Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Some guys have all the luck. Some guys have all the pain. Some guys get all the breaks. Some guys do nothing but complain.-Rod Stewart
While formulating this piece on Ed Leslie…that song by Rod Stewart came to my mind. Looking at the career of Leslie and his good friend Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan)you’d understand why. Both started out their careers in the same year of 1977 and even portrayed “brothers” as Hulk and Dizzy Boulder/Hogan respectively. Hulk went onto mega stardom while his friend Ed Leslie has had an up and down career. Some of it can be blamed on Ed himself, some can be blamed on unfortunate circumstances and some on the mighty machine known as the WWF.
Ed’s WWF career started off pretty strong as Brutus Beefcake. A good looking, arrogant character who looked like he ripped right out of a Chippendale’s nightclub. While Beefcake was never going to be compared technically with a Ric Flair or Harley Race….this was the WWE in the 1980’s…he didn’t have to be. He went on to win the WWF tag team titles with Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine as a part of “The Dream Team” managed by ‘Luscious’ Johnny V.
The Dream Team would carry the tag team titles for close to 8 months before losing them to the British Bulldogs at Wrestlemania 2. They remained as a tag team until Wrestlemania 3 when the decision was made to turn Beefcake into a babyface singles star. He became known as Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake…who would bring large cutting shears to the ring with him and cut his opponents hair after matches.
Beefcake was being groomed to take the Intercontinental title away from the Honkytonk Man at the first ever SummerSlam in 1988…but word had it that Vince McMahon was not completely sold that he was popular enough yet to take the belt at such an event. Despite being heavily advertised to be the challenger to face the HTM…3 weeks before the event….plans were changed. They worked an angle where Beefcake was attacked and injured by ‘Outlaw’ Ron Bass with a boot spur. That was the excuse given as to why Beefcake wouldn’t appear at Summerslam. As we know, the Ultimate Warrior was given Beefcake’s spot and rest is history.
That didn’t stop the WWE from continuing to build Brutus as a legitimate singles star. He was chosen as the man to end Mr. Perfect’s WWF undefeated streak at Wrestlemania VI. That victory was perhaps the biggest in Ed Leslie’s singles career. In the Summer of 1990, McMahon felt that Brutus Beefcake’s time had come. He was booked to challenge and defeat Mr. Perfect for the Intercontinental title at SummerSlam ’90. Then, the unthinkable happened….he was nearly killed in a para sailing accident on July 4th. ‘The Texas Tornado’ Kerry Von Erich replaced Beefcake at SummerSlam and defeated Perfect for the IC title. Leslie briefly returned to the WWF under a mask known as the ‘Mariner.’ He portrayed a vigilante type of gimmick, but walked away from it fearing doing further damage to his face.
Beefcake’s WWF career would never quite recover after that accident. He went on to have his own talk segment called “The Barber Shop” and wrestled a bit in tag matches with his good friend Hulk Hogan…but perhaps fear that more serious damage would be caused to his face…the WWF cooled significantly on him.
In 1994, Ed Leslie would follow his friend Hulk Hogan to WCW. It was there that Leslie became completely lost in the shuffle. Due to the WWF’s copyright’s over the established name of Brutus Beefcake, WCW management had a difficult time creating a new persona for him.
Brother Bruti
His first name was the closest to resembling his WWE character. That is perhaps why the WWF stepped in and threatened lawsuits if WCW continued using it.
The Butcher
After turning on Hulk Hogan and a heel in the process…Leslie was renamed “The Butcher” and was a member of the 3 Faces of Fear with Kevin Sullivan and Avalanche.
The Man with No Name
I guess at this point, WCW had no clue what to do with Ed Leslie…but the worst was yet to come.
The Zodiac
The Zodiac character was a complete overhaul of any other gimmicks Leslie had up to that point. He had face paint and didn’t saying anything other than ‘Yes and No’.
The Booty Man
The Booty Man along with his Booty Babe (Kimberly Page) was Ed’s return to babyface status in WCW. He would dance and basically use his butt aka booty to win matches.
The Disciple
Portrayed as Hollywood Hogan’s lackey or a modern day Virgil.
Towards the end of his WCW career, The Disciple got a shave and haircut to resemble his old self as Brutus Beefcake.
As you can see, Ed Leslie’s post WWF career in WCW went nowhere fast. Not at all by his doing, but the creative team just couldn’t find the right gimmick and the WWF playing hard ball. It’s an interesting career if nothing else. What might have been if the WWE had faith in him in 1988? What might have been if he wasn’t severely injured in 1990? What might have been if WCW had interesting storylines that went somewhere for him? What might have been?
