WWE favorite Bushwhacker Butch would have been 80 years old today. A tragic trip to the world’s largest wrestling event cost him his life last year.
He was a popular cult figure in WWE in the 1990s – as part of an entertaining duo that, however, had more to it than many fans at the time realized.
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Today Robert Miller aka Bushwhacker Butch would have been 80 years old. Last year, however, he died under sad circumstances, during a tragic trip to the biggest wrestling event of the year.
Bushwhackers have been a team since the sixties
Miller and his long-time partner Luke Williams had formed a team together since the 1960s, initially only active in New Zealand, Australia and Asia, and later also successful in North America.
The two were initially known as The Kiwis, later as The Sheepherders – separated for several years when Miller moved back home for family reasons, while Williams stayed in America and recruited Jonathan Boyd as a new partner.
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There was a reunion in 1986, the Sheepherders were a serious team back then that received good reviews for their brawl-heavy and often bloody matches – their match series against the Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers) in the NWA league association is particularly remembered.
An iconic duo in WWE
In 1988, Miller and Williams moved to the then WWF under the new name The Bushwhackers and reinvented themselves as a comedy duo.
The two presented themselves as slightly crazy backwoodsmen, and their “bushwhacker march” in particular with its peculiar arm movements was remembered long after the end of their careers – and was the subject of various loving homages.
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The Bushwhackers never won the tag team titles, but were one of the most popular teams in the WWF for years – even in Germany, where the league experienced a popularity boom in the early 1990s. Miller and Williams took part in several tours of Germany and reliably entertained the audience.
In 1994, the Bushwhackers were also gat stars on an episode of the sitcom “All Under One Roof,” which was also popular in this country, and met the series’ main characters Steve Urkel and Carl Winslow (Jaleel White and Reginald VelJohnson, also known as Sergeant Al Powell from “Die Hard”). .
Even after leaving WWE in 1996, the Bushwhackers – inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015 – continued to be booked by smaller leagues for a long time and often, with the 76-year-old Luke occasionally appearing in nostalgic fights last year.
WrestleMania journey with tragic consequences
The Bushwhackers’ last planned reunion took a tragic turn: In March 2023, Miller flew to LA for the WrestleMania weekend – around the WWE mega show, the big WrestleCon fan convention with numerous legends also took place there.
However, on the flight to Los Angeles, Miller forgot his blood pressure medication and suffered serious health problems. He had to be taken to hospital, where his condition rapidly deteriorated. In the end, Miller no longer knew who or where he was, reported wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer. He finally died on April 2nd at the age of 78.
Miller’s death also posed financial problems for those left behind because of medical bills. A donation page was set up for the family, including Chris Jericho and AEW boss Tony Khan who each helped with $5,000.
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Miller is survived by his wife Helen, two daughters and several grandchildren.
