Monday Night Mayhem radio
Hosts: Big Mosh, Blade, and DFL
Available at MondayNightMayhem.com.

The Big Mosh, Blade, and DFL welcomed Bushwhacker Luke on board The Mayhem airwaves after letting the fans know the best finishing sauce for their sardines...Sweet Sunshine (the official proud presenter of The Mayhem). Now that the fans around the world are able to keep down their lunches/dinners for the day on that note, The MNM Crew let the listening audience know that they had the recent opportunity to "break bread" with Luke at of all places...a Ring Of Honor (whom he classifies as "a whole new era of wrestling") event in Dover, NJ.

Luke will be appearing w/former WWE superstar, Al Snow on Saturday (beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET) at Bud Carson's Pro Wrestling World and George's Cards & Collectibles for a special autograph signing. Pre-orders are now being accepted. Contact Ken or Steve from K&S WrestleFest at (516) 473-4944. Luke is very much looking forward to meeting his fans from around the country, as besides his ROH appearances, this will be his first signing in close to eight years.

This will be the first time that Luke and Al will be together in close to ten years together, but Luke worked with Al when he kept his wrestling school in Lima, Oh. open. He has fond memories of working with Al, and is looking forward to seeing him this weekend.

The interview took an interesting twist when DFL credits The Bushwhackers of maybe not being one of the best technical teams of all-time, but one of the most comical. In true Bushwhacker fashion, Luke took offense at this, and extended the invitation to DFL to lace up the boots to prove his point in person, so to speak. DFL did get to his point of asking Luke his opinions of working with Jamison towards the end of his and his cousin Butch's run with the WWE.

For those who never knew, Jamison had a theater background, and was brought in after Vince McMahon saw him on Broadway, and thought he would work well with The Bushwhackers. "He was more or less our mascot...he was a good attraction," said Luke. He still gets plenty of fans that come up to him today asking of Jamison's whereabouts, believe it or not.
Luke also credits Vince McMahon for having the gumption to try and change the tough Sheepherders—a "heel" tag team to the WWE-ized Bushwhackers, a face team.

Who could forget The Bushwhackers invading Rhythm & Blues' rendition of "Hunka, Hunka, Honky Love" at WrestleMania VI in Toronto? Luke remembers the energy in the building that day, and selling programs in the crowd to those in attendance before breaking up The Honky Tonk Man and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine's performance. To this day, he does not forget however being "bushwhacked" by Jimmy Hart his team afterwards, having HTM's guitar smashed across his head -- which led to a brief feud between The Bushwhackers and Rhythm & Blues.

Plenty of e-mails were submitted to The Mayhem, wanting to get Luke's impression of the tag team scene back in the late '80's and early '90's within World Wrestling Entertainment. Apart from The Powers Of Pain, Luke wished to go on record as calling The Brain Busters (Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson) the toughest team they ever worked with in their WWE career.

Several weeks ago, "Your Home Of Wrestling Radio" was proud to induct the late Andre The Giant as part of the Monday Night Hall Of Fame. Luke recalls working with Andre towards the end of his life, as he described what was "a very sad situation." Andre had broken his leg, which took a lot of rehab, and things were not going the best for him. His personal relationship with Andre went back many years with "The Eighth Wonder Of The World," as he first met Andre in the late '60s as part of Grand Prix Wrestling in Montreal. "Andre took care of me and Butch, and we were good friends for a long time....one hell of a guy...very sad to see him go." commented Luke.

Some fans for many years may have always wondered why The Bushwhackers never held the WWE World Tag Team Titles. Luke does not frown upon not having the belts in his career, especially after working "the other side of the business" for the past ten years or so. He feels that the straps should be placed around a team who "needs that extra lift" to get themselves over. Luke strongly believes him and Butch never needed the gold, simply because they were already over with the fans as it was anyways.

Luke agrees with The Big Mosh, in that tag team wrestling from 15-20 years ago to today could very well be "a lost art." Luke wished to point out that Vince took a lot of the great performers who were wrestling as tag teams in other territories and signed them to the then-WWF, as part of his national expansion. So, more or less, it's hard to believe that tag team competition does not have that same zest and flair as it once did. Luke made an interesting comparison to how integral tag teams are still in today's professional wrestling and sports-entertainment: "A good wrestling card is made of all different entertainers: both singles and tag teams."

A lot of old-school fans remember The Bushwhackers working w/WWE Hall Of Famer, Gene Okerlund on several Coliseum Video releases—including "Bushwhacker Buzzard." Hard to believe, but the last time he had the opportunity to see "Mean Gene" was back at the Gimmick Battle Royal and WrestleMania X-7 in Houston (which was one of his favorite hometowns to perform in front of as a member of The Sheepherders in the early '80s).

Many fans of today had the chance to see Luke as part of Eric Young's Christmas party this past December on TNA Impact. Luke loved the opportunity to interact with some familiar faces that he had crossed paths with in his career, including Jim Cornette, Scott Steiner, and Christian Cage. He was very impressed with the finished product that came out on television, and he was very glad that this gave Eric Young a boost. "There's a kid with a lot of talent right there."

Luke was very proud of his time w/his partner Butch in The Sheepherders, and compared what they did as "ECW style," before Extreme Championship Wrestling existed—blood, guts, barbed wire, cage matches, boot camp matches, coal miner's clove matches...you name it, and The Sheepherders did it. If there was any one point in his career he could go back to, he said that would be it.

If he and Butch were asked to head into the WWE Hall Of Fame, Luke said he would proudly accept the invitation, as he still classifies the WWE as the leader not only in sports and entertainment, but wrestling as well. He would love to become one of their legends, and go into their HOF.

Monday Night Mayhem Word Association...

Triple H: "One hell of a piece of talent. He's gone a long way."

The Great Khali: "A giant."

Nigel McGuiness: "I don't understand why the WWE has not picked up on him yet. He can go a long way in our business."

Stephanie McMahon: "The boss' daughter. I remember her when she was a young girl, along with her brother always being backstage. She has become a great entertainer in the business, like the rest of the McMahons."

Jesse Ventura: "A great body, and a great man on the stick. He could talk people into a house."

***

All this and much more goodness if contained in this 60-minute shoot with one of the most-charismatic performers of all-time, including Bushwhacker Luke's uncensored thoughts and takes on: this year's "Class Of 2008" in the WWE Hall Of Fame ("The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, The Briscos, Gordon Solie, and Eddie Graham).

He also comments on the Benoit family tragedy, drug testing in today's business, working against The Hardy Boyz back in 1997 at an independent show in North Carolina and what Luke's initial impressions of them were, if Butch and him ever thought about "moving south" to World Championship Wrestling, performing in front of his largest crowd ever at SummerSlam '92 in Wembley Stadium.

Other topics include his infamous shortest-ever time in the 1991 WWE Royal Rumble (getting eliminated by the late John "Earthquake" Tenta), The Sheepherders' classic battles w/The Fabulous Ones, his recollections of working w/Stu Hart in Stampede Wrestling in Calgary, as well as Luke's response to The Mayhem's senior show correspondent, DFL, doing a live "taste-test" of sardines w/Sweet Sunshine Sauces LIVE next Monday night, April 21st! And will we be seeing a Bushwhacker reunion anytime soon on WWE television? You have to tune into the interview to find out.

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