Bushwhacker Butch One Tough Son of a Gun

New Zealander Bushwhacker Butch, a member of one of pro wrestling’s most beloved tag teams, has died in Los Angeles after arriving for public appearances around WrestleMania 39. He was 78, Joseph Staszewski reports for New York Post.

“This past weekend in Los Angeles, Bob flew in from New Zealand to join me for Wrestlemania weekend and the related festivities, neither of us knowing it would be our last days together and his last days of life,” his long-time friend and tag team partner Bushwhacker Luke, Brian Wickens, 76, wrote in an Instagram post. “If you were to read the story of my life it would say that I am only child, but it would be wrong. In life I had a brother and his name was Bob Miller. I love you, Bob. Until I see you again, WOOOOAHH YEEEEAAHH!”

The two began wrestling together in New Zealander in 1964.

They became The Sheepherders from 1974-81 while working in numerous NWA-affiliated territories.

By 1988 the duo was repackaged in the WWE (WWF at the time) as the lovable and kooky Bushwhackers – changing their previous violent style to comedy.

“One of the toughest son of a guns to put on tights,” Jake “The Snake” Roberts wrote of Butch in a social media post. “And one of the most entertaining. He will be sorely missed.”

The Bushwhackers were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015.

Original article by Joseph Staszewski, New York Post, April 3, 2023.