Bushwhacker Luke

Brian Wickens (born 8 January 1947) is a New Zealand professional wrestler.

He is best known for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation (later, WWE) under the ring name Bushwhacker Luke, where he teamed with Bushwhacker Butch as The Bushwhackers.

He is also known for his appearances under the ring name Luke Williams for promotions such as NWA New Zealand, Stampede Wrestling, Pacific Northwest Wrestling, Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling, Southwest Championship Wrestling, and the Universal Wrestling Federation, where he teamed with Butch as "The Kiwis" and "The Sheepherders".

Along with Butch, Luke held championships including the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship, NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship, NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship, and UWF World Tag Team Championship.

Luke Williams started wrestling for NWA New Zealand (later known as All-Star Pro Wrestling) with his friend and long term tag team partner Butch Miller in 1962 where he achieved a great deal of regional success.

After working Australasia and the Eastern Circuit (Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan), the duo was booked in North America in "Grand Prix" (Quebec, The Maritimes, Ontario, and Vermont), a very successful promotion owned by the famous Vachons and Edouard Carpentier, in 1972 by fellow New Zealander Steve Rickard, who was also the booker for "NWA Hawaii".

Luke and Butch worked in Canada for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling billed as The Kiwis (Butch was known as "Nick Carter" and Luke was known as "Sweet William").

The first recorded title that the Kiwis won was in 1974, when the duo beat Bob Pringle and Bill Cody for the Stampede International Tag Team Championship on 6 January 1974.

The Kiwis lost the titles to Tokyo Joe and the Great Saki, only to regain them a short time later.

The Kiwis lost the titles for good when Stan Kowalski and Dutch Savage defeated them and kept the titles away from them in subsequent rematches.

After leaving Stampede Wrestling, the Kiwis began doing double duty in Japan for International Wrestling Enterprise (IWE).

They would disband in 1975.

Miller temporarily retired from the sport as Williams continued working for IWE until 1976 and was inactive until 1979.

The Kiwis reunited working in NWA Pacific Northwest as well as the Canadian-based International All-Star Wrestling around 1979-1980 as "the Kiwi Sheepherders".

In 1979, the team won the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship on three occasions between 21 July and 5 August 1980, before they left the territory.

On 22 September, the Sheepherders lost the gold to Dutch Savage and Stan Stasiak, only to regain them a week later.

On 11 February 1980, the Sheepherders became double champions when they downed Dutch Savage and Stan Stasiak, this time for the NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship.

Top faces Rick Martel and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper teamed up in May, to take the NWA Canadian tag title from the Sheepherders and, in effect, run the duo out of the Northwest region by August, gaining the NWA Pacific Northwest tag titles when the Sheepherders left the promotion.

The next stop for the Sheepherders was a brief stay in the Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling territory run by Jim Crockett.

In MACW, the two won the NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship by beating Matt Borne and Buzz Sawyer for the gold.

The Sheepherders held onto the gold for close to three months before dropping it to Dewey Robertson and Rocky Johnson on 12 December.

After losing the titles, Luke and Butch headed for warmer weather as they traveled to Puerto Rico and began working for the World Wrestling Council as Los Pastores.

While in Puerto Rico, the team won the WWC North American Tag Team Championship twice while touring the island.

After the team left WWC, Butch decided that he wanted to return closer to home and went to Australia to wrestle.

Luke remained in the United States determined to keep the "Sheepherders" name on everyone's lips by teaming up with "Lord" Jonathan Boyd (formerly of the Royal Kangaroos).

The duo of Williams and Boyd quickly gained a reputation of one of the most violent, hard-hitting teams in the business.

One of the first people to feel the wrath of the "new and improved" Sheepherders was Robert Fuller in South Eastern Championship Wrestling.

In December 1981, the Sheepherders won the NWA Southeast Tag Team Championship that had been vacated when Robert Fuller and Jos LeDuc split.

After winning the title, Boyd and Williams became embroiled in a bitter feud with Robert Fuller and various partners including his brother Ron Fuller and his cousin Jimmy Golden (later known as Bunkhouse Buck).

One act that made the Sheepherders the most hated men in SECW for a while was when the duo kayfabe attacked and injured Jimmy's father Billy Golden.

After almost 10 months with the title, the Sheepherders were finally defeated by Fuller and Golden; this ended the feud on a high note for the face duo, as the Sheepherders were "run out" of the territory.

Boyd and Williams moved slightly more north as they began to work in the Memphis based promotion Continental Wrestling Association owned and operated by Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler.

In the CWA, the Sheepherders would start a feud that stood as their most memorable, bloody, and brutal as the team kicked off a long running feud with The Fabulous Ones (Stan Lane and Steve Keirn).

The "pretty boy", well-polished Fabulous Ones and the ugly, brawling savage Sheepherders were the perfect opponents and repeatedly drew big gates all over the country.

The matches started out pretty evenly, but soon turned brutal and often without a definite winner.

In late 1982, the Sheepherders won the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship from Lane and Keirn, which only turned the intensity of the matches up a notch.

Between late December and mid-February, the two teams traded the belts back and forth 4 times with the Fabulous Ones ending up with possession of them in the end.

On 28 March, the Sheepherders wrestled their last match in the Mid-South Coliseum before leaving the CWA.

Boyd and Williams resurfaced in Southwest Championship Wrestling only weeks later, continuing their brutal and destructive ways.

The duo were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015 and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in 2020.