February 02, 2021 / By mobanmarket
Show: The Interactive Interview courtesy of www.WrestlingEpicenter.com
Guest: Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake
Date: 10/26/08
Your Hosts: Patrick Kelley, James Walsh, & Nick Noel
Transcript By: Patrick Kelley & James Walsh
Struttin’ and cuttin’ after all these years, “The Barber” has managed to once again surface on mainstream television. This time, it is back with his best friend from childhood Hulk Hogan as a trainer on Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling.
We were lucky enough to sit down with Brutus Beefcake as he gave us a little idea of what it was like to try and train non athletes and those who might not even understand our form of entertainment. Plus, we get some good wrestling dirt too!
Don’t forget to check your local listings to see when the replays of Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling airs. But, catch it live every Saturday night on CMT!
YOu can listen to this and over 300 other audio interviews right now, free of charge, at www.WrestlingEpicenter.com. We also invite you to check us out early this week as we post our very controversial and famed interview with WWE and WCW veteran Jim Powers. We also have a thread open on our forums to post questions for Jimmy Hart and you can talk, person to person, with Bonnie Steamboat! All free, www.WrestlingEpicenter.com.
BRUTUS “THE BARBER” BEEFCAKE 2008:
– Brother Bruti is welcomed back to the show and he says he’s on top of the world and is really excited for the Hulk Hogan Celebrity Wrestling show.
– The Barber is a trainer for The Hulkster’s reality show. The other trainer is Brian Knobbs, and he feels that they both fulfilled their job very well.
– When compariing the show to The Ultimate Fighter, Brutus hasn’t seen the show, so isn’t sure if the format is similar, but he says that both Knobbs & himself will each have 5 celebrities, and each week, one will be eliminated.
– In working with the celebrities, he says that some of them surprised him and alot of them he hadn’t heard of some of them. He focused on training them the best he could. He trains Todd Bridges, Danny Bonaduce, Trishelle Cannatella, Butterbean, & Tiffany
– Beefcake feels that they managed to maintain the integrity of Professional Wrestling and centered the show around teaching the celebrities respect for wrestling.
– RVD & Goldberg made special appearances on the show to give the celebrities more motivation.
– When asked if the trainers need to beat respect into someone, Beefcake said that they “beat the s***” out of all them to show them wrestling is no joke.
– He still works the Indys and various autograph sessions. He’s been regularly tagging with Greg Valentine, but has also managed to get together with various other friends from the business and he’s been having fun. He says he’s in the best shape of his life right now.
– He’s had various critics on the internet, but he says he doesn’t really care what they say about him: “Opinions are like a–holes. Everybody has one” He is confident in his own abilities.
– There have been rumors of Hogan & Bischoff forming their own wrestling company, and he says that if it ever happened, he’d be a part of.
– He’s got a Myspace account and has communicated with fans and James points out the recent “Nostalgia craze” and Beefcake seconds that.
– Beefcake then goes on about what is wrong with wrestling these days, stating that he feels there needs to be more wrestling with psychology, and that the speeches don’t need to be scripted. When asked why those changes have taken place, he doesn’t blame anybody in particular, but feels that its hard to perfect the craft without territories.
– The Disciple was one of his favorite characters that he had, and he felt it got thrown away too soon, and it was a sign of the insanity that went on backstage in WCW. He said the best part about it was the look because nobody knew it was him when he debuted.
– After one last plug for Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling, Brutus signs off and thanks the fans for the support.
We thought it might be fun to include our 2005 interview transcript with Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake which you can still listen to at the site. We thought fans who like our longer interviews might be happier knowing that we have asked all the tough questions to Beefcake at one point!
BRUTUS “THE BARBER” BEEFCAKE 2005:
— The next show we are hyping is the Ed Leslie (Brutus Beefcake) interview which contains our pit stop on the Road to Wrestlemania with Wrestlemania 11 and 12 recaps as we are joined by Wrestling Epicenter Forums member RSBH123!
— Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake’s theme song borrowed from Smackdown VS RAW for Playstation 2 which you can purchase by visiting http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redir … s&n=507846 plays loud and proud as Erik introduces Ed Leslie to the show. Ed is doing well as he joins the show.
— Erik asks how close the real friendship is between Ed and Hulk Hogan. “Best of the best, man. He’s more of a brother than my real brother. He was there for me in 1990 when I had my accident. Basically I was high and dry. He was there — Pulled me out of the fire. Fed me, took care of me, clothed me, got me back on my feet, got me back in the wrestling business… I owe him everything!”
— James mentions a quote by a former guest, Bruno Sammartino, where he basically says without Hulk Hogan, Brutus Beefcake wouldn’t have been successful in the wrestling business. Ed replies with, “What do you expect from a freaking loser like him? He’s just pissed off because I beat his ass in his home town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He got his ass whooped by a guy in pink tights. I guess you can understand why he’s a little upset. I kicked his ass… His kids ass too… All the Sammartinos are losers, you know? I played Hulk’s brother for 6 years, okay? When Hulk decided, not anybody else, that it was time for me to go on my own, he didn’t want me to only be known as Hulk’s little brother. He felt I had plenty of talent to make it on my own, he wanted people to see that.” Ed goes on to say that Brutus Beefcake was a success and was never linked with Hulk Hogan and Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake was an even more huge success, he teamed with Hulk Hogan a few times but Ed feels he did it on his own talents.
— “Did Hulk Hogan go out and wrestle for me? Did Hulk Hogan… Thousands of matches! Man events! Pay per views! No! Brutus Beefcake went out there, got the job done and that’s all there is too it, man.”
— Jake Roberts shared a funny story with us stating that the name Brutus Beefcake came to be because Beefcake was a popular gay magazine in the San Francisco area and Brutus came from, “Oh, he’s such a brute!” This is mentioned to Ed in a jovial way and turns a little ugly. “Jake Roberts is running around with about half a freakin’ brain cell after he smoked 500,000 pounds of crack so what would you expect out of him? He can tell you a good story… I’m sure he can tell you a good story but as far as there being any truth in it, NO!”
— The name actually came from a meeting with Hulk, Vince, and Linda McMahon. Linda liked the name Beefcake and Hulk came up with the name Brutus. Originally, they were going to call him Baron Beefcake.
— Ed goes on to talk about how he came up with his own look and colorful attire which is a trademark of Brutus Beefcake. “I was the originator, not the immolator, brother. Lets get it freakin’ straight. I was the man that f***
ing pioneered all this shit. All these other clowns came along and copied everything I did.”
— James asks about how he enjoyed teaming with Greg “The Hammer” Valentine as part of the “Dream Team.” Ed says those were some of the best days of his life and says he and Greg are still great friends. “He’s a great friend, a great person, and a great wrestler… Second generation wrestler!”
— Erik asks about the idea to become “The Barber.” Ed says, “As far as I know, it was something Pat Patterson probably cooked up. As far as I know, his gay lover, his name was Louie, was a hairdresser. As far as I knew, I took it as a rib on me because Brutus Beefcake was getting over huge. Why would you change something that was getting over huge? That’s like taking Hulk Hogan and saying, “Oh, you can’t be Hulk Hogan now. Now that you’re getting over huge, lets change your name!” To me, brother, it was a screw job. But at the end of the day, because I am a talented and pretty whiley coyote, I turned it around, made it Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, turned it around, took it 10 levels farther than they ever even dreamed about and made a huge success, even bigger than Brutus Beefcake, out of the barber! Blew everybody’s mind! Nobody ever thought I could do it! I didn’t do it because I was Hulk Hogan’s friend, brother. I did it because I’ve got talent, I’ve got know how, I’ve got will power! I got out there and kicked ass until both shoes were shitty.”
— James chimes in to let Ed know that he does not fall under the same mind set as Bruno Sammartino on this subject. As a fan of the business, he understands that if you make it and succeed in the WWF/E, it’s like making it in the NFL in Football. You wouldn’t be there unless somebody thought you had the talent to be there and you wouldn’t be successful unless you actually are talented and above the rest.
— Erik jumps in to ask about Summerslam 1988. Brutus was over and was prepared for the Intercontinental Title when all of a sudden Beefcake was taken out of the match and the Ultimate Warrior was put in. “Well, the Warrior threatened to quit… He’s a big cry-baby. And, I guess that was how Vince had to playcate him, by giving him the title. Was I getting pushed aside? Yeah, I was kind of getting screwed.”
— “I had 8 titanium plates, 32 screws, 100 feet of stainless steel wire in my skull. As far as me being okay? Yeah, I’m 100%. As for as being able to wrestle. Yeah, I do it. As far as doctors clearing me to wrestle, no. It would be insanity for anybody to clear me after that kind of surgery… They didn’t want me driving a car. I had to go on with my life. I couldn’t just lay in a bed for the rest of my life.”
— Ed says it’s all about cojones. “Are you going to be a pussy and lay down and die or are you going to keep fighting? Brutus Beefcake is a fighter. That’s why I am a success. That is why I will always be a success!”
— James asks if Ed enjoyed the “Barber Shop.” “Absolutely. The Barber Shop was another huge success that they had to bury. I was getting over too big! They had to figure out another way to take it down too. When you get over too much, people want to chop you down and bring you back to Earth.”
— The common belief among the Internet elite is that Curt Hennig was to be the masked man that would attack Hulk Hogan in WCW. But, contract signings never materialized with Curt and Ed was put in his place. Ed says this was not true.
— Ed has fond memories of Curt Hennig. He mentions that Curt was one of his best friends and he knew Curt and his father very well. He sounds a little down when discussing this subject.
— Erik rattles off a list of all the gimmicks Ed Leslie had in WCW including Brother Bruti, The Butcher, The Man Without a Name, The Man Without a Face, The Zodiac, The Bootyman, The Disciple, and his real name Ed Leslie. Erik asks what one of the bunch was his favorite and why. “The Disciple was definitely my favorite and at the end of the day, because of trademark problems, not being able to do Brutus Beefcake… They kept saying they cannot repackage me because I was just too well known as Brutus Beefcake.
“So, Hulk and I sat down, cooked up the gimmick and no one, and I mean no one, knew I was the Brutus Beefcake. And the gimmick got over and when it kept getting over, thanks to a jealous prick named Eric Bischoff and his bunch of cronies, once again, a person they said couldn’t be repackaged… I came out and blew everybody’s minds! And then they came out with this One Warrior Nation. They handed me off to the Warrior, the Warrior quit, and that left me out in no man’s land.”
— Was Ed surprised WCW went down the way it did? “Not at all! How can you screw up such a good thing. Well, when you’ve got some of the people Bischoff hired and fired… I don’t want to name names. He cut his own throat, killed the territory almost single handedly, Diamond Dallas Page being one of the others. There’s just no talent, guys that just don’t want to work, all they want to do is get paid… They got what they wanted. They hired a bunch of losers… Got rid of all the guys that were money makers. What happened to the company? They went bankrupt.”
— Ed still loves getting in the ring. He feels after 29 years of doing it, you can’t just stop. He adds that is unless you’re bitter towards the business like Sammartino is.
— Ed says it is not his decision if he should make it to the WWE Hall of Fame or not but he says he would like to be. His guess is he would be one day but the guys they have been inducting are a few years older than he is and were around longer.
— Ed believes Nikolai Volkoff was just kidding with us when he made the remark about Hulk Hogan killing the business. It is obvious by Ed’s laugh that the statement is just so ridiculous that he can’t believe Nikolai would actually say it. I, James Walsh, both believe Nikolai meant it and it is perhaps the most ridiculous thing he could have said. How could a guy that set all kinds of attendance records have been bad for the business? That’s like saying KISS was bad for music because they painted their face and blew stuff up… It sold. Like it or love it, it sold.
— Last year, a story broke about Ed being caught with cocaine at work and causing an anthrax scare. Ed says it was a misunderstanding at work and goes on to say, “I’m not perfect.” He then poses a question to us asking if we have ever heard of someone getting caught in a drug bust and them not getting charged? James says, “Not unless they are guilty.” Ed was never charged with anything.
— Ed is gearing up for the big Valiant Brothers Reunion show on May 14 in New Jersey. For all information regarding the big show, check out wwww.WrestlingThenandNow.com. The event will feature Brutus Beefcake, Greg Valentine, Nikolai Volkoff, “Genius” Lanny Poffo, Captain Lou Albano, and all 3 Valiant brothers!
— We then roll into word associations with names such as Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, Vince McMahon, and more! Want to hear these colorful responses? Only one way to do it! Listen! It’s free!
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