Danny Jones Podcast - #22 - Bushwhacker Luke

Episode Date: October 30, 2019

Bushwhacker Luke (Luke Williams) is a professional wrestler & WWE Hall of Famer from New Zealand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today we have WWE legend Luke the Bushwhacker on the podcast. Luke, thank you for blessing us with your presence today. Whoa, good, Danny. It's bloody good to be here, mate. You're looking good, mate, but you smell like sardines. And I've had that for breakfast for many years. Have you, really? I've known you for a long time.

You used to run the gym on Clearwater Beach, Colorado Beach. You had your own gym. We used to always work out together, me, you and the Hulkster. And those were some good times. Some good times, mate. That evolution of time, we have to move on. You got to move on.

Every once in a while, you got to just move on and write a new chapter. Exactly, mate. And I'm moving on. I don't know what the next chapter is going to be. But, well, I've got a few ideas anyhow. Have you? Yeah. So how you been?

How are you? Good, mate. Good. I just got back from Quebec. I worked in a town on Sunday afternoon. It's the first time I've been there since 1972. That was the last time I wrestled in that town. And I had a few people there that came up to me.

They were old. They said, I remember you being here many, many moons ago with Andre the Giant. That's crazy. So you're, how old are you know? Hey, buy it. I'm, two of the girls out there, I'm 25, 26. You don't look a day over 30. No, no.

Anyhow, I'm 73 at Christmas, January. And you're still wrestling? You're still in the ring, entertaining. Wow. You could call it, it. It's called entertaining. Why is it called entertaining? Well, that's what I do.

I entertain the people. Is that what everyone calls it? Is that what all WWW wrestlers call it? It's called, WWE is world wrestling entertainment. Okay. This episode sponsored by Maximus Tribe. You train, you track, you eat right. But if you're over 40, you've felt it.

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People just call it. No, you could call it wrestling. It's wrestling and that. But when they look at me and they say, you still wrestle, I say, I'm entertaining. Right, right. Sounds better at my age. You don't do any kind of like hard jumps

or take any big bumps. You kind of just take it easy now? I give them. You give them. You give them. I'm a giver, not a taker. Remember that, folks. And to all you women out there.

Whoa. Whoa. And I'm from down under. You know what I mean? And I'm a bushwhacker. Where'd you get that? I hate being told, most of them tell me today, but I'm shaved. Most of the woman, when I say I'm from down under and I'm a bushwhacker, they turn around and say to me, well, I'm shaved.

Oh, the women say that to you. Yeah. That's hilarious. So where did you come up? I mean, so we've had the pleasure of having many WW Superstars on this show. We've had Jimmy Hart, we've had Landy Poffo, the brother of Macho Man,

and now you're the third WWU superstar. So how did you get into the business? Let's talk about like your early days. How did you get started in this crazy, wacky world? Funny, but it's the next door neighbor. I was born in a town called Lower Hutt, New Zealand. It's a suburb of the capital, Wellington. It's about eight miles out from the city of Wellington. Yeah. And my next door neighbor was a bodybuilder. And he went into

Mr. New Zealand and that, and he got placed. And the judge in Mr. New Zealand was a former Mr. New Zealand. In 1950, Mr. New Zealand, he was a judge. Plus, he at the time now, he was the wrestling promoter for the only promotion in New Zealand. And he said to my next-door neighbor, my buddy, he said to him, you know, why not make some money with that

body? So my neighbor's name was Brian, Brian Ashby. So he went into the gym. It was in Wellington, you know, six or eight miles away. And it was, the gym was like the gym in the

first Rocky movie. If he ever remember that. The steam pipes rattling. It had a steam room. The old school gym. The only two machines that had were, or racks that had was a bench press and a squat rack. All the rest were kettlebells and free weights laying around the floor. And there was two rings there. 20 by 20 rings, the floor of the rings were hard as the floor as this room or harder as the payment on the roads around here. And the boxing rings, four ropes.

And the wrestling rings were four ropes to New Zealand at that time. It was, and they were the governing, the wrestling rings, resting shows were governed by the police. And they came and checked the rings before to make sure it was 20 feet by

20 feet in the ropes. Now, what the hell does that mean? You know what I mean? If it's 18 feet. Right. But, fucking police came and checked and measured it. And everybody, too, had to put the promoter had to put everyone's name in two months ahead of the show to see if they had any criminal record. This is how it was.

Wow. The police sat ringside, and if you did anything illegal, they hopped up in the ring. There was no punch. Anyhow, there was no punching and no kicking. So it was either four arms or. the British under, upper cuts, and you could do a knee drop. Anyhow. That's crazy.

So how old were you when you got into this? 15, or just turning 16. Anyhow, how I got it? He said to me out, he was going for about a month, and he says, why not come in there? I was 175-pound wet at the time. And I started going in there to the gym with him. About six months down the line, I went to my first restaurant match, live wrestling match

and one of the opponents didn't arrive in the light junior heavyweight or light heavyweight and that next minute I got a fairer boots thrown at me and a tank top thrown at me I had jeans on and that's how I went to the ring

and don't ask me about the match because it's a blank that was my first match ever the arena was full it was you know 3,000 people at that time I'm talking about

1962 in little old New Zealand where they roll up the sidewalks at 6 o'clock at night the bars closed at 6. Everything. Wow. Just go downtown, any little townships, 637, you're lucky

to find a cafeteria open in any of the smaller cities. In the capital you'd find them, but in the smaller cities, the sidewalks are rolled up, and the lights are out. Really? The blinds were down. That's wild.

Yeah, we didn't have it. And we didn't, everyone sat around a radio at home listening to soap operas on radio. We never got television to 67. And it would start at three in the afternoon and finish at 8 or 9 o'clock at night. That's how when we first got it? Crazy, huh? That's some crazy shit. We were 20 years behind the States and behind Ozzy at the time too.

You know? What were you doing in New Zealand this whole time? Shagging sheep. You were shagging sheep? Shagging sheep. That's all you did was shag sheep? No, no, no. I'm an engineer by trade or turn or fitter.

You know, lathe work and with a, you know, turning steel with a lave and doing welding, arc and arc and arc, gas, gas, brazing. and all that sort of stuff. Yeah. Dealing with steel, putting stuff together. Okay, so that's what you did for a living when you first- Yeah, I did an apprenticeship. Okay, yeah. I did the 10,000 hours.

That's a five-year. I did a lot of overtime, and I did it in four years. But meantime, in the meanwhile, I was resting too, because I'd finished work at four, and that in New Zealand, you can hop on a plane from the capital, and you can be at the end of the other island or over in the South Island

anywhere within an hour. You know, once you're on the plane, everything goes close. The islands, New Zealand consists of two islands, 600 miles long, each, and each about 150 miles wide. So that's it. And we're way down south.

For you people out there don't know where we are. We're south-east of Australia and below us is South Pole. America, I've got a base in the South Island, in the South Island, where they take, go down to the South Pole. You know what I mean? Yeah. Wow.

Did you ever go to the South Pole? No, never. Never flow. It's two hours from Christchurch. Really? And that's two and a half hours and you're over. People fly over tourists. Americans go down there and they go on the charters and they fly over the South Pole.

We're a mountainous country. What you call mountains over here. here we call hills our mountains are 40 from 12,000 feet to 20,000 feet you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, okay, so you're in New Zealand. You're an engineer by trade. Yeah. You're doing welding.

You're doing all kinds of crazy work. Yeah. And on the side, you're wrestling. You're wrestling, doing wrestling gigs. Are you making any money doing wrestling back then? Back then, if you told you. While you were in New Zealand, were you making money? Yeah.

When I tell you, I was making three pounds. two pounds or three pound a match. If you know what, pounders of those days, a pound was equal to $2. Wow. And I make... Two bucks a match. Yeah, and a wage at that time would be,

a good wage, would be about 15 pounds a week. A wage. That's for a... Not a professional, but that's for an average worker was 10 to 15 pound a week. Wow.

By accident. you kind of like fell into this. This was never like a dream for you. No, no, the next door neighbor. And I went in and that, hung out and that, you know. So when did you develop that whole, that whole moniker, the whole, whoa, with the. No, that's what it, that came later. That came many, many moons later.

We left home in 97. Yeah, how did you, why did you, yeah, go back, go back, go back. Let's go back. We mainly had Europeans, wrestlers. Yeah. from Europe and England. When they come over, we actually ran three times a week or twice a week,

three times a week, and a guy would come over for, say, two months, three months, and that's when we get most of our work. And in 68, I started going to Australia, the American promoter from Atlanta, a well-known promoter, who got Ted Turner to put the wrestling up on the satellite on TBS. Well, he was over in New Zealand, and that was WCW.

He was over in Australia, I'm sorry, and he come over there in 65 and opened up Australia. That's when the Vietnam War was on, and all the troops were coming down to Australia for R&R, Rest and Recreation. and he was there he opened up on Australia he bought out the roller derby and then bought a whole American crew

in and started running and I'd go over there and work against Americans and that maybe three times he'd go over there for a month or three weeks and work against Americans

now when Ted Turner was he was basically syndicating wrestling shows across the world in lots of different countries. Yeah, but... It started with the U.S., right? Yeah, but he didn't start...

The satellite didn't go up to 76, I think. You know, the... Yeah. It was called WTBS. It was called WTBS. TBS, yeah. WTBS, and then he dropped the W off it and just TBS.

And what was the wrestling program called? It was World Championship Wrestling. That's what Ted Turner's was called? Yeah, Ted Turner. Well, that was Jim Barnett's company. Okay. Jim Barnett, the Australian promoter, actually owned part of Florida Championship Wrestling.

He owned a part of a lot of companies around the States, but he was on, in Atlanta, he had WCW. Okay. And then later on in life, you know, when all the small territories went out, and Vince was the only one, and that's when Ted Turner bought NWA, and it changed from NWA to WCW. The name and that.

And that's when they had the Monday night wars in the 90s. But anyway, we're going back to the 60s. Right, right, right. We jump well ahead here. Fuck. Anyhow, so I met a lot of Americans and that. And Andre come over to our country, too, in 69. Honor to the Giant?

Yeah, so Butch of me worked against, butch my partner and myself. We partnered up in 66, you know, locally and that, we never started touring overseas to, you know, to the Middle East, not the Middle East, to the East, Singapore and up in Bangkok and that till 68. Andre came over to New Zealand and 69 and butcher me work with him for a whole month around the country. Really? Yeah. Holy shit. What was that like? Andre was only 3.50 then. You're 3.50, 360. and that and with a big athro. He looks skinny.

You know what I mean? Well, six foot, seven foot two with a big afro and only three, three fifty. You know what I mean? That's incredible. You spent a whole month with him. So that's how when I first met Andre and that. And of course, too, I met the big names like Kulowalski. He was one of the biggest names in the heels in the world at the time.

who was main event at Madison Square Gardens in the 60s and in the 70s he was the main bad guy and he's the guy that actually got Australia going for Jim Barnett You know Our business is Cowboys and Indians

And he was the guy They bought in and he actually popped Australia and got it up going You know for Jim Barnett Wow And so when I come over and 72 Butchemy came over to North America for the first time. And why did you guys come for the first time?

What was the reason? Well, you know, Hollywood were, if you want to be a star in movies and television and that, you go to Hollywood. If you want, all the wrestling magazines, you know, we didn't get a wrestling show to 76 in New Zealand on television. And that, so we got wrestling magazines in the 60s in that. And, you know, they all come out of the States. Everything came from the States.

The States was where it was, you know, for wrestling. Yeah. So it was bigger than England and Europe and all that sort of stuff. So you guys, like, you know, we're doing it. We got to, if you want to make it big time, we got to go to California. No, we didn't come to California. That was for Hollywood and actors. We just got two promoters that the New Zealand promoter knew very well.

they were the Vashon brothers. Morris Vashon, Mad Dog Vashon, he's dead now, his brother. They just put out another movie out about them this weekend. But they were two Frenchmen, were well known throughout the states, and they owned a territory in Montreal called Grand Prix. So they bought us over there.

This territory was running three towns a night. This promotion was running. They had a crew. This was a... a big promotion running three towns a night in the province of Ontario and Quebec and northern part of Vermont and upstate New York that come into that and that and it was out of Montreal. Wow.

And so they brought us over there and of course the main here was Walter Kowalski and the main baby face, good guy was the giant. So we, we, Andre. Andre. He just, Andre, Andre had just come to the North America the first time, six months before we did. Oh shit, from, and where was he living in France?

Yes. Okay. And he was living, working Europe and England. And he came in a year, six months, eight months before us. So when we come in, he was over like hell. It was drawing. This, this territory was. on fire. Yeah.

You know what I mean? So when we came in, we knew the two main guys. And after about a month, we were one of the main events in the third town, you know, one of the towns. And that, you know what I mean? We were used, we were used right. That HBO documentary on Andre was insane. Yeah.

The stuff that he had to go through, like everyday life flying in airplanes, how much of torture that was for him. Oh, yeah. Going to the poop, I've got to tell you about that later. Going to the pooper, he could never get on those. Anyhow, we're not, we're going back. So here I am in this territory. And at the time, too, Pierre Trudeau was the prime minister.

His son is the prime minister now. And he's not so good. Prime Minister of Canada. Canada. Yeah. And he was going out with Mick Jaggers' wife, Bianca. He was effing around. with Mick Jagger's wife.

It was, you know, Mick had broken up with her, but that was the big thing at the time. So it was his ex-wife? Yeah. And at the time, too, when we came into Party Quebec was trying to break away from Canada and be its own country. It's crazy.

You know, the politics then. Yeah. Quebec, you know, it was wild at the time. That's pretty insane. So anyhow, we were there working, we're working there. We worked there for a year and a half, and we were used on top, semi-final on top, and one of the towns and they come up to sit to us,

you know, we can move you out. You know, now you said to you know, we have to start jobbing you. Jobbing you is getting beaten all the time and put the new people over, or we can move you out and bring you back later and move you to another territory. And we said, where are you going to move us? And they says there's a promotion called stampede promotion. Now, we never heard a stampede. This is a notorious promotion in wrestling in those days.

Every one of the name has worked in it. And it was owned by Stu Hart. We didn't know who Stu Hart was, Brett Hart's father. Stu Hart had 12 kids. It's a notorious family in Canada. And Brett Hart was WWE champion for many years. and Owen Hart was the fill out of the roof

at one of the paper views and got killed ringside he was on a hoist I remember if you know it was in Kansas City he was coming out on a rope you know when they had them down and it just the clips that come undone

and he fell to the pavement on the paper views yeah that was a big lawsuit anyhow what was that so what year was that that was in about 90 2,99, 2000.

Anyhow, getting back. So we moved into that next territory. And we never knew the first night we're there. We're working against the champions. And we got disqualified, you know, wrestling prearranged. Anyhow, we got disqualified. We started beating them up with the New Zealand flag. We always carried the New Zealand flag, right?

Next minute, these kids were. thrown in in a ring and that and I'll tell you who by in a minute and and we were told beat them up beat them up so the two champions who we just got squire squalid from a line there and these four kids from 11 to about 30 and are thrown in the ring and two of them are bleeding and um we're putting the boot to them and that and then we leave we did we we left the ring and we go back to the back and we hadn't met Stu Hart yet and Stu Hart's there he said what the F are you doing

and we said well the guy threw the mitton said the guy that threw the guys these kids in the ring said beat them up so we beat them up and you know what I mean because we came in to get over you know the bad guys

and this was televised Friday nights were televised in the pavilion you know in the fairgrounds in Calgary there's two arenas. The pavilion, it holds 3,000,

and then now it's the Saddle Dome, it holds 20. That's all the big shows and the pay-per-views are done and all that stuff. Yeah. And the promotion did two shows, did three shows a year

where they did the Friday and they did the Sunday, back to back, you know. So anyhow, we beat them up, and that. Now, these were Stu Hart's kids. Oh, shit. And who didn't know? And who was.

throwing them in was Abdullah, the butcher. You've heard of Abdullah the butcher? No. Blood crazy, you know what I mean? He cut them all and threw them in. What? Yeah. Was that planned?

Was that planned? No, we didn't know. He was helping us get over. Abdullah is a heavy name. He drew the biggest houses in Japan with King Brody. Anyhow, you know, wrestling fans know all about it. the butcher. Any of the out.

That's fucking nuts. And a big controversy with Vince McMahon. Anyhow, so we put the boot to him and he told us over his kids. And one of them was brats, believe it or not. And the other one, Owen was too young at the time. And there was other kids. You know, some of that.

He had 12 kids. Eight boys or four girls. It's true. Anyhow, that was our territory. So that was a Friday night. That was played on Saturday morning. So when we come to the show, that was a doubleheader that weekend. Sunday was in the big arena because they flew talented for a big show.

When we went out, we got stuff thrown at us. That's how hot we didn't get the drawing power, but we were hated already. People just hated you. You guys were like the go-to heels. Yeah, you know, we didn't have the drawing power yet. But, you know, when you come into a territory, they feed your guys to beat up and, you know, get over. To get you over so you can go to towns and draw people. It usually takes six weeks.

If you're good heels, it takes six weeks of television. You know, six television shows, and you're knocking the people on the mic, and you're beating people up. And by then, if you're good heels, you can get over. And butcher me, you got over. So, wait, wait, wait. Get over to draw. Get over. Get over.

To get over. To get over as a bad guy to be main eventers. Okay. Either to get over, you know, they feed your talent to get over. Get over means you beat them up whether you win one, two, three. But to get over as a hated talent, you know what I mean? Because the name of our game is the good guy beating the bad guy.

But you're going to have the bad guy's going to go get over as a bad guy to draw houses. How do you think that Muhammad Ali, people bought tickets to see Mohammed get beaten? He got over because he knocked people out straight away, and he said, I'm going to knock him out in three, and he blah, blah, blah. And he said, that cocky bastard, we bought tickets. That's why he got over so big because people bought tickets. Because they wanted to see him get beat. But he always, you know.

Really? Yeah. And Tyson. Look at Tyson. Yeah, definitely. He was a heel too. Yeah. I said was a hill too.

George Forbin was a baby face. He was liked. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Did you draw any kind of inspiration from guys like that? Yeah, yeah. We draw inspiration from, you know, Kilaquoski. Here's a guy that went who Muhammad Ali followed.

Gorgeous George. Yeah. Gorgeous George was an old-time wrestler, a fag. You know, he wasn't a fag, but no. He worked a fag gimmick. Oh, he did, okay. Yeah, and Overstrong, and he gave out, bobby, you know, came out flamboyantly, hair died, you know, was rollers in his hair, blah, blah, blah, and all that shit.

That's what I did earlier on in my career. I was Sweet William. Sweet William. Yeah, I was, I worked. Did you come out with the sheep? I worked as a fag. I worked as a fag for a long time. Wow.

For the first five years, I worked as a fag. Six years. Wow. And that was in New Zealand. Yeah, and Australia. And you drew more emotion out of people because... Oh, yeah, because I had... I'd had a woman in my corner or had a male in the corner,

and I'd slap him around, slapped the woman around, you know, spray me with perfume, had rollers in my hair, and all that stuff, go to women salons, get my hair done. Is there any footage of that on the internet? I want to see that. No, no, that. But I got photos and all that. As I was when I was doing that gimmick, yeah.

Holy God. They wore flowery clothes, you know, with popped out shoulders and all that stuff. What would you say? Ballet shoes with a cross thing over here. Yeah. Did you have to, in a lot of your matches, did you have to, like, hide a razor blade in your mouth and, like, cut yourself, make yourself bleed? What are you talking about? You know what I mean?

Did you have to... No, I don't know what you mean. You never did that? Look at my forehead. Is that what... Why your forehead looks like that from you cutting yourself. I'm not saying that, but just look at it. I can see it.

That's wild woman with long toenails. How's that? So you don't talk about that? People don't talk about that? Well, you've been told people talk, I don't talk about it. No. Okay. But it's pretty gnarly, like a lot of the guys that want to make it and they want to get over.

Yeah, they have to do crazy shit like that. They have to cut themselves to something. Hey, when they said blood capsules, there's no. blood capsules. I've never used blood capsules at all. And I squirted blood out to as far as where you are.

Fuck. I've hit main veins. Oh! On your face? Yes. Oh my God. If you want to go and see bloody matches, go to the

1886 in the Superdome New Orleans. The sheep heard is there the fantastics. Anyone go and see that? That was

the sheep herders? I was the sheep herders. It was the bushwackers. Oh, you called you saw the sheep herders. We were the sheep herders well before the bushwhackers. Vince changed us

to good guys and he changed their names to the bushwakers because he wanted to own us. He didn't like the sheep herder. Oh, because he wanted to change it so we could own it. Yeah, own it.

He couldn't claim sheepherers. He didn't, he wanted us to be the good guys. He says, you know, it's time for you'd have changed to be the good guys. We'd been the bad guys. I'd been a bad guy from 1962 to 1988.

What's with the whole sheep gimmick? What did that come from? It's because New Zealand has got 3 million people and 100 million sheep. That's what I said. Are you fucking kidding? Did you catch on before when I said

the sheep shaggers? No, I heard that. I heard that. I just know where he came from. Yeah, New Zealand's well known for that. There's really over 100 million sheep in New Zealand. New Zealand is evergreen, mate. They burnt all the rough gorse and all the plant, weed and all else.

And they put grazing, they grass, seeded the whole countryside, the hills and everything. We were the first country to do top dressing on planes. You know, when they dropped the seeds out of the wings and they come in over the pastures and that, and feed the pastures. New Zealand were the first. country to do that. The whole country's mountainous like that. Yeah, yeah.

They've got big mountains, but we're just covered in sheep, you know. Sheep were everywhere. Did you have any bad sheep? Huh? Did you have your own sheep? No, no. I did. I was, but the sheep farms, you know, the sheep farms in New Zealand, they're three

or four miles, you know, some of them are two or three miles by three miles. Really? Yeah, that's a big, big farms. A hundred million sheep That must be a big wool export And it was Until synthetic came in We were big in

Big and farm products You know They are butter and our wool But now it's synthetic That's fine That killed our economy When they had Synthetic stuff

Come out Synthetic wool and all that They started to do all that stuff But New Zealand was big export In wool So for your gimmick You guys were called the sheep herders And we used to come out in sheep jackets too, you know, white jackets with sleeves all thick wool like that.

Did you guys ever bring a sheep with you? No. Like to walk out with a sheep? No, no. Carry a sheep around. You can't bring a sheep into a WWE match? I mean, Stone Cold brought out a giant fucking beer truck. We were the sheep herders in, mate.

We were the bushwhackers. No, I'm talking about when you were the sheep herders. No, we never had sheep herds. We just carried the New Zealand on flag. We were known for being nasty, son of a bitches. If you go online, it says the sheep herders were hardcore, before hardcore became our name brand. So what did you guys do that was so nasty? The way we worked, and we were blood and guts.

Just roughed them up. Roughed them up, blood and guts. You know, all of our, that's why we worked a lot in South America and a lot of, you know, in the territories where they had bloody matches all the time. We would have, and we came up with a lot of different matches that, we, our names of a lot of different matches. Those days, there were territories, mate. When we come over here, everywhere you ran seven nights a week.

Even when we went into that Grand Prix, and that, they ran seven towns. They were running 21 towns a week. You know what I mean? And that is every night. And you come back too, you do programs with guys, you might, Roddy Piper, Butch of me worked with Rick Martell and Roddy Piper for a year every night.

We'd go into six men's. They'd bring in Jesse Ventura, or they'd bring in the giant, and we'd bring in another guy to be an outside. And we'd just work with those two. The town, so you could have storylines and plan things and do things. To spike it, and then you'd sell out, then you'd go down to three quarters of the house and it'll start when, then you spike it again and come up.

You know what I mean? That's what you have television for, to do angles. To sense, to plots. Yeah. Yeah, and that's when the hill does stuff to get the people going. And that's where Vince is like at the moment because being a public company

and he's got all these stockholders and that, he can't do heavy stuff like he did before. You know what I mean? So when Vince bought you, when Vince, when Vince, asked us to come in there. So what was that like? What was that like? Did you meet him? Did he reach out to you?

What was that? Well, we were working for Turner at the time. Yeah. And we were working to get the main guys there. And I was it. We were working Cincinnati on a Saturday night. I always remember this. And I'm in the goals gym with Butch in the morning.

And I never worked my drum out so much. Butch boys worked his drum at the end of a workout. His drum. The drum. Your stomach. Your drum. Oh, your drum. Okay.

Your boiler. I never heard that. I like that. Working my drum, mate. You got to fill your drum out. That's why you go to a restaurant. That's right. I love that.

Or your boiler. My fukin drum, mate. Your boiler. And he was doing that. So I went to pick up my messages from my home. I was living in Charlotte. Yeah. Because that's where the, that was the headquarters for NWA.

And that they were running all over the country. as far as as Baltimore and Philly and we'd go to Long Island now and again but we never went into Manhattan or any there or up the East Coast there WWWWF

was up there that was Vince Sr. Ted Turner's television was never strong his thing wasn't in the in the packages of the cable You know, TBS wasn't strong up there to, I'd say, 90, 88, 90. TBS got strong in the northern parts, and it's strong everywhere now. You know what I mean?

Well, that's 30 years ago. But USA Network and W, is it WN? What's the other cables? A few cables, they're strong up there. Anyhow. So we wouldn't come up that far. And anyhow, and he went to the, anyhow, going back to Cincinnati, went and pulled up my messages, and there's a voice. It's Pat here.

He says, when you've got time, give me a call. Pat Patterson? Yes. Wow. Oh, you know Pat? I know Pat Patterson, yeah. Yeah, Pat. Patricia.

Anyhow, one of the best tag wrestlers ever. Now he's like one of the top executives right at WWE. Yeah, but one of the top, you know, he was one of the top. him and Ray Stevens which of me copied a bit of their stuff too. They were in the best tag teams ever. Anyhow, he said, give us a call. So I said, that's funny.

So anyhow, I give them now, go to call, and I'm on speakerphone. And the speakerphone, they were in Vince's home, not in the office, they're in his home. And I said, is Pat there? He said, yeah, Pat. And he says, yeah, there's a guy here wants to talk to you. And then a voice in the background said,

Kiwi, I'd like to use you. I said, who are you? He said, I've been sending tapes to this fucking bastard. For fucking, since Betamax. If you know what Betamax is. Yeah. Early 80. Yeah.

I've been sending to the dad, the Betamax. And then I said, and every year I send, tapes to them. Can you use us? Because that was the number one one one companies in the country. Right. Right. They only worked up north at the time. They only come down as far

as Philadelphia and Baltimore and they did Boston. They did all that up there, but it was big money there. Right. So I've been trying a bit. But anyways, they didn't take us smaller guys at the time. They had big guys. I'm talking about guys 6'4, 6'4, 6'4, 6'3,

and 260 up, you know? So he says, he says, yeah, and I said, yeah, and I says, yeah, I'm interested. He says, when can I see you? When can I talk to you? And I says, you just named the time

and that. And we were working planned every day for NWA. And he says, right, when you get home, there'll be tickets at your door, at your door, There'll be tickets at your door when you get home. I gave him my address on the phone, and he says next Wednesday. So, and he says, all you do, you don't have to bring anything with you.

When you fly up there, you'll be flying home the same night. So we flew into Kennedy. There was a limousine up there waiting for us. We are straight up to Stanford, Connecticut, which is an hour away from Kennedy. met Vince Vince Jr. Vince Jr. Yeah.

Senior was dead. Okay. Senior died in four. Okay. Three or four. 83 or 84. And that we met him and that

Fani Paras who went into the office and was sitting there and he says to us you know, I'd like to bring you in his baby faces, good guys.

And of course I piped up and said to him bring us in his heels first and turn us. And he says, no, I don't do things that way. And then I found out you don't tell Caesar, his nickname

was Caesar. You don't tell Caesar what to do, you know what I mean? He says, and I'd like you to be between the sheep herders and the moon dogs. Work like, between the sheep herders and the moon dogs. The moon dogs were two guys and had

bones, big heavy guys were crazy and had bones, you know what I mean? And they were healed. up there. And he says, and I'll start bringing you up every week for the next month to do vignettes, which you know what vignettes are, small movies, two to three minute movies,

you know, to get you over. So we got home, and when we got home and that, there was the tickets there, two days later. Butch calls me up and he says, fuck, there's something in here. a package here they've set in the wrong names

that's for the for the bushwhackers and I said the bitch he says they must have sent them to the wrong person I said no he's changing our name

because he wants to own it you know what I mean he's changing our name so that's how we became the um the bushwhackers so you can't even know what he was going to call you

until he sent you that no no you know a bushwhacker No, like, no, like, back and forth about it at all. He just made up in mind. No, no, you know, you don't have a choice. You know, that. If you want to work for Caesar, anyhow, a bushwhacker is like a Robin Hood.

Steals from the rich, it gives to the poor. Okay. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. And they did a thing like that with Mick Jaggers in Australia, that movie. I forget the name of it. That's what he was. You know, a bushwhack.

So there you are. That's the name in that. So he kept bringing us up. And at the time, which was exploding on television, was Crocodile Dundee. Yeah. And so all the vignettes were rid around like that, you know, driving on the wrong side of the road and talking and that.

And we did a lot of vignettes and that crazy ones. going to a drink machine and putting and shaking the machine saying how do we get these drinks out and people on the streets say oh you drop put quarters and then the cano come out and how'd you open them and I took out my teeth and popped them with my teeth

you guys are just kind of like cavemen yeah cavemen and that you know what I mean and doing all sorts of stuff and then we ask the guy how to for directions and we turn around and butcher says oh these Americans are great they even tell you

where to go. You know, but we put it the way they tell you to fuck off, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We did a lot of vignettes, you know. Went into restaurants and that, and they served this stuff.

We ordered the whole menu, and we threw away the knives and we ate from down under, you know, with our hands and that, and all that sort of stuff. We did a lot of vignettes. So by the time we got, a month was over,

that seed, we'd done, every time we flew up, we did two or three different vignettes. Wow. So for a month we did 12 vignettes. And then when did you guys get into matches? And then they called us up and we started on the road. And at the start, we didn't, we didn't, he never gave us the arms swinging or the head licking.

We came up with all that. Because the moon dogs, which said to me, he says, the moon dogs were on, been on USA Network for the last five years. and we've been on Turner Network on and off from 79 to 88. So let's create something different. And when we were working in Turner Studios, every time we went outside the ring, we'd swing up our arms and go, whoa, you know what I mean, to scare the people, you know what I mean?

We go out and go, whoa, and that. So he said, let's go, let's start swinging our arms going to the ring, So that's how we got the march, and then we added the lick, which I grabbed their head, but I always licked the back of my hand. You know what I mean? Yeah, you don't want to lick their head. It was like the head licking. Butch got staffed later on. That's why he got real sick.

He got staff? Oh, yeah, we'll get to that. He died, nearly died twice. He died twice? Nearly died twice, yep. From licking heads. Well, he got staph infection, and that it could have been from licking, but it all could have been from a thing, a liniment, called DMSO, which they use for horses.

It heals torn ligaments and muscles overnight. You know, you rub it on. And it goes DMSO, and it's very strong. You know, you can put it in your hand and use the thing, a ultrasound under here, and it will bubble in your hand. You know, it goes right through, and that a lot of people have used it.

If you've got bacteria on your hair, and you rub it, and you've got to scratch, that'll take it right to the bone. What? So we don't know that he got the star from that, or it was licking, you know, sweaty, sweating heads.

And that, you know, and all different people, because he used to grab them and give them a lick. Yeah. Fuck that shit. Fuck that shit. That's dirty-ass shit, man. Yeah, anyhow,

so anyhow, that's how we went through that. After about a month, we got our gimmick down pat, you know, our marching and that. Yeah. And now we're in, And Rina, as soon as we started, our music come on, everyone will be standing and doing this, you know what I mean?

And even on NFL, guys would go behind the line for a touchdown and then, you know, they'd do the march. Yeah, they'll be to march. That's how Hohna got over. March. In the late 80s, that got over. And it's still, when I was working on Sunday, you know, I come out and march, all the people are swinging their arms up standing, you know, because soon as they hear them,

music. The wrestling fans, they know it. Thanks, thanks to WWE Network. They play all our old stuff. They've even got a sheepherders where we were bad guys. Yeah. I've got all that stuff. You know, the network's got all the stuff on. That keeps us alive.

Right. Yeah. Every time they do the Royal Rumble, which is the pay-per-view in January, they always show the one that I was throw, as I got up on the apron, earthquake grabbed me and it took me over the ring and

and went out and I, as soon as I landed, I marched back. Yeah, saw that video. That's been played since 19992 every year. What's the most amount of money you ever made wrestling? Is there like one match that made you the most money ever? What was like your peak?

What was the best week you ever had? Shit, I don't know, mate, I can't. Just like estimate, just rough. It doesn't have to be exact. Biggest week. 10 or 12 grand. 10 or 12 grand. Yeah.

Wow. How many matches did you have to do that week? A full week. Full week every day. No, I've made more than that. But, you know, that's the biggest one on a pay-per-view. That's the biggest pay-off. I got on a pay-per-view.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Damn. And what was, like, your biggest match? What was like the peak match that you ever had? Okay, there's two different ones that I remember for a lifetime, and that is the first one, is the Wembley Stadium in London, the old Wembley Stadium,

the last show before they pulled it down to build the new one. We, Butcher Me and Hacksaw Duggan were against the nasty boys and the Mountie. There was 94,600 people there, and we were the first match to get the people up. You know, the crowd had been sitting there, And that first match is a big thing. Yeah. Because if the first match sucks, the crowd's down for it.

And it's hard to get them back. You know what I mean? We walked out there and that was the people were fucking on fire. You know, because, you know, watching a football match, you know, how many is 11 on the side, isn't there? How many is in a football team, your football teams? How many people on a football team? No, there's like 20 or 30, I thought. Yeah.

once? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, yeah. I don't know, I don't know. You know, now, but now, but when you're in the ring, there's only six of us in that ring, and you've got all those people looking at you, you know what I mean? And if you're a single match, you know, a lot of them were being in tags,

me and Butch, and it's been 76,000, but that was the biggest for one, the biggest for me, was 94-6, walking out there, the aura, the tension. Yeah, got to feel crazy.

It's just fucking mind-blowing, you know what I mean? And you don't have to do nothing. You just have to go, whoa. And the whole people go, whoa. You go, yay. So there was me and Butch going, whoa, and yay. And Hacks were dying and go, oh. So that it was fucking wild.

And that, you know, we could have done that all night and not have to do any action. Right. We did some wild stuff. You know, we didn't have to do much because the people were there. They're just loving it. It's insane now. Being the first match. And that, you know, since then there's been, you know, they did $104,000 in Texas

Stadium three, three, uh, Resslemans ago. That was, uh, how many? 104. Yeah, in the Texas stadium. I went to my first WrestleMania last year. I think it was last year. Maybe it was two years ago. It was in New Orleans.

Yeah, I was there. Yeah, that was the first WrestleMania I ever went to. and it was, I did not expect it to be that insane because I'd only watched wrestling matches on TV before that. And when I got there, luckily I got like, I got like floor seats. I was maybe like eight rows back on the floor. And Dana White was actually like a few rows in front of me.

And just the fucking the show, the fire and the lights and everything was just so over the top. The thing that stood out to me the most was the Undertaker's intro. with everything like out of nowhere the whole stadium just goes black and then it's just like that gong sound that fucking that bell goes off and then the light shines down on him

it just it fucking made my hair it made my hair stand up you don't have to be a wrestler like the ultimate warrior you know he was a bodybuilder stop eating he was a bodybuilder and that and he didn't care about the wrestling and that

but the smoke and mirrors and him running to the ropes and shaking the roads. And shaking the ropes. That's all he had to do. Because he couldn't do, God bless him up there. But he didn't have to do much more. You know what I mean?

Yeah. And that's, smoke and mirrors. They do a great fucking job at the smoking mirrors, though. Yeah. Hey, the pyro and the lighting and insane. It's ridiculous how much money

they have to be able to, they spend millions and millions and millions of dollars. You know how many 18 wheels he's got? So shows he's got about 15, 18, wheelers to 2018 wheelers outside with all the props and all the stuff. Two of them are the broadcasting units where they're editing and sending it to the satellite.

You know, the live. There's two trucks doing that shit. But the rest is... I wonder if there's a documentary on what it takes to run behind the scenes of WrestleMania. All the trucks, the fucking, the crew, the equipment. Yeah. And the rigors are to rigging beforehand.

And, you know, to rig everything up. It's literally, it's literally like a major motion picture budget for a one, one-time live show. Yeah. So, so, you know, and that's what he's doing. What he does, too, you know, like he did, the Bradley Center in, um, this, this. In Brooklyn, what's it called? The Barclay Center.

Barclay. Barkley Center. Friday night was NXT. You know, that's the, now that's, on Wednesday night right now on USA Network. NXT, that's the guys coming up, right?

NXT, he did on Friday night in the Barclay. He did Saturday night. He did the Hall of Fame in the Barclay Centre. Sunday they did the outdoor in Meadowlands, the WrestleMania, I'm talking about in the New York

not last year before. Then he come back on Monday night, the Barclay Centre, Tuesday night, the Barclay Center. Monday night was raw. Tuesday night was Smackdown. So he used the Barclay Center. So he just once set up.

Oh, yeah. That makes it for five years. That makes so. That's what they did in New Orleans as well. Yes, yeah. That's what they said. Yes. See, one set up.

And it's coming to Tampa this year. Yeah, but it's going to be there. That's going to be insane. But Amelia Arena for the... Emily Arena? Emily Arena. For WrestleMania? No.

No? No. No. No? Emily Arena. No. It's a Buck Stadium. Oh, he's Raymond James.

Yeah, Raymond James. Okay. And that. My dad. My dad. It's for the NXT, the Hall of Fame, and then Monday and Tuesday, Raw and Smackdown. Okay. Unreal, huh?

That'll be a long week. Yeah. God, that's going to be wild. Yeah. And then. Are you going to be there? Yeah. And then, um, I don't know.

Not for them. No. And then there's, you know, when there's WrestleMania. Yeah. There's usually about eight wrestling shows around it. All the big independent companies in the States go to, you know, New Orleans, there were stuff going from Thursday. Oh, yeah.

Even though they had, WWE had their stuff. Russell Khan and all that stuff. There's wrestle crime. There's R.O.H. There's all these different other companies running, you know. This year, R.O.H will be running, and they run Lakeland. That's the closest they can get there. building and that. All the other places have been bought by different companies, you know what I mean?

It's going to be insane. That's what the guy, the mayor in Orlando, that's why he, he gives them everything for nothing, the WWE, because it brings so much tourists from overseas to his place, because when they come to, you know, WrestleMania draws from Japan, from all Europe, and that, from New Zealand, Australia, brings draws from all over the world, right? And that's so, So, you know, Orlando, they've got Sea World, they've got everything there. So that's why he gives it, because the tourists not only come for WrestleMania, they catch everything. Now, Tampa, too, they'll get them, because people will come here to go to Orlando to catch everything else too.

Okay. Boost the whole city during that. Yeah. That rail, they should. I don't know when they're going to get that rail going, but they're going to have that rail running to a, from Orlando. to Fort Lauderdale and to Tampa, you know, that one. The speed train or whatever it is or something.

Yeah, they'll like the bullet. That's in the makings. I don't know when that's going to happen. That'll be fucking nice. Yeah. The time you drive to the place and then sit around, get on the plane and then get off, and that is, as they get the plane like the bullet,

120, 130 mile an hour, 150 mile an hour train. Cruising. It's easier to do, you know? Yeah. I was going to ask you, what were we? What kind of fucking, like,

injuries have you had? Have you had some pretty terrible injuries? Have you had to have like surgeries and back? Because I know Hulk's pretty messed up from all the back surgeries. I've held all from back surgery, but I've had two right knee replacements. The first replacement I wore out wrestling. And that, and I did 40 years, last 14 years in the ring. Oh, not bad.

And the new one has got spike, you know, where it goes into the bone and goes up in the other one, it was round before. So it's just like that, where it goes up, and it was smooth. Now there's little spikes on it. So when they cemented it in with the spikes that can't get loose. Okay. Yeah, the last one I had a tour in England, and it was loose, and it was like electric shocks in my leg.

I was loaded on... Pain killers? Pain killers, yeah. I had to do a tour. Some Xanax or something? Ah. Were you taking Xanax or biking? No, that's not a painkiller.

That's angry the person. I'm taking stronger ones. Stronger. Valium. Valium. That's like Sanchez. The Xanax is the same. The good stuff.

The value, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The Xanax is what you feed the sheep first. Yeah, the Valium and Zanax of that. Anyhow, yeah, so. So my career, that's where I came. Then I came to the States. I lived in Hawaii. You know, I worked across Canada.

You know, right. across Canada in the 70s and a wee bit in the States, but I was living in Canada, and then it was 79, 79 I came, and I was living in Hawaii, and we used to work on four islands a week in that, and I used to fly over Diamondhead every night and see Jack Lord and the crew doing Hawaii 50. Oh, yeah. We had to come right low in that, and I could look right down and see him doing that. Hawaii 5-0.

That's cool. That was great. But in Hawaii, I just kept my head above water. Yeah. I didn't make any money. You know what I mean? I made money to survive.

I lived right across, I lived on Waikiki Beach, and that got up every morning, went to the gym. By 10 o'clock, I was on the beach every day. 5.30, I'd fly out to one of the islands. We had our own, the property had his own planes.

We fly to the islands and do an island. I'd be back in Waikiki, around 10 o'clock every night. That's where the Rock's from, right? He's from Hawaii, isn't he? The Rock. Yeah, he used to live in Hawaii when he was young kid. Yeah, because his grandma and grandfather, Peter Marvia, they owned the promotion. Down the road, they owned the promotion.

And, you know, he was born in the States. He lived in New Zealand too for two years. Did he really? Yeah. I wrestled the Rock's grandfather. Me and Butch wrestled him. Are you serious? Are you serious?

You know, in Hall of Fame, we told the story about that. We wrestled Peter Marvia, the Rock's grandfather. And then the Rock's dad, I wrestled him a lot. And that I wrestled him in Australia, New Zealand and the States. No way. The Rock's dad everywhere. But the Rock's Grandfather. I was also just in Australia and New Zealand.

Were they anything like The Rock? What were those guys like? Yeah, the Rock's third generation. Right. Where do you think he got it from? Exactly. Yeah. It's before my time, so that's why I got to ask.

No, the Rock's grandfather, Peter Marvea, was a high chief. Right. Shamoid Chief in that. And he was in the first James Bond movies. He was in a lot of movies, bit parts. Oh, shit, no way. He's the one that had to fight and went through the screen in the movie with Kendostex. At the start, it was that Dr. No, what was the first James?

I can't remember. That's going way back. Yeah. But he was in those movies and that. And then Rocky Johnson, he was a big name. He was the first, him and Tony Atlas were the first black people ever to have the WWWF world belts. You know, they were the first black people to have the world straps in wrestling. Damn.

Yeah, Rocky Johnson. I work with him all over the state and in Australia and in New Zealand. That's wild. Yeah, I actually met his mom at Rick Flair's wedding. Yeah. I went there and I made a little video. I made a little documentary about his wedding and his mom was there. And I got to talk to her.

I did a little interview. Rock's mom and dad. They're like super involved in wrestling. They're super close to so many different people like Rick Flair. Well, that broke it up now, but they've still lived in the same street. Who's broken up? The Rock's mom and dad. Oh, oh, okay.

Yeah, they live in the same street as the Rock down in Davy. But Rock bought all the homes for the family there. Where is that at? Down Davy. Where's Davy? South Florida, like Lord of Dale. Oh, okay. Yeah, anyhow, um

The mom and dad used to come to our restaurant When they had the The bushcrackers down under steakhouse And Dalmabry And they used to come there all the time Yeah And eat Why are there's

It seems like there's everybody lives in Tampa Every wrestler Why because of the weather, mate The weather sucks here It's so hot Fuck it's good They like it They like it's good

They don't know what it's like To live up north Yeah, that's true You have to put clothes on to go outside. You come inside, you have to strip off. When you go outside, you have to double up clothes. You have to double up everything. So is it because all these WW wrestlers, they've been exposed to every country, every city on earth,

and they've found that Tampa is by far the best. Yeah, and, you know, Florida, too. Just Florida, general. The tax laws and everything, too. The tax laws are way better here for sure. Yeah, the cheap, too. And if you go into bankruptcy, you still keep your home in your car. You know what I mean?

Hell yeah. Do a lot of wrestlers go bankrupt? No, I've been down there. The restaurant is a dead down, one or Dowel Mabry. I come back and it was three quarters of a million in debt. I went overseas and stayed up in the Middle East. This is after WWF. And I came back and it was $780,000 in debt.

I had to go bankrupt there. Who the hell did you have running that operation? No, there's only two people who had the, the, um, to the back door. And the time I got back, and they sent to me, everybody was coming in. We're open from 11 a.m. to 12 p.

at midnight, and they were going out and parted after midnight and partying on the strip. And that, you know, all the restaurants, the tini bars, down around there. And coming back, we sold lobster. Monzvino.

You know, filet and all that shit. And they were taking it out. Cube roll. slops the tails and drink in the alcohol. That's fucked up. Just party in there. They were going out of five. Because I went to the company who was doing the service for us,

and they gave me the sheets. And they said, this is what's been happening. Everyone had the key code. Anyhow, getting back to wrestling. So anyhow, that was that. That's crazy, man. Yeah, anyhow, after, you only come into the States, That's when I got into the booking side of it.

You know, my first territory is a booker. If you know what a booker is, the booker is the guy that runs the back of the house for the promoter. And that. The wrestling promoter does a promotion, books the arenas, has the television and does all that sort of stuff. You know, he doesn't, right, but the booker writes the television and books the talent

and lays out the matches and writes it, and writes a television show. And I started doing that in 83. And I did that right up until I went into WWE. And when I got out of WW, in 201, I went down to Puerto Rico and ran a company with IWA there to 208. And I had all Latins there. Hell, I am an English-speaking person,

and I had three Latins working for me. Oh, my gosh. And Puerto Rico? And it was Telemundo. First, we could have, we could, use other, we could use other music, you know, any music and that. And we could use, you know,

the rock songs and all that sort of stuff. And then Telemundo was bought out by NBC. And then we had to tighten the whole show up. You know, it had to, write on the second for, for commercial breaks. No, we had to buy, we had to buy generic music.

And they had to change the whole front of the thing. Who is the guy that got murdered in Puerto Rico? Bruiser Brody. Bruiser Brody. His wife is a Kiwi. I still talk to Barbara on the internet. You do, really?

His wife is from New Zealand, yeah. Wow. Yeah, Lanny was talking a little bit about that. Yeah, he was a good friend of mine. He drew a lot of money with me with Abdullah the butcher. Did he really? Yeah, Abdullah and him drew, they were the biggest stars in Japan ever. From what they say is that he was like a big time bully.

Like he bullied people a lot or he was like a big time. Well, that's, yeah. Not like in the ring, but like behind the scenes. He was like kind of a dick. and kind of a bully to people. That's what I've heard from like documentaries about him and that's... Yeah, well, that's a... I know him from a different point of view.

He was, well, when he went in... When he got booked to go work in the territory, he went there to get over as the bad guy. Yeah. And he got over straight away. Because if you don't get over, you don't draw any money. He was always main event. And that he always got to...

He was got to get over because the good guy's going to have someone to beat. You know, there's always a good guy in a... territory. The local good guy, you know what I mean? And you feed the bad guys to him all the time. Once a good guy, bad guy gets over, he has a good strong run, then he goes and you have to get another bad guy over, and the good guy stays there, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like Jerry Lawler stayed in Memphis all those years. Yeah, yeah. You know, I remember when the guy from taxi, he's dead. the guy from taxi came in and that and he was on the David Letterman show I don't know remember the show taxi

yeah I remember the show I don't remember who you're talking about though who was the mainstay Andy Kaufman Andy Kaufman he's the guy who came in a wrestled woman and that from New York and that and got over and that

and then he wasn't big and that but that he did a big program I was there when they did the bird Jimmy Hart was the main part of this too. Did he tell you about the Andy Kaufman thing? No. Oh, that was the big thing.

David Letterman came down. They did the whole big, they let him and show there. No way. Yeah, that's what they did, the burning and that. It was Kaufman.

It was a hell of an angle. An angle is a thing that you do to draw, to draw the houses down the line of that. Okay. Tell you, Lawler, did a big thing there.

Yeah. So what are you doing now? So what's next? So what's your future? What's the future for the Bushwacker? Well. For the Luke. To put my marching boots on and march for a while.

Just going to march into the sunset? No, no, I'm not marching into the sunset yet. No, I'm going back. Looks like I'm going to go back into the restaurant bar business. Are you really? Yeah. That's a tough business. Yeah, I know.

Tough business. Tough business. I know I've been there. The gym business also. I mean, you just got out of the gym business. Yeah, but that's, I got out of that because of the rent. You know, the guy, the plaza was sold.

And then my contract, these come up and that. And the rent was one and a half times when I grossed. Wow. God, damn. That doesn't work. The brown box is taking over that and the Japanese restaurant. Yeah. The brown box is going to put a stairway up into there from the...

Are you kidding me? So they're going to be two levels. No, I'm not kidding you, right? That's going to be insane. Yeah, they're putting a bowl. a bowling alley in games room up top no

down below down below yeah they're gonna dig a hole and go under me course they're putting a stairway up top and go straight up you're not gonna put a bowling alley

on the second floor are you many bowling I think they're gonna put a mini at games room you know like the tavern token that did shit on the south beach but they're gonna they've always had the idea Dave and Buster do it right

if they do it right spot for that, yeah. That would be pretty cool. Now, you know, taking... That place is fucking jam-packed every weekend. I haven't been down there in years. Now, you know that hallway there between the Japanese place and the gym. Oh, yeah.

That's closed, going to be closed off. Okay. And that elevator there, and they're putting a stairway, they're putting a stairway there down into, right into the... Brown Boxer. Wow, that's insane. So that's going to be... there's a, hey, that's going to be a big job there.

Big spot, yeah. It's going to be, at least, I'd say, a half a million to, it's going to be a million dollar job. Oh, yeah. So where are you working out now that you don't have the gym? No, I went there today to the, um, to Clearwater Beach Fitness. I sold the name and all the equipment. I sold to the media and all that stuff, everything.

Okay. So did them everything. Are you still working out there, though? Yeah, I worked out there today, but I've been going to, with Hulk to the goals on East Bay. With Hulk? Yeah. Okay.

Still hanging out with Hulk a lot? No, I haven't been hanging out with him, but I haven't seen him. You know, I've been on the road. Before the gym and that, but now I've got more time, and I'm looking to do something on the beach. I'm waiting for him to open up there too. See, but that's a long job. Open up what?

You know, Hogan's hangout. It's been sitting there really to open up for six months. I don't even know what Hogan's hangout is. On the corner, next to the brown boxer. In the same plaza? Well, they have the beach shop. You know, you know where the surf shop was next to the brown box shop? Oh, yeah.

Or Mandalay used to be. They've had that for three years. They've done it all up. It's really to open. And what's it going to be? It's Hogan's hangout. Is that going to be a bar? Hogan's hangout.

What are you doing? You fucking be walking and you hang out? What do you eat, drink? Okay, bar restaurant. Wow. That's going to be crazy. Upstairs is open. It's got inside out, outside.

What? It's already open? No. Oh. It's ready to open. I'm chomping at the bit. I want to go hang out with Hogan. Yeah, it's been ready to open for the last three months.

I don't know what the city's doing. You know what? The city's holding up. You know what? Claywater beaches. Yeah, they're paying the ass. That was three years in the makings. They started doing this three years ago.

Damn. You're behind time. What's going? So is he doing it by himself? I mean, who's he? Who's he got working with him on this? Is that all confidential? Or do you know, is he, like, working with somebody.

No, someone else's. He's just given his name. Exactly, right. Like, Hogan's Angus. Like Hogan's Beach. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

That'll be cool. I can't wait to check that shit out. It's already built and it's got the big signs up. Hogan's hangout and all that. That would have been perfect right next to your gym, man. That would have been so great right next to the gym. Yeah, right at the gym because it would have been good for traffic. That would have been great.

Yeah, but they would. This guy, as soon as he came in and bought the plaza, the word was he wanted to make it all games, all, you know, food restaurants and games, and that. He's got all those, you know, he's got the plane and all that stuff. Simulation, the simulator. He's about three or four of those places in that plaza now. There's three or four rooms there now. Really?

And there's a escape room. Yeah, the escape room. Yeah, they have the escape room. And there's, what's the name now, the Pokey Bowl place. And that's, there's another bar there where they make. Like all the slushy drinks. Okay. You know, what are they called?

Yeah, it's a, it's a tourist. It's a tourist plaza. Yeah, he's wanting to do that. He's wanting, so I got the message. Even though I told him when he first came there, I said, a gym was always good to have there because it brings people to the plaza and they spend, then they can eat and get the hair, all the bullshit. You know what I made?

Yeah, yeah. He wanted to get rid of me. I used to drive across town. I used to make a fucking 20 minute drive almost every day to go to that gym. I love going to that gym. Yeah, that was the last of it. And everyone around the country, it came there. They came in there and they always gave me good write-ups.

You know, it was a, I had a 4.9 and 5-star on Google, TripAdvisor. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. You had a great place. You ran that place right, that's for sure. Yeah, and it was 24 hours. Yeah, but that's it. Well, I'm sure the new restaurant bar will be, will be.

Yeah, it was already there. It was a guy, I'm trying to get rid of me, use my name. I'm doing the same thing. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Okay. That's smart. Where's that going to be at?

Well, I can't say until I'm positive. Stay out of the fucking bean counting and the liquor sales. Stay out of all that crap. Just rent your name out. I don't want to be doing the wages. You don't want to be in the business. The tax. Yeah, just license the Luke name and that's it.

That's it, mate. I want to do that. Well, cool, Luke. Thanks for coming out and sharing your stories and sharing your... I haven't told any good stories yet. I've just been telling you about my life. Let's get a good story. story. What's the best story from your rescue?

Tell me the wackiest, craziest fucking story you got. We'll end it with like a crazy fucking story that'll blow people's minds. I can't yet because I don't know how far I can go yet. No, this is a YouTube video, so you can go... Here's one. You can go so fucking far.

You know, in NWA we did a lot of towns in the south there. And you know, the southern cops in a lot of these little towns and that it was one town when we used to do TV in, I can't even think of the name of the town now, but we had to go through smaller towns to get to it, you know, do the TV there.

And the cops used to wait for the boys to come through it to give them tickets, you know what I mean? Right. It's one of those things. You're doing 65, 55, 45, and you come to near the town, it's 25, and then it goes down to 15. Anyhow, we go through that town. And then we pick up speed and get out of town.

And there's a ritey pipe of me and Butch who were drinking. And this is going back in early 80s, having a couple of toaks and that. A couple of toks, couple of bumps. Yeah, and then no, no bumps. No bumps. That was like the drug of choice back then, the cocaine. Yeah, and that. I heard some crazy cocaine stories wrestling.

I can tell you something too, but I don't want to tell it because people are still alive. Okay. Well, just use pseudonym names. anyhow we get on the road there we just get out out about 20 minutes away

and a guy had been following as we didn't know and now we put some speed up and that and we get pulled over and the fucking the cob was a real southern red neck cop and that

blah blah he says he says they're going to take you in your quarter doing I think it was 70 we're doing 70 and a 55 mile he says, and he took the driver, he said, follow me.

He says, one of you was coming, he put one of us in the police car, and one of us had, it was Roddy Piper driving. And we take us back to the little town, and he took us back to the courthouse. On the way, he's back to the courthouse, he called the judge. The judge gets up, and the time we get there, we're waiting our sides, the judge's home is next door to the little courthouse. It's one of these little towns, you blink as you go through it.

You know what I mean? You blink as you go through it. And we wait for him. He comes across from his home to the courtroom in dressing gown and slippers. He lets us in and we sit in front of the bench and that and blah, blah, blah, blah. And he finds Roddy right there and then so much. And if you don't pay it, then they take your license. so they hold your license there

until you pay it and you get your license back anyhow I don't know what happened whether he took the license but we scraped up between the three of us the fine I think or he took his license anyhow the hammer goes down

the fine pay we go to leave we go outside now he's sitting at a table like this right and it's best like that and about where Those things there's a window where you've got your other monitors there, maybe closer, half the distance. And he's sitting here, he's sitting at his desk about here, and there's monitors there.

We come around to that window there, and Roddy gets up and pisses all over the window. He turned around, he could turn just like that, and he could see the piss hitting the window. And I was freaking out. He didn't give a fuck. You know what I mean? And he was pissing. I can imagine if he just turned around and saw it, he'd come out. We would have been locked up that night.

Oh my God. That's fucking insane. Wow. All right, dude. Thank you. Thank you for the stories, Luke. That was awesome. I'm not a mild one.

I want to get some really good ones. Here's one then. We're up in Bangkok with Singapore. Yeah. And Boogie Street. You know, you sit down. Bougy Street's a market street during the day, and at night, it's market street. People walk it up and down, and there's market and restaurants, you know, little restaurants.

At night, the street's closed off. It's notorious in the world, this, and all the hookers and everybody else there is on Bougie Street, right? There's little tables. Guys don't own restaurants than that, but they put a little table out with four chairs. One guy might put one table out or two tables out, and that's how he makes a living. brings your menus from about four or five restaurants around. So you sit at his table and you order booze. He'll go and get it all someplace.

And he's got all the menus. You choose where or what menu and you sit at his table. It's like Uber Eats. He runs his restaurant. You know what I mean? Yeah. He runs the restaurant. Brings the menus over there.

Now he brings the menu with all the girls on it. Yeah. And there's all the trinkets, two on one. You know what I mean? And the live shows, the dog shows, the donkey shows and all that. And he brings the menu over. And we're looking through the girls and that. The menu of girls?

Yeah. And Bush's the one here. She doesn't look too bad. You know, we were living over there for $100 a week. We were living like kings, $100 a week. Where was it, Singapore? Singapore, yeah. This was 1969, I think.

and that 70, 69 and that was... What kind of girls were on that menu? She-mails and males and females and everything. Oh, shit. We were staying...

Damn. We were living at having an apartment overlooking the harbor because Singapore is a gateway to the east. All the container ships come in there. Anyhow, we're smoking this weed and my partner had never smoked tie stick before.

And that, this is a tie stick. Okay. Tie stick is, you squeeze the buds and the juice trips out of it. Sounds heavy. And that, oh, yeah, you hallucinate on it. We're sitting in the apartments and that, and it's all rank sliders, and there's a balcony, you're overlooking the harbor, and all the container trips, container ships are there,

and the lights are flashing on them, and that, and Butch thinks there's a war going on out there with all the lights flashing. We've got the big, you know, like you see in movies, the big wooden fans, The props are about, you know, this wide, the big wooden, they're like that, that wide, and they're like that, like that. And it's go, he's thinking there's helicopters coming in on us and everything. He's freaking out. Yeah, I'm just telling you how we were on the first time he smoked tie stick over there.

We was living on $3 worth of stuff a week. That's crazy. Eating, all our washing and food was cooked for us. Our washing was done every night. The clothes you take off, the housekeeper would come in early. By the time we got up, all our clothes had been washed what we wore the day before, we were living the life. Like kings over there.

Getting your hair, going in for a mass, to get your hair shampooed and that and hair done, you sit in a chair, the woman who'd massage your feet and clean your feet and massage your feet and trim your nails and all that, and then massage your head and, you know, shampoo, massage your head and your hands and trim your nails and that. And, and, um, you'd be high as the kites. You know how much I'd pay for that? $3. Oh, God, damn.

Yeah, this was unreal. And all the she-mails you could ask for. Anyhow, Butch points out this one on this menu and Bougy Street. And he says, that's who over there. And that, so we have a few drinks to that. We go over there and, uh, we take, we take these two girls home, right? Mm-hmm. Back to the apartment.

Yeah. Butch's wife doesn't hear this Anyhow We're up in the apartment All of our sudden I hear her scream And but says Fuck I've got a handful of fucking rocks

Oh no It was a guy It's got to get you Oh Beautiful tits Beautiful tits everything And then I says Fuck it

Turn her around And fuck her She's got big tits What did he do? Did he do it? I don't No. Oh my fuck.

Yeah, no, it's unbelievable. That's insane. You've lived one hell of a life. That was in Singapore. Bangkok is, you've heard about Bangkok, right? Yeah, that's just like the hangover movie. It's crazy over there, yeah. Yeah, that's a different live show.

I've seen donkey shows and all that sort of stuff. Really? Where the girl comes out and that, with a girl, and she can't get satisfied. then the guy comes out and then she can't get satisfied then they bring the donkey in the harness and it's got a little

and it's got a rubber band and like a little tube around it's John Thomas so it can't go so it can't go all the way in you you know what I mean? Oh my God and there's a harness

the donkey's in a harness you know what I mean she's in like this and they lower the donkey down Oh my God Oh, Holy shit Because it gets wild

In other countries I'm talking about I'm talking about in the 60s Yeah Oh yeah Anything probably went back then You know the girls from New Zealand The drag queens

Used from the New Zealand used to go over to Singapore And or you know Australia over Singapore And they get the cut and tuck done there You know cut and tuck That was done over there

years ago, the surgeons and that and get all the implants and all that sort of stuff. You know, the ones that working in Australia and New Zealand. When I was, now, I don't know if this is true or not, but can you, is it true what you used to tell me at the gym about the sheep?

Sheep. Were you joking with me about the woolly girls? The woolly girls, that's the woolly girls. What is that? If I was saying, sheep's pussy is the closest to a woman. They call them wool. The woolly girls?

Yeah, the woolly girls. The farmers say that? We were called, there's a bushfire sheep herders. We were called the sheep shaggers. The sheep shackers. So is it true? I don't know. I haven't shag one.

Oh, I thought you did. I believed you. No. Because you used to say, like, the tongues are green. I'm sure. Somebody doesn't. Yeah, tongues are green. That's it.

Yeah, you've got to get them in the morning early to kiss them before their tongues to get green from grazing. that's what we said all the people you know when we come in here when we come over this side of the world the people in the front seat will be driving us

and they say what language you talk they could understand me in Butch because we'd talk so fast in English you know what I mean now if you go over to if you go in the Caribbean and you go to Trinidad and Barbados

that's really pigeon English really pigeonish yeah you know but they talk so fast and that a friend of mine was down there we're working and that he and we're in a bar he says what are they sing what language they're singing is i said that's english couldn't understand any of it yeah yeah yeah just it's down with those islands i live i worked those islands for years trinidad barbatist jamaica and that really yeah sunfest i've been one sunfest And that was Bob Marley's son there then.

Okay. You know, the dad had died. He's a good bit of day, you know, that music, reggae music is big time. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. It's beach music. Yeah, definitely, yeah. That's where a lot of, that's where most music came from was reggae music.

And, you know that guy, too, Tequita, what's his name now? He's still around, he's 70 and he's still singing in bare feet. Tequila's. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, I forget who that is. You know, barefoot on the stage. He's still selling out of remits.

Jimmy Buffett? Yeah. Talking about Jimmy Buffett? Yeah. Margaritaville? Yeah. He's still, he's semi-gaggot, but that's beach music too. Oh, yeah.

He's still doing it. Yeah, but he's still selling out arenas everywhere. Oh, yeah, big time. He is big time. He's always, he's, he's fucking. That guy's got some money. Yeah, his voices cracked, but he has girls surrounding him now.

Beautiful girls singing harmonies. And he gets on that stage, knee brace and all, and jumps around. He's the guy who did it right when it comes to licensing your name for restaurants. That's a guy who did it right. He's got weed named after him in the dispensaries and stuff. Yeah. He's got his own brand of weed. Margaritaville weed?

I forget the name of it. Yeah, it is. That's wild. What was it like being around like Andre and Hulk back then in the prime and stuff? Oh, Andre was, we were like, he, Andre looked down. to me and Butch. As I said, we come from New Zealand, and he comes to New Zealand and well before he came to the state.

Yes, you knew him a long time before. Yeah, he took, he made sure that we were always taking care of, Andre, he was good to us. Really? And his last match for WWE, he's in our corner. If you go to WWE on crutches, yeah. And if you go online, WWE's last match, he's doing a promo, Andre and the Bushwhackers. Yes, he's his last promo.

Yes. Yeah. Yep. I watched that earlier. Yeah, Andre was always good to us. Hulk's always, Hulk's when it got me to move here. Really?

Yeah, to California. No, I would, I'd been, lived in Florida before on, over in Hillsborough. Hillsborough Avenue on Hillsborough River. On the, Hillsborough River, just off the, Hillsborough Ave, you know, Hillsborough, yeah, yeah, where the river is. I lived just in apartments there, 7980. When I come here, he lived on Madeira Beach. and I lived on Indian shores

because Madeira Beach bus onto Indian shores and there was a... Harry, where, Rick Flair lived on Indian Rock Shore in New Rocks too. Yeah, karaoke place there. There used to be a karaoke place there and that just when you come off the bridge,

Park Boulevard, and you take a left and there was a bar on the left. Friendly tavern. Friendly tavern, yeah. Yeah, well, I lived, as you come over the bridge, I lived right in front of them the water there. I lived in Shore House.

Okay. The first one is you come over to go to Craby Bulls that way. The first home is the road, you go straight in and drive under my place. No way? I lived there for 15 years. Holy shit. I bought the place, and I got off at $800,000, and fuck, I didn't take it, waiting for the million. And then I went down Puerto Rico.

I went down there to run a territory for a guy for eight years, and the fucking thing dropped to $2.20. Damn. You know when that way. Don't tell me you sold it back when it went down. to 220. Ah, no, I had drawn on as a bad, as a bad, I don't want to tell the story there. Bad story. I lost everything.

Oh, fuck. Because I bought other properties, and I wasn't a way, I wasn't awake to win the, when, when it went to a wait, when that went, bang. Yep. I fucked over a lot of people that year. A lot of people. A lot of people lost their shirt. Yeah. That's crazy.

Well, cool, Luke. I think it's a good time to wrap it up. It's been about two hours. No, you're joking. Almost. It's been an hour of 45. You're joking. No.

We're cruising. We're cruising through this shit, man. We're telling stories. It's time to fill the boiler. Yeah, it's time to go out and fill the boiler. I got to fill the boil. I'm fucking starving, Luke. I got to go fill my boiler up.

Yeah, with some grub. With some grub and some grub. Filled the drum. Yeah. Cool, Luke. Well, thanks again, man. Okay, mate. It's good to be here, mate.

Thanks for coming. And what's the name of the podcast? Concrete podcast. Concrete Puzzis, and I've got a daughter who has a, who's just opened up, um, Instagram, it's D.D. Bushwaker Arts. She's 11 years of age, and she's an artist. She's your daughter? Yes. Wow. So, um, she, she's a great self-taught artist, and she's been doing it since she's seven, six or seven, and they had some great art. So it's, What's the name again?

What's the Instagram name? D.D. Bushwacker Art. Okay. Yep. I'll have to check that out. Yeah, we'll put it in the week. And I will be to... In Halloween, I've got to check this out here.

What the for? I'll be a spooky empire on the first and second of November over in the convention center in Tampa. Okay. Oh, right. Spooky Empire. When is that? November, would you say second? First and second.

First and second. It starts on the 31st. The same day as Halloween. All right. Spooky Empire. They usually do it in Orlando this year. They're doing it in Tampa. Usually draws a lot of people.

Hell yeah. We'll have to come check that out. Yeah, definitely. Cool. All right, Luke, Luke the Bushwhacker, baby. Whoa. Just going off to whack some bush guys. See you down the road.