It was announced today that Luke Williams and Butch Miller, collectively known as the Bushwhackers will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
The duo from New Zealand actually began teaming in 1964 as the Sheepherders in NWA New Zealand and a year later would make the American debut for NWA Hawaii. Over the next fifteen years they would work off and on between various American promotions and their native New Zealand, but it was not until the mid-80’s that they really became a team that the United States took notice of.
In 1986 the team would work for Bill Watts in the UWF and win their version of the Tag Team Championship over Ted DiBiase and “Dr. Death” Steve Williams before losing it to the Fantastics. Williams and Miller wrestled as a bloodthirsty unit and were vicious rulebreakers, and far from the fan favorites that they would later become.
They would have a good run in the UWF, another in the WWC in Puerto Rico and following the merge between the NWA and the UWF, the tag team would be a part of the talent migrating to Atlanta. Williams and Miller would wrestle regularly on NWA television on TBS in 1988 and would appear at the Crockett Cup and the second and third Clash of the Champions, but Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation would come calling.
Debuting in January of 1989, they shed their previous gimmick (though kept the look) and became the happy go lucky Bushwhackers. The comedy team complete with catchy theme and signature walk quickly became fan favorites and would soundly defeat the Rougeau Brothers at Wrestlemania V. The team would never seriously be contenders for the WWF Tag Team Championship, but for nearly seven years in the organization they always a got a positive reaction from the fans and put smiles on a lot of faces.
This induction marks the first WWE Hall of Fame inductees from New Zealand and we here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Luke Williams and Butch Miller for this honor.
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