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Edward Harrison Leslie Jr. (born 21 April, 1958) is an American professional wrestler, best known under the ring name Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake. He later worked for WCW under a variety of other names.

Career

Early days

Edward Leslie began his career at the side of Hulk Hogan in the 1976-77 time frame. At the time, the two were billed as brothers, alternately Terry and Ed Boulder, or Hulk and Dizzy Hogan. Because of this, for many years, it was a part of pro wrestling lore that Hogan and Leslie actually were brothers, but there is no real family relation between the men.

Brutus wrestled briefly in Bill Watts' Mid-South territory and also wrestled sporatically between 1980-82 in the WWWF before he was known as Brutus Beefcake. According to a shoot interview conducted in 2000, His first match was with Ron Slinker against Ox Baker and Eric the Red.

WWF

Leslie entered the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a heel under the ring name Brutus Beefcake in late 1984 with manager "Luscious" Johnny Valiant. He teamed with Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and won the Tag Team Championship. They would retain the titles for 8 months, but by 1987 the so-called Dream Team had fallen apart. Despite their win over the Rougeau Brothers at WrestleMania III, the team had a falling out when Beefcake was left in the ring while Valentine and Valiant left with Dino Bravo. Later that night, he acquired the nickname "The Barber" after Roddy Piper's match against Adrian Adonis. Adonis lost the match, and it was stipulated he would have to cut his hair. Beefcake entered the ring and began to clip away at Adonis' blonde locks.

Shortly after, he started bringing a gigantic pair of scissors (gardening shears, actually, with the handles painted to resemble barber poles) to the ring. He would cut off the hair of his opponents (after knocking them out with a sleeper hold) using scissors or an electric razor. Every week he would cut most of the hair of the jobbers he was fed into random and intentionally humorous styles.

Leslie was rumored to be in line for the WWF Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam 1990 aganist Curt Hennig, but a near-fatal parasailing accident put him out of action: Leslie was helping his parasailer friend prepare for takeoff when the driver of the boat mistakenly took a cue to take off, sending the would-be-parasailer's knees directly into Leslie's face. His face had to be surgically repaired with metal plates and screws. This obviously made him unable to work SummerSlam with his replacement (and eventual IC Title winner) being Kerry Von Erich. This event put his WWF career on hiatus for nearly 2 years. It also gave him an infamous nickname among "smart" wrestling fans in later years: The Man With No Face. He began making appearances again in late 1991-early 1992 in his interview segment called "The Barber Shop.". His accident was never directly referred to on TV, but was alluded to in "Barber Shop" interviews by other wrestlers. In early 1993 he began a short stint as the tag team partner of Hogan - the duo were known as The Mega-Maniacs. Shortly thereafter, he signed with WCW.

WCW

Since the name Brutus Beefcake was trademarked by the WWF, WCW was forced to give Leslie a number of gimmicks and ring names. At first, he was only referred to as Brother Bruti, making short appearances with WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan, who had just arrived in WCW. At Halloween Havoc, following Hogan's cage match victory over Ric Flair, Bruti was revealed as the mystery assailant who attacked Hogan just before his title defense against Flair at Clash Of The Champions XXVIII. Leslie was billed as The Butcher. 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 both The Butcher and as 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 was accompanied by Page's ex-valet (and real-life wife) Kimberly Page, whom he referred to as his "Booty Babe." His gimmick was simply that of a man 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 attempted to join and promptly received a beatdown from Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hulk Hogan.

Leslie's last WCW gimmick was the bodyguard of Hollywood Hogan, The Disciple who would help Hogan illegally in many matches. He was almost unrecognizable at first with a full beard, dark sunglasses and nWo-styled biker attire. He was later "kidnapped" by Warrior during Warrior's brief 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 one of Boston's MBTA stations, Downtown Crossing, where he was working at the time. It turned out that he had cocaine instead of anthrax. He promptly checked into a drug rehabilitation facility after admitting that the cocaine found at the station was his. As a result, no charges were filed against him.*

Brutus apparently has been offering haircuts for $20.00 at appearances he makes.

Brutus is currently working for a supply company in Massachusetts. He still wrestles occasionally. He has started a wrestling school.Beefcake Wrestling He also now lives with his wife, Barbara.

Quotes

As Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake: "The only two tools I need are these fists right here, baby!"

"I may have a pair of scissors in my hands, and I'll be doing a little bit of cutting and strutting when I'm done!"

"I think that was some of my best work, Gene! Did you see the spray paint?" whilst talking to Mean Gene Okerlund after defeating Johnny V, cutting his hair, and spray painting him with hair color.

As Zodiac: "Yes, yes, no, no."

As Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake: "Cuttin' and Struttin'"

Finishing and signature moves

Previous managers

Championships and accomplishments

Championship succession

WWF World Tag Team Championship Preceded by:
Mike Rotundo & Barry Windham First w/ Greg Valentine Succeeded by:
The Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith

1958 births | American professional wrestlers | Living people | NWo

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Edward Leslie".

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