WWE Hall of Fame Loses Prestige with Addition of Bushwhackers

Induction into the WWE Hall of Fame is suddenly less illustrious of an honor now that The Bushwhackers are set to waddle into it.

The Hall has always been loose with its criteria and slow to welcome hugely deserving names. Welcoming The Bushwhackers only accentuates that.

As successful as Luke Williams and Butch Miller were as The Sheepherders in New Zealand and the territories, the words "WWE Hall of Famer" shouldn't be next to their names.

The argument for them going in is that they were memorable characters and won several tag team titles in other promotions. It's an argument that is not strong enough. There is a Nile-length list of teams that should go in before Butch and Luke.

Regardless, they are set to join Randy Savage and Rikishi in the 2015 Hall of Fame class. WWE announced on its official website that The Bushwhackers will be getting the unexpected nod. 

The company then aired an announcement and video tribute on Monday's Raw:

The Bushwhackers were a fun comedy team, and both men were steady hands, but they were midcarders during an era that many consider a golden age for tag team wrestling. WWE never viewed them as the top team at any point.

Championship Considerations

Butch and Luke's collection of tag team championships doesn't include the ones fought for and defended in WWE.

Why let them in before the teams that sat above them on the WWE hierarchy during their run? Teams that were cornerstones of the division are still waiting to get their call:

• Demolition
• The Hart Foundation
• The Rockers
• The British Bulldogs
• The Nasty Boys
• The Steiner Brothers
• The Executioners
• The Hardy Boyz
• The Dudley Boyz
• Edge and Christian
• Los Guerreros

The team that held the WWF (later WWE) World Tag Team Championships the longest (Demolition) are not yet Hall of Famers. The team with the most reigns (The Dudley Boyz) aren't either.

Instead, The Bushwhackers are cutting them in line. 

The folks backing Butch and Luke's induction will point out that The Von Erichs, The Four Horsemen and The Funks are all in the Hall of Fame without ever sniffing the WWE tag titles. There is absolutely no comparison between those three teams and The Bushwhackers. They were all legendary teams that spawned a number of copycats.

Those squads are tag team royalty.

The only time The Bushwhackers can be put in the same sentence as The Von Erichs and The Four Horsemen is in a few months when one can call them all Hall of Famers. It's strange that after being so inattentive to the great tag teams, the WWE Hall decides to now put in a duo that resided several tiers below the all-time best.

That only serves to ask fans to take the Hall of Fame less seriously.

All championship information courtesy of WWE.com

Honoring Their Pre-WWE Work

Before The Bushwhackers were WWE's resident buffoons, they were known as one of the most savage pairs of grapplers around. Their matches often ended with blood dripping from flesh to mat.

This is where the strength of Butch and Luke's Hall of Fame worthiness lies.

(Note: Video contains graphic footage.)

The trouble is, if the Hall's criteria includes accomplishments outside of WWE, than why aren't The Fabulous Freebirds in? They were one half of one of the best rivalries in wrestling history: The Von Erichs vs. The Freebirds.

Michael Hayes and company were red-hot heels, an influential, innovative team that welcomed rock music into wrestling and are still lauded for their work in World Class Championship Wrestling and elsewhere.

To have The Bushwhackers in, but leave The Freebirds out, hurts the institution's prestige. 

The Steiners aren't in either despite a non-WWE resume that trumps The Bushwhackers'. Rick and Scott won tag titles in more prominent promotions, becoming the head of the division in WCW and New Japan Pro Wrestling. 

In 2014, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame inducted The Steiners, as noted by PWInsider.

It's telling that other wrestling Halls have ignored The Bushwhackers and chose to instead honor teams WWE has so far not enshrined.

The Pro Wresting Hall of Fame has already inducted The Fabulous Freebirds. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame inducted The Freebirds as well as The Midnight Express and The Rock 'N' Roll Express. 

All three of those teams make more sense if WWE wants to recognize a team that has contributed to wrestling as a whole. 

The Wrong Kind of Recognition

The Hall of Fame should be reserved for the wrestlers and teams who crafted classic matches, were among the top performers of their era and garnered critical acclaim.

As The Sheepherders, Luke and Butch were part of a tremendous battle with The Fantastics in 1986. Listing their great matches beyond that is tough. 

How wrestling publications have bypassed them for various honors is a sign that they don't belong in the same institution as The Road Warriors.

Never did The Bushwhackers finish in the top four of the race for the Tag Team of the Year award from Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Of course, non-WWE Hall of Famers The Steiners, The Freebirds and The Dudley Boyz pop up several times.

The Bushwhackers didn't do well with the Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards (h/t Indeed Wrestling) either.

They did take home many of the negative honors from that publication. Butch and Luke won for Worst Match of the Year 1993. In both 1992 and 1994, they took home the Worst Tag Team prize. They finished in the top five of that category seven times.

None of that sounds Hall of Fame worthy. 

That's why you didn't hear The Bushwhackers' names in discussions of who most deserved a spot there. When Not in the Hall of Fame compiled its list of wrestlers with the strongest cases for induction, the face-licking pair was way down on it. 

The Freebirds sit at No. 9 on that list. The Steiners come in at No. 27, while Demolition owns the No. 28 spot. The Rock 'N' Roll Express (No. 38) and The Midnight Express (No. 42) aren't far behind. 

However, one has to do a lot of scrolling to get to The Bushwhackers. They come in at No. 118, just two spots above Skinner.

This isn't an official site that WWE has to consult, but it's a well-reasoned ranking of candidates.  

WWE's reasoning is harder to defend. Bypassing so many great teams to induct The Bushwhackers is a bush-league move.

If the company is going to include midcarders like these two and ignore the likes of Demolition and The Freebirds in the Hall of Fame, than that institution starts to feel like less like the real deal.

It's never been more clear that WWE's Hall is more fun circus attraction than collection of the elite.