Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake has Hulk Hogan to thank for many things, including his most popular gimmick.
He turned face in 1987 after splitting from partner Greg Valentine. He was billed as “The Barber”, and took a pair of sheers to the ring that he would use to cut his opponents’ hair.
Beefcake was the latest subject of Vice’s Dark Side Of The Ring series, with an episode dedicated to his life and career.
This included a section on how first became “The Barber”. Beefcake (real name Ed Leslie) revealed how he was unhappy originally with the gimmick. Hulk Hogan calmed him down and gave him the idea to cut his opponents’ hair in the ring.
“They hand me this white cosmetology jacket. They give me a pair of scissors and say ‘Now you’re the barber!’. What do you mean ‘I’m the barber?'” Don’t you think maybe you should have given me a little warning? First thing I do is go in the dressing room and just start breaking everything I could find. Finally, someone went and found Hulk [Hogan], and said ‘You better go find Beefacke, ’cause he’s lost it! He’s tearing the place up!'”
“So he comes in like ‘what’s going on?’. And I said ‘What’s going on? This is what’s going on. I quit! This is bullshit! What does a barber do in wrestling?’. He says to me ‘What if you use the same sleeper hold and put your opponents to sleep? You get the scissors and you cut off some of their hair.’ I was strutting all over the ring. And then cut.”
Brutus Beefcake Details Infamous Parasailing Accident
In the same episode, Brutus Beefcake detailed the infamous parasailing accident that caused him a facial injury that almost cost him his career in 1990.
“We had just been parasailing for hours. Several people had had near catastrophes, so we were obviously thanking our lucky stars that nobody was hurt doing the parasail today, and we’re done. Then Brian Blair, the Killer Bee, and his friends, a couple people, came roaring in and they wanted to parasail.”
“Mike, he was like, ‘No, no, we’re done,’ and they wouldn’t relent. He’s finally like, ‘Alright, alright.’ But at that time, there’s no wind to fluff the parachute up. So I’m out in the shallows here trying to get the people set up up there on the grass. We got everybody ready to go. Mike just said, ‘F*ck it, I’m going,’ and just took off.”
“It hits me so hard that I’m pulled out of the water, and I do what’s called a gainer where your feet go over your head first and then come back down,” Beefcake said. “And by the grace of God, I wasn’t knocked out. And I’m down like [with my hand in my face] trying to get my shit together. Can’t see a thing, can’t breathe. And nobody has any clue that I’ve been mortally injured.”
