Brutus the Barber Beefcake was one of the most entertaining acts of the late 1980s early-to-mid 1990s in the WWF. If it werent for a devastating parasailing accident, his career mightve been better. Though he seemed to be better off as a tag team wrestler or in a non-wrestling role, at least he had some consistency while working in WWF. The same could not be said about his WCW career. WCWs management couldnt decide on how to book him, and so he changed gimmicks almost as frequently as The Big Show changes allegiance in todays WWE. Beefcake went under the names Brother Bruti, The Butcher, The Man With No Name (an amnesiac gimmick), The Zodiac (who rambled incoherently), The Booty Man (a guy in love with his own buttocks), and The Disciple (Hulk Hogans bodyguard). When someone changes gimmicks with such regularity, you know theyre not connecting to the audience and arent contributing anything positive to the company. Leslie really didnt belong in a WCW ring. Most of his success in pro wrestling occurred when he was either in the tag team division, or when he wasnt the focus of a storyline, such as in interview segments. Its a shame that his parasailing incident derailed his career so significantly; if that never happened, maybe he wouldve had more success in WWF, and therefore wouldnt have needed to follow Hogan to WCW.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
