Profile of Ed Leslie on Famous Like Me

Edward Harrison Leslie Jr. (born 21 April 1958) is an American professional wrestler, occasionally performing for independent promotions. He is best known for his work in the WWF (now the WWE) as Brutus Beefcake, during its late-1980s heyday. He used a barber gimmick, during the use of which he acquired the nickname "The Barber,". He later worked for WCW under a variety of stage names.

Career

Early Days

Ed Leslie began his career at the side of Hulk Hogan. At the time, the two were portrayed as brothers, alternately Terry and Ed Boulder, or Hulk and Dizzy Hogan. Hogan has been said to have had much to do with Leslie's success as a singles star, often using his political status in the WWF and WCW to get Leslie various pushes, of varying success.

WWF

Brutus Beefcake was by far his most successful gimmick; he acquired the nickname "Barber" after Roddy Piper's match against Adrian Adonis at WrestleMania III. Adonis lost the match and it was stipulated he would have to cut his hair; Beefcake entered the ring with a gigantic pair of scissors (gardening shears, actually, with the handles painted to resemble barber poles) to do this. After this, he would cut off the hair of his opponents after knocking them out with a sleeper hold. Usually he'd snip off a few strands of hair with the shears, and then finish the job with an electric razor, removing most of the hair of the jobbers he was fed into random and intentionally humourous styles.

Leslie was rumoured to be in line for the WWF Intercontinental Championship, but a near-fatal parasailing accident put him out of action for months, and more or less destroyed his face, which had to be surgically repaired with metal plates and screws. What had happened was that he was walking along a beach while on a vacation, and turned around just in time to catch a landing parasailer's knees directly in the face. This event ultimately put his WWF career on hiatus for nearly 2 years. He began making appearances again in late 1991-early 1992 in his interview segment called "The Barber Shop". 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 gave 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 XXIV. Leslie was billed as The Butcher, and 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, who he referred to as his "Booty Girl." 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 Disciple. He was almost unrecognizable at first with a full beard and biker attire, and he was a member of the nWo. 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 Boston's Logan International Airport, 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 BOS was his. As a result, no charges have been filed against him.

Profile

• Height: 6'4" (193 cm)
• Weight: 273lbs (124 kg)
• Birthday: April 21, 1958
• Hometown: San Francisco, California
• Trained by: Hulk Hogan
• Professional debut: 1983
• Previous manager(s): Johnny Valiant, Miss Elizabeth, The Booty Babe, Jimmy Hart
• Finishing/Signature Moves: Barber's Chair, The Apocalypse, High Knee ("Heiny")

Previous identities

• "Dizzy" Ed Hogan
• "Dizzy" Ed Boulder
• "Dizzy" Golden
• Brutus Beefcake
• Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake
• Clipmaster
• Brother Bruti
• The Butcher
• The Man With No Name
• The Man With No Face
• Zodiac
• The Booty Man
• Brute Force
• The Disciple
• Ed Leslie

Titles/Accomplishments

• 1-time WWF World Tag Team Champion (with Greg Valentine)
• 3-Time NWA Southeast Tag Team Champion (with Ken Lucas twice and Robert Fuller once)
• 3-Time WWWA Heavyweight Champion

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him # 173 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003. PWI also ranked him # 94 of the best tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Greg Valentine.

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