for it on January 25, 2002. After losing the title Butch Reed retired from wrestling.

After being retired for about three years Butch Reed decided to return to the squared circle in 2005, appearing several times for “Mid States Wrestling”. He also participated in the “Legends of Wrestling” tour in 2006 and remains at least semi-active to this day.