Sportskeeda interviewed Bushwhacker Luke to promote his upcoming book, “The Bushwhackers: Blood, Sweat, and Cheers.”
Luke discusses getting the book published:
“The Kickstart we had went off like a bomb. We had people coming in very fast and we did very great. We did very good on the Kickstart and now we’re going worldwide with Amazon.”
John Crowther, the book’s author, discusses how he became involved in the project:
“I grew up a fan of pro wrestling back in the 70s, which kind of dates me a little bit. I grew up in Florida here in the United States, and a big fan of Championship Wrestling from Florida. As a kid, I remember Luke and Butch coming in to Florida, not as the Bushwhackers, but actually as the Sheepherders. For those who don’t know a lot about their background, you can read a lot about it in the book, but they were one of the most vicious tag teams ever to step foot in a ring when they appeared as the Sheepherders throughout many of the NWA territories, so I was a big fan of theirs from that time. Then a few years ago, I actually started writing comics. So I was a comic book writer. Writing for such publishers is Heavy Metal magazine and Antarctic Press. I decided to start doing some biographies on pro wrestlers in comics which led to Luke and I getting into a discussion about writing, which I kind of laughingly call a real book and we did the Bushwhackers autobiography. So it’s 372 pages of amazing stories that cover their entire 50 years in the ring.”
“Every Wednesday night, kind of like what we’re doing right now for about a year and a half, Luke, and Butch and I would go on a live broadcast like this, just the three of us with Butch actually in New Zealand. We would talk for about two hours or so, I’d record it, and we would talk wrestling and about their lives leading through their entire careers. As they would tell me stories and bring up different men and women from their, you know, career, whether it be like a Jerry Brisco or Hulk Hogan or Rip Rogers, I mean, it goes on and on, I would jot down their names and make it a point to reach out to these individuals, and that’s what I did. So there’s about close to 25 different wrestlers spanning their entire careers that have contributed stories or quotes or memories to the book. So it’s kind of cool to kind of flip through the pages, and as you hit those periods of their life where they first encountered these people, you’ll see them hop in there. I mean, we’ve got Terry Funk, Typhoon, Tugboat, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Bill Alfonzo and it goes on and on. Steve Keirn, Brian Blair, all these guys are all in there.”
Bushwhacker Luke on Pete Dunne:
“I met him on an independent show. One hell of a worker, he’s one hell of a hand. He’s about 190-200 pounds but one hell of a worker.” On his thoughts on Dunne using the name Butch, he said, “Yeah, that’s fine with us. I came up through the ranks and people helped me. When we came to North America we were already a proven team…I like to see talent coming up and getting a break. I thought that he would stay in NXT because of his size. They brought him up into a great situation.”
You can watch the complete interview below:
(h/t to Wrestling News for the transcription)
