The Bushwhackers: ‘People today only know us as two comical guys who marched around and licked heads’

The Bushwhackers: Ambassadors for New Zealand in the pro-wrestling ring. Photo / Supplied

Fifty-odd years ago he was a teenage apprentice engineer in Lower Hutt. Forty-something years ago, a young man wide-eyed at such American novelties as microwave ovens and electric windows in automatic-transmission cars.

Next weekend, he'll be inducted with his partner in fishy, funny, and hard-hitting hijinks into pro wrestling's most prestigious hall of fame.

Luke Williams and Butch Miller made a lasting impression on popular culture as The Bushwhackers, breaking into the big time a generation ago.

Speaking ahead of The Bushwhackers' induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in California next weekend, Williams, 68, says it was a tough slog to the top of wrestling entertainment for two lads who became the most famous sardine-eating, head-licking larrikins of all time.

"The funny part is, mate, a lot of people today, they only know us as The Bushwhackers, the two comical guys who marched around and licked heads ... from the late 80s and 90s. We were [in wrestling] 20 years before that," he says, "as the New Zealand Sheepherders - we were the bad guys."

The format and shows have changed plenty since Williams started out wrestling seriously as a kid.

Speaking from his hometown, Florida's Clearwater Beach - where he runs a gym above Hulk Hogan's shop - Williams said the journey began around 1962.

He credited Olympian and pioneering Kiwi wrestler John da Silva with fuelling his interest in the sport.

"Cousin Luke" says when da Silva returned from the 1966 Olympic Games and turned pro, Williams had finished his apprenticeship. He and Miller soon teamed up, started wrestling fulltime, and from around 1968 were travelling to Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan.

Soon, he was in the US, a country that made New Zealand seem small, antiquated.

"We were brought up different, through hardships and all that," he says. "I came over in '72 and saw how different it was, but that's the evolution. When I came over here, New Zealand was 20 years behind the States. Even Canada was, you know what I mean?

"When I came over here I'd never seen a microwave dish. When I saw an electric carving knife, I said 'What the bloody hell are these Yanks doing with electric carving knives?"'

Meanwhile, the sport was fragmented, often parochial, not the global, multibillion dollar empire TV audiences the world over knows today as WWE.

"We got paid on the gate so we had to draw money. It wasn't a television entity like it is today."

Just as TV and technology evolved, so too did "cousins" Butch and Luke, eventually becoming The Bushwhackers.

With eating and hygiene habits only Homer Simpson would tolerate, and bum-biting, head-licking penchants from Godknowswhere, they marched their way to the ring, and onto millions of TV screens.

Signature moves that enhanced The Bushwhackers' fame in the VHS era included the Battering Ram, where one bloke held the other around the neck and the duo moved toward an opponent, the lower head used as a weapon.

Williams said he and Butch were known as the "hardcore" team long before the no-holds-barred Hardcore Championship became a brand in the late 90s.

Numerous wrestlers from WWE and its WWF predecessor went on to star in movies, even reality TV shows.

Williams says a reality show isn't up his alley but he and Miller worked on plenty of TV projects before. Apart from working with "Vinnie Mac" - wrestling mogul Vince McMahon - Williams and Miller worked on shows for CNN boss Ted Turner's network.

"The way we became celebrities [was] because Vince put us into other shows, apart from wrestling." Soon, he says, audiences "looked at us as those two guys from Down Under that marched around, swung their arms and licked heads."

More TV work isn't really needed now. Apart from frequent appearances at conventions, Williams still wrestles, though not in sunny Florida. Last week he was in Chicago, the week before that in Louisiana.

"I'm an old dog for the hard road," he says.

He said any Kiwis visiting Florida are welcome to stop by his gym.

"If they come over here to see any WWE wrestling, they've got to pop down to Clearwater Beach. They can come and see me and Hulk Hogan at the same time."

Just don't visit next week - Williams will leave for the West Coast for Saturday week's Hall of Fame induction, and Miller will fly out of New Zealand to join him, as will other mates.

"My close friends are going to be here," Williams says. "All my family's dead, sorry to say that. But I've got my close people here with me."

Williams expects to be back in New Zealand for a tour with Miller later this year or early next year.

He appears grateful for the life and opportunities he has now.

He says he lives beside the "number one beach" in America and he'd like The Bushwhackers to just be remembered as "Two boys from Down Under who put their heads down and made it to the big time."

And he says others who work hard, including plenty of good wrestlers emerging in New Zealand, can make it too.

"The body's a big thing, presentation - you've got to look the part for a start, and have that great athletic ability. And of course, you've got to have your noggin clear too.

You've got to have a head for the business. You've got to suck in the knowledge, go back to the drawing board and beat yourself to death and come back the next year for a tryout."

The Kiwi sounds like an acolyte of the American Dream.

"If you put your mind to it, you can do it."

• The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony from San Jose, California will screen in New Zealand live on the WWE Network on Sunday, March 29.