On the latest episode of “Something To Wrestle With” on AdFreeShows.com, Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson discuss Luke and Butch, The Bushwhackers.
Prichard talks about the first time he met Luke and Butch, the origins of the gimmick, their days as The Sheepherders when they wrestled a rougher style, and some of their memorable matches.
Prichard talked about Vince McMahon’s first meeting with the Bushwhackers: “When they came in and talked to Vince, Vince fell in love with them. He was like, ‘You guys are wonderful.’ You want to hug them. If you ever had the opportunity to be around either one of them, they are that kind of warm, friendly people. They are great guys. There is no other way to explain it. Vince was looking at their faces, kind of cockeyed like a dog does, and looks at them and says, ‘Oh my God. You guys would be the biggest babyfaces in the world with those faces. I just want to hug you.’ Everything they did in their career was blood and guts and violence and all this other s**t and Vince is looking at them and going, ‘I love it.’ He got to meet Luke and Butch and talk to them and see what they were about and they are just two Kiwi’s that made it that love travel and love everything. Vince said, ‘My God, you’re awesome. Got to have you. But, I see you guys as huge babyfaces.’”
Prichard was asked how the Bushwhackers came to an end in WWE and how they stood in good graces to make an appearance at WrestleMania XVII: “I think if anybody, the Bushwhackers, who had been all over the world and worked territories so much, realized and knew it. They were professional enough to say, yes, ok, it’s our run. We had a hell of a run that was probably five or six times longer than they anticipated in the beginning or that they had anywhere else. So they looked at it as businessmen do. We can finish up here and go on to different frontiers and evolve from this. They were great. They understood. They are professional and they are businessmen.”
Prichard on The Bushwhackers going into the Hall of Fame and the impression they left: “Not only the kids in the audience but the talent in the locker room and all the talent that came through there. Luke and Butch pretty much touched so much of that talent and were always guys that would offer words of encouragement and words of advice, how to do this, how to do that. Luke was a hell of a booker and a great mind for the business and had done an awful lot, San Antonio and Puerto Rico and different places where he was successful and really had done a good job with that and had an eye for talent. Butch had gone back to New Zealand and was happy with that. Butch, I think was a few years older than Luke, but just the warmth from the talent and the audience overall, here are two guys that can walk into a locker room pretty much anywhere and be known and be respected and held in very high regard, no matter where they were.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
