Brutus Beefcake

Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake (born Edward Harrison Leslie Jr.) is an American professional wrestler, occasionally performing for independent promotions. He is best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) when he used a barber gimmick, and also for his work in WCW under various aliases.

Career

Early Days

Ed Leslie began his career at the side of Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan. At the time, the two were portrayed as brothers, alternately Terry and Ed Boulder, or Hulk and Dizzy Hogan. Bollea has been said to have had much to do with Leslie's success as a singles star, often using his political status in the WWF and WCW to get Leslie various pushes, of varying success.

WWF

Brutus Beefcake was by far his most successful gimmick; he acquired the nickname "Barber" after Roddy Piper's match against Adrian Adonis at WrestleMania III. Adonis lost the match and it was stipulated he would have to cut his hair; Beefcake entered the ring with a gigantic pair of scissors to do this.

Leslie was rumoured to be in line for the WWF Intercontinental Championship, but a near-fatal parasailing accident put him out of action for months, and more or less destroyed his face, which had to be surgically repaired with metal plates and screws. He was often a tag team partner to Hogan after returning – the duo were known as The Megamaniacs.

WCW

In WCW, as the name Brutus Beefcake was trademarked by the WWF, he was given a number of gimmicks and ring names. At first he was Brother Bruti, a heel, feuding with the new WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan, who had just arrived in WCW. The feud between these two culminated at Starrcade 1994, and was then abruptly dropped as fan interest was simply not there. Leslie would soon resurface, however, as The Butcher and later The Man with No Name. He would go on to be part of Kevin Sullivan's Dungeon of Doom as The Zodiac, a character with black and white face paint who would only say, "Yes, yes, no, no".

In 1996 Leslie feuded with Diamond Dallas Page, this time as The Booty Man. He had Page's ex-valet, Kimberly Page, as his "Booty Girl". His gimmick was simply that of a guy who would shake his (supposedly) bare buttocks on the way to the ring. Naturally, this too did not last long. When the nWo started Booty Man tried to join and was promptly on the receiving end of a beatdown from Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hulk Hogan. Leslie's last WCW gimmick was The Disciple – he was almost unrecognizable at first with a full beard and biker attire, and he was a member of the nWo. He was later "kidnapped" by the Ultimate Warrior during Warrior's WCW run and feud with Hogan, and was the only other member (along with Warrior) of the One Warrior Nation.

Retirement

Leslie is largely retired now, and was last in the news for causing an anthrax scare at Boston's Logan International Airport, where he was working at the time. It turned out that he had cocaine instead of anthrax.

Profile

• Height: 6'4" (193 cm)
• Weight: 273lbs (124 kg)
• Birthday: April 21, 1958
• Hometown: San Francisco, California
• Trained by: Hulk Hogan
• Professional debut: 1983
• Previous manager(s): Johnny Valiant, Miss Elizabeth, The Booty Babe, Jimmy Hart
• Finishing/Signature Moves: Barber's Chair, The Apocalypse, High Knee ("Heiny")

Previous identities

• "Dizzy" Ed Hogan
• "Dizzy" Ed Boulder
• "Dizzy" Golden
• Brutus Beefcake
• Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake
• Clipmaster
• Brother Bruti
• The Butcher
• The Man With No Name
• Zodiac
• The Booty Man
• Brute Force
• The Disciple
• Ed Leslie

Titles/Accomplishments

• 1-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Greg Valentine)
• 2-Time Southeast Championship Wrestling Tag Team Champion (with Ken Lucas)
• 3-Time WWWA Heavyweight Champion

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him # 173 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003. PWI also ranked him # 94 of the best tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Greg Valentine.