Brutus Beefcake Credits Hulk Hogan With Creating Major Part Of His WWF Gimmick

Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, whose real name is Edward Leslie, wrestled for nearly 40 years up until his final match in 2015. The hair-cutting, shears-wielding madman is happy to give Hulk Hogan his share of the credit for certain aspects of his pro wrestling career. 

While appearing on the "Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw" podcast, the WWE Hall of Famer sounded his appreciation for Hogan's involvement in making his character what it was.

"Terry [Hogan] says, 'What if Brutus The Barber uses a sleeper hold like [Roddy] Piper?'" Leslie recalled. "He said, 'What if you use the sleeper hold, and everybody when you beat them with the sleeper hold, you get your scissors out and you cut their hair?'"

Leslie thought that might work, but he also realized he didn't quite have the sway to make such a decision. So, he and Hogan went to Vince McMahon with the idea, and it eventually became a reality.

"He had to go back to Vince and sell it to Vince," Leslie added. "And once he did, once he had sold it with Vince, then I was able to start trying to think creative — got new outfits, I had the scissors." Unfortunately for him, those tiny little scissors didn't quite cut it. As it turns out, he came up with the idea to use hedge clippers in order to play up the gimmick. Just like that, the character took off.

"We did the haircut thing," Leslie continued. "And every match, every TV match, everybody, I cut everybody's hair. And then that happened for the next six months. And, it got over. People are sick!"

Despite the fact that incapacitating people and cutting their hair was quite clearly a heel move, Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake was over as a babyface.

"I mean it's really kind of a heelish move to do that to people," Leslie said. "Put 'em to sleep, and chop their hair off! So I'm really — here I am, I'm supposed to be a babyface — but really I'm a heel, but this was that time in '87 where the lines were blurred."

He praised Greg Valentine, the man with whom he captured tag team gold during their time together in WWE, and reminisced when they were beloved as heels.

With regard to his particular character, though, Leslie made sure to keep things fresh by never wearing the same outfit twice when portraying "The Barber" on television. He singled out  Hogan — the man who inducted him into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019 — one more time for his involvement.

"Everything you see was me, and Terry helped me a little bit," Leslie declared.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.