Insight with Chris Van Vliet - The Bushwhackers on licking people's faces, returning to wrestling, WWE Hall of Fame

Episode Date: February 16, 2021

Luke and Butch, The Bushwhackers chat with Chris Van Vliet. They talk about their plans to return to wrestling, getting inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame, who came up with their gimmick, the famous people they have licked, going from being The Sheepherders to The Bushwhackers, their opinion on current tag team wrestling, Luke's famous elimination at the 1991 Royal Rumble and much more!The Bushwhackers are currently accepting bookings and you can contact them at [e-mail]   If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.   For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to https://chrisvanvliet.com  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram:instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter:twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook:facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube:youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast episode is brought to you by Coors Light. These days, everything is go, go, go. It's nonstop hustle all the time. Work, friends, family. Expect you to be on 24-7? Well, sometimes you just need to reach for a Coors Light because it's made to chill. Coors Light is cold-loggered, cold filtered, and cold package. It's as crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies.

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If it's your first time here, I'm Chris Fahm Fleet. I'm an Emmy Award-winning TV host, and I'm fascinated with finding out how people are wired to achieve greatness. On each episode of the show, we have in-depth conversations and reverse engineer the habits and techniques of the world's top athletes, actors, entrepreneurs. How about one of the greatest tag teams of all time? Yeah, you name it. If they're the best at what they do, I want to get their insight so we can apply it to our own lives.

And it's hard to argue that the Bushwhackers are one of the greatest tag teams in all of wrestling, which is why they're WWE Hall of Famers. And it was great to spend some time with Luke and Butch for this. And interestingly, Luke was in Tampa, this. Butch was in New Zealand and I actually think Butch on the other side of the planet had a better internet connection than Luke did.

You'll see what I mean here. Share this episode with someone who needs some positivity in their life because there is so much positivity radiating from the Bushwhackers. Take a screenshot. Tag me. I'm at Chris Van Fleet on social media. And the Bushwhackers are currently accepting bookings.

You can contact them at Bushwacker Brand at gmail.com. And if you're listening to this right now and you haven't subscribed yet, take a second to subscribe wherever you're listening. And I know you've heard me mention it before, but it really does help this show so much when you leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

This one is from Colonel Knows All in Australia. He says, Chris Van Vleet is such a legend. He really connects to the modern wrestling audience in a way that no other influencer does. I feel like I know the guests on a deeper level and hence feel more invested in them, after each show. Well, thank you, sir.

Thank you, Colonel knows all. Please keep those reviews coming in. The goal is 2,000 reviews before my birthday. Kane's least favorite day, May 19th. Yep, that's my birthday. We still need about 300 more to get to that. So 300 more in three months, I think we can do this. It's totally possible.

And I will love you forever and give you the best high five ever when I see you next if you could just leave a review. Now please welcome the legendary Luke and Butch, the Bushwhackers. The weather is beautiful. And here I am up with my mates and talking to Chris. Yay! I love it. Luke here.

I'm in Clearwater Beach, Florida, and Tampa Bay. And the weather has been cold here. and we've got the Super Bowl of the Sunday. Luke, cold in Florida is like 75 degrees, isn't it? It is. You know. It was 75 a few days ago, and we've got the cold weather coming from the north. It's 50 degrees high.

We're having a 50 to 60 degrees high. So, but you're in New Zealand right now, and you'll have to forgive me, you guys, probably for the first 15 years of my life, me, like a lot of other people, thought you guys were from Australia. I'm so sorry. Oh, don't worry, mate. They did that all the time.

And a lot of Americans, and there's even people, believe it or not, in Britain, that used to think New Zealand was part of Australia. They didn't even know where a bloody was on the map. So at least us been in the wrestling business for over 40 years, at least we have helped

to put New Zealand back on the map again. Well, you guys are some of the most famous people from there. Yes. And another way, too, mate, we sort of, after hearing called Ozzy's all the time, we just used to say the bushwhackers from down under. Ah, that makes sense. So the bushwhackers are coming back. Tell me how this is happening.

It's such a person. It's such a long story. and because we got, the fitness wasn't how we wanted it. I got really sick. Luke came back and found me on my deathbed, was set to see me blowing up like a blue. Everything inside me completely poisoned. Luke ran the ambulance.

This is I'm cutting it short. I died a couple of times on the way. They kept me alive and I kept on going out. Then it took me ages to get back. Same thing happened in 2008. I had another repeat. Down I went again. This time my wife went the ambulance.

She saved my ass. They got me back again. They woke me out. Took me out of the bloody. Pulled me just as I was going through the heavenly clouds. Pulled me back down again. That God was about the fires. Anyway, and then for many years, I've been in the sharing sheds getting mended.

You know, they've been doing this. doing that, getting this fix, get that fixed. And the people have showed me nothing but love. Tums of love. So Luke and I want to give some of that love back to people, especially with this horrible virus going around. So we thought a lot of people know the bushwhackers. Hardly anybody of those people know the sheep herders.

Let's do it all. Let's give them some bushwhackers, some sheep herders, some sheep whackers. some sheep whackers, some bush herty. We'll do it all when it doesn't matter. Whatever they want, we'll give it to them. So we're ready to travel again, to do some match and plenty of stomping, and a lot of, whoa, and yay! If the virus is over, we'll be back to give them a bloody good bushwacket licker.

Yay! Luke, is the plan for you guys to work matches together? No, no, I'm in the ring still, mate. Yeah. I've been lucky. The man upstairs has kept me mobile. I've replaced a few parts, but I've been mobile and that and that. I'm going to be in the ring.

If they want us in the wrestling event, I'm in the ring, which is on the outside, and if it gets out of hand, which will be whacking them with the New Zealand flagpole. The sheepherder, the sheepherded days when we were violent and vicious, one of the most hated teams in North America, that will be coming back. If they get a hand, butch will be hitting them with a flagpole. And it's not,

the pole's not a piece of wood. It's a piece of steam pipe. I don't want no one beating on my cousin Luke. So I'll have to do anything I can to protect my cousin and my mates and my wrestling partner for bloody there 50 years. You know, you can't think of the Bushwalkers,

without thinking of the face licking, the head licking. And in this time that we're living in right now, I unfortunately think that you guys can't do that anymore. Hey, we will have to put a limit on that, mate. Mate, there's a lot of people that have put, got photos of bush licking me and that and put them up on Facebook, and it's got the bushwhackers gave the start of the spread of the virus, and it's got bush licking me.

All because of you guys. And, mate, I've even, I've even licked President Clinton's pussycat. And we went to the White House for an Easter air hunt and for the kids, because we used to do a lot of that as the bushwhackers. We'd go to hospitals and go through Cancer Awards and cheer up kids and make a wish. And we're doing all sorts of things like that. One time they sent us to the White House and all the kids are there. and we're doing our, whoa, yay.

Next minute out comes to security with this cat on a leash, not a dog, but a cat. Because I love animals. And they said, oh, this is President Clinton's daughter's cat. And I forgot the name of the bloody cat. And it was a lovely cat. I said, would you mind if I picked that cat up? And, of course, they were bushmaker fans. They said, no, go ahead, mate.

So I picked up the bloody cat. And I get about a good old bushwhack and slime right from one side of its furry end to the other side of it's very end. I did not go below the tail. That I can assure you, Ash, I kept up high and much the head. Well, they laughed, and it was on the, it was on a wrestling magazine on the front page. They blew it up, and not only did I wrestle them, I mean, lick him, I've licked Vince McMahon, I've licked his son, I've licked his daughter. I've licked his wife.

George Steinbrenner. George Steinbrenner. George Steinbrenner. The owner of the Yankees has had a good hit from Bushwagabooch. Was there ever someone that when you lick them, they were like, what are you doing?

This is disgusting. No, they all sort of knew. Even though once they got slime, they would usually pull a face. But they just went along with it, believe it or not. But as you said, if you did it right now today, oh my God, I'd be arrested.

I'd be arrested. I'm sure that's how I ended up with that septuania. I'm sure some of them, because some of them didn't taste that bloody good, Ash, I'll tell you that. Ash, I spread the word around that Bush and let President Clinton's Fussick. they're Clinton's pussy so everyone they had to laugh at that because they took it

the other way and I did I did look as pussy but his pussy cat I would be remissed if I didn't ask you about your time on family matters because for me I love family matters I loved wrestling to see the merging of the two worlds for me

was so amazing yeah we had a great time there mate that was just fantastic They were huge Bushwaker fans, huge Bushwaker fans. So they'd got in touch with the WWF then and Prince McMahon and arranged for us to go and do a show. We actually spent three and a half days making that show.

They take you in and then you do rehearsals, without any audience. Then they bring in an audience. Then you do it live and blah, blah, blah, blah, right? So they bring us in and we're going to wrestle. They said, are you guys okay with this to wrestle Steve Erkel and his uncle? I forgot his uncle's name. I was a Steve Erkel fan as well.

Carl. Yeah. You freeze as well. Sorry, Luke what? No, we're good. You were freezing. The picture was freezing. Oh, yeah.

So they absolutely loved this happening us there. So now we get a few moves and we decide the two things we're going to do. So the first rehearsal, there's a stunt woman who's going to be sitting in the racetrite and they've got a sort of made up. And when we, you know, get the hand from New Zealand with a combined way to blah, blah, blah, look at the bushwaggers and the music hits. And we come marching out. And when there was an audience, they went crazy.

But so we're making out that there's an audience. All of a sudden, she pops up in front of us. So me, being stupid again, I grabbed her, and I gave her this huge big licking right over her face. Little that I know that she had this special makeup on, that it must have done something. And I was allergic to it, and my whole throat closed up completely. So now

because I don't want to ruin the taping, you know. So I'm going, we're doing the whole match and one time with me hardly even been over the pre, leave alone yell. So I said to look, oh gee, after it was over,

I actually went outside and was sick. So the next day, we're going to do the show. They bring in the live audience. They're all sitting around. Now they play the music. They make the announcement. They play music out we come again we're marching away now the audience are there live making a hell of the noise so me i'm carried away up jumps this woman i don't even think about what happened the day before

i grabbed this lovely woman and i grab her and i give her the biggest looking right over that bloody face and again wow jesus my knees started bloody buckling and i was was bloody there sick on the spot. My throat completely closed up. And now I thought, oh God, now you've done it. And I sort of tried to say something to loop, but I couldn't talk properly. We did that whole match with me like that. And that's how it was.

And it turned out we had a lot of fun. I did have to go out and spew again straight away. But boy, I'd do that again if I was to have the fun that we had. to get the response that we had. And people absolutely loved that show, just like you, Ash. They loved it. And you, your words in that, you had to say three words. I hate cops.

Yeah. Yeah. That's the only three words, luckily I had to say. And what a job I had to say. You guys were so incredibly popular in the 90s. And I'm really curious, Luke. Was there ever talk of turning the butchwhackers heel during your run? No, there wasn't.

We suggested the end when the booking slowed down in 1996, and he suggested to Vince about turning to heels. And that said to us, you are over so strong as baby faces, the people won't accept it. Yeah, he said, any other team, we can do. do it with them. We've done it with many teams, but he said, you guys are so over that we don't need to do that at all with you, but we'd be wasting our time, and they wouldn't, they wouldn't accept it at all. Same as with our tag team belts, even though we were supposed to have the

tag team belts a couple of times, then said, you guys, what do you need the tag team brooks for? They love you. They can't love you any more than that. So, you know, I mean, and the noise The noise, ash, that are the greetings that we got and the greetings that they'd give us in the airports, wherever they saw us. They'll be tapping us on the shoulder, some guy in a business suit, briefcase going through the airport, and you want to say, listen, guys, I don't want to hold you up, I know you're in a hurry. I just want to say, thank you so much for entertaining me and my whole family, my wife, my

children, my parents, you and Luke, make us all watch that TV and we all get our sets of achievement and we get satisfaction out of watching you guys. And every time we're there, we love you guys and we can't switch it off. You've got us hooked. You've got us hooked. So what can you say to that? You can't say anything. As you mentioned, You guys were so, so over in WWF. I'm really curious if WCW contacted you guys after you were released from WWF. No, no. But we were released and we never, we were at WWF guys.

We'd worked for that company before, you know, WCW. That was in, NWA. We were, which NWA became WCW when Turner took over. and that we were there and we were working with the twin towers. We just started an angle with the twin towels that was Lex Lugar and Barry Windham at the time and called from Vince.

And, you know, NWA was a wrestling company, you know, pure wrestling. But WWF, you became a single. You know, and we'd be a sin. It was a different trailer. You know, you're in the NWA. way around, they didn't know you like they do in WWE or WWF. That's how it was

in the 80s. You know what I mean? It was amazing how, it's amazing what a change it was. We went on shows that we never thought we'd go on and that a sportsman dinners and different functions, toy functions. You know, where they have all the companies and all the toys and all the media from around the world coming to buy stuff. We went to these things and it was Vince got us into a lot of other things apart from wrestling.

By watch, by watch as well. Yes. Yeah. I mean, the Bushwackers was so incredibly popular, but also so different from your original gimmick as the sheepherders. So when you came in the WWF, was it Vince's idea to turn you guys baby face and also make your characters vastly different from what we had seen before?

Not a like that guy had looked. Yeah, he gave us to Nenei Farni Fathers. We saw Vince and then we went home and then the contracts arrived and the But he said we got some contracts but they must have sent them to the wrong thing. It's got the bushwackers and then I said to Bush, Vince wants to own us anyhow. He said I want you between the moon dogs and the sheep herders. The sheep herders have been on Ted Turner's network off and on. for eight years,

for eight to ten, nine years since 79. We've been working on TBS. And then the Moondogs had been on USA network for about five years. And Boch said to me, hey, we've got to create something different.

Hence, we came up with that whole gimmick. Yes. Who came up with the walk? Well, I did because I've always walked. a bit strange anyway as I was born with pretty screwed up feet to be honest. If I had to be the horse, they would have shot me.

I'd like to run. And I can't go, but I'm very good at going. Baa, bah. And I can't say that too loud because as soon as Luke hears that, he gets very excited. But so I've always swung my arms a little bit as a heel and a When I first started wrestling, Luke had a, he had the pretty boy, gorgeous George. And he was sweet William or gorgeous Teddy Williams. So he had that time. I mixed my type of crazy type of style in with his, and we became sweet William and the brute,

and then we came sweet William and crazy Nick Carter. and he used to take me to the ring, lead me to the ring on a collar and chain, on a leash. And by the time we got to the ring and I'd be pulling and I'd be, and running at the people and running through the chairs of ringside, the time we got to the ring, I was bloody blowing up. And we had to have the match yet. So, Luke, isn't the right thing again. That's where it really started.

My style was born from the Sweet William. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clevenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claimant, and they want to be on that World Cup roster.

There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are. The US Soccer Podcast, presented by Hencoe, follow and listen on your favorite platform. Crazy Nick Carter, and we missed that. I could not do Luke Skimmer because I was everybody used to say, why don't you try and do it Luke Skipper can be a pretty boy? And I'd say, mate, one, look at my face, two, I'm too butch.

And they all used to tell me that. All the guys who were a bit gay, I say, well, look, how come you, your boys out the loop, but not me as a joke? And I say, butch, you're too much. We had the beauty and the beast coming, and people bought it very, the beauty and the beast. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Is there something interfering with your happiness or is preventing you from achieving your goals? BetterHelp will assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist.

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So the special offer for anybody listening to Insight right now, is 10% off your first month. Just go to betterhelp.com slash insight. That's betterhelp, help.com slash insight. You know, the Royal Rumble was just, you know, the other day. And it's hard to think about the Royal Rumble without thinking of your elimination, Luke. And I'm curious, curious to know what the original plan was going into that, because was that the plan or did you just kind of roll with it?

No, no, it was They said we only watch it in for a short time So this is funny Butch is already out there Butch is already out there for 20 minutes I march out, get up on the apron Step in, Earthquade grabs me Takes me across the other side of the ring

And I throws me out and I keep marching back Now I was only in the ring for four seconds Fitch was in the ring for another five or six minutes Tell him, Bush. Yes, I ask. By the time he comes and marching out and marches through the ring and marches back,

I'm Gassman for breath again. I've been out there for about 20 minutes. A battle royal, you can't stand around. It's a very hard match because you've got a lot of cameras picking you up from all different places. You don't know which camera's on you, so you can't stand there

with your finger up your nose if you know what I mean. So you've got to be. got to keep on moving. So Luke comes in, doesn't say he goes out. He gets a hell of a pot, right? A hell of a pop. No one's caring what's happening to me in the bloody ring.

So now I'm ready to march out after him. I think, oh, God, I can just match it. But I can't because I've got another five minutes. I've been in there for about 20. Oh, God, I was so pissed off. So now I get on going, when it was my turn to go out, over the top. I come marching back

and I got a hollering and I said to you dirty bugger how am I being out there sweating and bloody killing myself and you just walk through like you get your feet wet and walking through the pool and going straight through

and they always remember that they don't remember what I did in the ring they can't even remember me being in the effing ring but they remember that about Luke and the thing that pissed me off the most When we got paid about a week and a half, two weeks later, we both got the same money. He got the same as me for spending four seconds going through the arena.

And I'm made up myself, my body and everything for the same amount of money. So we've had many laughs about that. We've drank many bears at many bars talking about that. And the fans have never ever forgot that, as you said. They've never forgot it. Excuse me, mate. There's a highlight I'd like to mention that it will be remembered for our lives in the business, apart from going in the Hall of Fame and that was going into the Wembley Stadium

for the last show ever in the old Wembley Stadium before they pulled it down. and it was a, I think it was a SummerSlam, 90. Yes. And that, Dougan was our partner. We were, the people have been waiting inside 90s, 94,000. And then we were the first match. Tell them, Butch. Oh, yeah, you keep on going in and out.

Look, I don't know if it's coming over or not. This is what happens in COVID. It's okay. We're rolling away. No worries, mate. So, now it's. Hector Jim Dagan and the Bushwackers against the nasty boys

and the Mountie Jacques. And so they decide... Jacques Rujo. Jacques Rujo. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Chuck Rucho. And what they're going to do, they're going to put us on first because they want us to pick the people off. They want us to start the show and get them moving.

And they wanted to set on fire right from the staff. So they play our music. Next minute they do the announcement, you know. From New Zealand, so out about Slook and I, 96,000 people Ash all stood up and started marching. 96 people, 1,000 people are swinging their arms. 96,000 people are screaming at the top of the head and following us as that saw Jim Duggan

with his USA flag. And he's got his big, hank of four platoon, hanging over his shoulder. And they're poppet even more. We all get into the ring, and Luke and I, we get Haxhaw to bend over. We rub Haxor's head. We both bend over. Haxor gives us a rubbing of our heads. Then we point to one of the ropes.

We all march, push-warker style, even dugging, to one of the ropes. And I started off and I go, whoa. And then Luke gets death. And he goes, yeah. And then to finish it off, Haxaw Duggan comes out, pokes his chest up. And he goes, ho! So we went, we did that as from rope to rope to rope. and they were going absolutely crazy.

And unfortunately, we still had to start the match because we're all getting carried away with us. The noise was just definitely. And the match carried on, and that noise stayed the whole time the match was on. It was unbelievable. And what a kickoff it was to that particular night in Wembley Stadium. A tremendous, tremendous night.

You guys are so legendary with what you've done as a tag team. And I'm really curious to know what you think of the current state of tag team wrestling. Courage state will make, they haven't got the teams. When we were there, it was quite a few teams, you know. We had demolition. We had the Rockers. We had 92, the roadwalk. And then there was the Blonkin.

The Braine brothers. The Brains brothers. And then came the nasty boys. We had a lot of tag teams. Today there's only a few tag teams. They've got the champs. They're colored and then they've got New Day and they've got a couple of other teams. Vince has never done the end.

Vince has never done the emphasis on the tag teams like his dad did. You know, back in those days just before we come, the tag teams were made events. But Vince, when we were there, Vince would put Hogan with Randy for a main event. He would put Hogan with a warrior. You know, to me, the tag team and the psychology is gone. Hmm. What would...

They go. It seems to be the trouble has. They're very good wrestlers for what they do. They look great and they're fit as a fit as hell. They haven't got the chance to get the experience. We had all, like when Vince opened up, as Luke and said, he took the top color from every territory, some from the Carolinas, some from where in New York,

some from Bill Wattsas and Mid-South, some from Texas. AWA. They've done main events. Everybody had been made events at all these territories. So it was made event from the first match to the last match. Everybody on that car had worked made event. But these guys today, unfortunately, they don't have those territories.

It's not their fault. They're just not open anymore. So they have to come from their training camps and things. and they've got to learn basically just amongst themselves. So they don't have the opportunity to gain that early experience that we had and they're still gaining it as they wrestle now, even though some of the moves that they do, and there's such good athletes.

We couldn't do some of the moves that they do, but unfortunately some of them do them when they really, it's not time for it. But that's to do with experience. Knowing what you guys know now with the legendary careers that you've had, if you could go back and give the younger version of yourself a piece of advice as you were breaking into the business,

what do you think you would tell yourselves? I think that's what it did it for us. Because we came from such a small country like New Zealand, we'd never seen wrestling on television because there was never known of New Zealand. And because we didn't think we had a chance of ever even wrestling around the world, leave alone going to America and joining these unbelievable franchises around the place, to ending up superstars at WWE. If we hadn't realized that then,

we would have said, oh, bullshit, it can't be done. But the Kiwis, because we're born from New Zealand, and when you give us a chance, we're all hard workers in New Zealand. We set, we lifted the standard of the pace and our workahological ability, and we lifted it when we went to the US, and we lifted it again when we went to WWE. And the whole pace picked up with us. And it's part of our nature.

It's part of being in New Zealand. It's to do with Edmund Hillary, the first man to ever fly Mount Everest. It's the same thing. We've got that drive building us and we give it 100%. And if we did it again, I'm sure we would do it the same way. We were always honest. We never screwed any promoter. We always gave 110%.

And we kept to our word and we kept faith with each other. They tried to switch as many times and get one of us to turn on the other. And we said, no, we're a tag team. We're partners. We're in this together. We're in this for the long run. Let's see where it takes us. And we realized we had reached the pinnacle in 2015

when we got brought into the WWE Hall of Fame. That was the top of the mountain. That was how we think Hillary must have felt. when that flag was flying next to him, and he stood there the first man to conquer. And we were the first men from down under, from New Zealand, from Australia, from the end of the world, to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and be inducted by our own peers in the world professional wrestling.

We were going to get inducted into that just before this virus. hit. And we were picked by our own peers, the top of the talent, to be the greatest tag team ever of the modern era. That is yet to be to put on us. But we have, we have been picked and we will be inducted when they allow it to happen. Would you give yourself, any advice early on that would change something for you? No, not really, mate. Hey, it was a long road. You know, we've been together from 66 and that we were lucky.

You know, we started New Zealand and Jim Barnett, the gentleman at own WCW, he was in Australia. And this was when the Vietnam War was going on. And that we'd go to Australia and we'd work with some of the, Americans. So we were lucky. When we came over to, we were brought over here by two Canadians, the Vashon's, Morris and Bouch Fichon. You ever heard of them, mate? Well, I related to Luna Vichon, right? Yes, that's her daughter. That's Paul's, that was Paul's daughter, Butch and Vichon. And they had a company in Montreal, and we didn't know this at that time.

They were running three towns a night. And there was another promoter the Rujos in Quebec, too. And Gilakowovsky was the main villain there who had known from Australia. And the top baby face, good guy, was Andre the Giant. Now, this was 1972. 1990, Andre spent three months in New Zealand and Butch and me worked against them all around the country. in New Zealand. So when we got there, we had those two guys who took care of us. And of course, we got a good push at the start. It was Sweet William and the brute, I led, and

the Brute was chains to crazy Nakata. I led Butch around on a chain. And one of the other towns, you know, there was sweet towns a night. And one of the other towns, we were one of the main tag that have a single main and then I have a tag. And we would be one of the other towns. And we would be one those matches. And there was a lot of great guys there, you know, a lot of names from all over the world. We didn't know until later that was the hottest spot in North America at the time. Toronto, Maple Leaf Gardens, and Quebec. That's where I'm from. I'm from Toronto. I'm good. I'm up there all the time. I'm up there at Toronto all the time, mate. George Chabalo is a good friend of mine. Wow. You're probably there more than I am. I live in California now. You're probably there more than I am now.

Well, I haven't been since the virus, mate. I was there in February last year, but for some trade shows. I was selling television for a company there. And with Quebec, people from Quebec and Ontario were coming to buy programming. And that was my last time up there. But I talked to my friends there all the time. Well, as we wrap this up, Butch, we started this interview talking about, you know, you were having some health issues and, you know, you got called back from almost being in heaven. We're so glad that you didn't finish that journey. How are you feeling now, Butch? I'm feeling a box and flumby's mate. As I said, they've given me, they've given me a grease.

They've given me an oil change. And I'm ready to go. I'm feeling great. Thank the Lord. and thank everybody that got me here. It's time to show some love. It's time to say, thank you guys. Because without the fans, the sheep herders, the bushwhackers, the Kiwis, and nothing.

It's the fans that made us and led us on. And they let us on in the incredible journey I've already told you about. And so, mate, we've got to say, thank you guys. We've got to show them that we're still doing it. We're still whacking it. We're still romping and stomping. And we just want to see them. And trust me, if the virus is around, stay clear of me.

Because unfortunately, I still have that licking craziness that I can't. If they want to, mate, Ash, if they want to get hold of this, they have to go to Bushwhacker Brand at gmail.com. Bushwhacker brand at gmail.com. There we go. I look forward to seeing you guys whacking it up out there. We're in California. We have a push. We have that book on.

We'll start with Butch and then we'll end with Luke. Okay. Hey, we've got our book coming out here. And it's called, it's a Bush Writers' Book will be up this year. And it's going to be called Bloods, Wet and Cheers, the Bush Wangers. And in that, as you are going to be laughing, crying, everything. Boy, oh, boy, we've got some tales that have never been told, shouldn't be. be told and tons and tons that are going to be told.

Exactly, mate. And we're looking forward to that book coming out, and we're looking to tour around the country. So just go to Bushwacker Brands at gmail.com. Gentlemen, this was a pleasure. Thank you so much, and thank you for all of the memories. I just want to acknowledge you for some of my fondest childhood memories as a wrestling fan were me walking around.

my house doing this. So thank you guys so much. Hey, mate. Thank you. You better cut the short mate and get back in the gym and pop those arms up. I know. They're looking a little small, aren't they? That's impressive.

Good on you, mate. Hey. Good on you, mate. I owned a gym up to a year ago. And that on Clarewater Beach, Florida. And with a holster training there, four days a week. And it was great times.

Hey, I go to the gym four or five. Bush still goes to the gym. And that four times a week, that's the way to stay healthy. Look forward to seeing you guys back in the ring. I can't wait. Thank you, mate. Thank you. Good to see you.

To see you as good. See you, mate. Yay! And it's out from Bushbackaloo. Yo! Yay! Amazing. Thank you guys so much.

And congratulations. I'm so glad that you're back. Thank you, sir. We appreciate it. And I'm going to hit this. We appreciate you having us on your program. There we go. Luke and Butch, the Bushwhackers.

Man, those guys can tell a story. And their energy is just so high and so positive. Share this with a friend who needs some positivity in their life. Take a screenshot, tag me on social media so I can say hello. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And like they said at the end there, they're accepting bookings, and you can email them at bushwhacker brand at gmail.com.

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JR. It's up there with shows from ESPN and Fox Sports and Barstool Sports. So thank you. Thank you for being on this ride with me. And let's just keep growing together. As Mary Kay Ash once said, don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you go. Whatever you believe, remember, you can achieve. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do with rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air.

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