Mr. Ed Leslie captured probably his biggest fame as Brutus Beefcake, but wrestled under
many different identities from the late 1970s until the late 1990s.  There is no question that
his popularity between 1988 and 1990 was up with the biggest names in the sport and
many understand the path that his career was heading in prior to his life was altered during
the summer of 1990.  Fate interjected and professional wrestling was effected because of
it.  The fact that he has even stepped back into the ring after such a life-altering accident
has given many fans hope.  There was a continued dream and the thought of never giving
up.

Leslie headlined Starrcade 1994, the biggest event of the year for World Championship
Wrestling, in a World Title Match against his life-long friend, Hulk Hogan.  He is the master
of the sleeperhold and a former WWF World Tag Team Champion.  Beefcake nearly won
the Intercontinental Title many times.  Many thought that SummerSlam 1990 was going to
be his day for the gold.  Unfortunately for the business, it didn’t happen.

He originally began in the late ‘70s and competed under his real name.  Leslie also
wrestled as “Dizzy” Ed Boulder, the brother of Terry Boulder, who Hogan was competing as
at the time.  He wrestled in several NWA Territories, including Florida and around the Gulf
Coast.  Leslie made his big jump to the World Wrestling Federation in 1984 and became
known as Brutus Beefcake.  He initially was a heel and had Johnny Valiant as his manager.

Beefcake was in New York City on March 31, 1985 to participate in one of the most historic
wrestling cards ever promoted.  The event was entitled “WrestleMania.” Beefcake wrestled
David Sammartino, a man who was seconded by his legendary father, Bruno.  The match
was a wild affair and both men ended up getting disqualified.  Beefcake formed a tag team
with Greg Valentine known as the “Dream Team.” Valentine was, at the time, working out of
Jimmy Hart’s stable and both men retained their individual managers.

On August 24, 1985 in Philadelphia, the duo beat Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo for
the WWF World Tag Team Title.  Both men worked well together and their team remained
as champions for nearly nine months.  Even after the loss of the title at WrestleMania II on
April 7, 1986 to the British Bulldogs, Beefcake and Valentine continued to team.  Valiant
dropped out of sight several weeks later.  The Dream Team appeared at WresteMania III
before more than 95,000 fans at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan.  Beefcake and
Valentine beat the Rougeau Brothers.  Beefcake later helped Roddy Piper cut the hair of
Adrian Adonis.  He became known as Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake and fans often hoped
to see the scissors.

During the summer of ’87, he turned on Valentine and Hart and became a fan-favorite.  
Beefcake initiated a feud with both men, but only wrestled his former partner in the ring.  He
did get his hands on Hart as many times as he could.  After matches, he would trim the hair
of opponents.  Many of the organization’s jobbers got locked in his sleeperhold and
received unwanted haircuts by Beefcake.  Even Jimmy Hart received a haircut in late 1987
after a match between Beefcake and the Honky Tonk Man, a man who was holding the
Intercontinental Title.  He teamed with Rick Steamboat, Jim Duggan, Randy Savage and
Jake Roberts on November 26th at the first Survivor Series.  The popular team beat Hart’s
stable.

The turn over from 1987 to 1988 saw Beefcake’s popularity soar.  He got a big win over
Valentine on the March 12th edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event.  The WWF World Title
was declared vacant during the weeks leading up to WrestleMania IV, but Beefcake was
not a man focused on getting through the tournament.  He was instead preparing for a
match with Honky Tonk for the I-C Belt.  The event was held on March 27, 1988 at the
Convention Center in Atlantic City.  Beefcake won the bout by disqualification, but failed to
capture the gold.  During the April edition of NBC’s Saturday Night’s Main Event, he
wrestled another member of Hart’s stable, Danny Davis.  Beefcake beat him.

In 1988, he got locked into a brutal feud with Ron Bass.  After a preliminary bout on
television, Beefcake saved Jim Evans from a continued beating by Bass.  He cut up Bass’s
hat, which was left behind.  Beefcake beat Tom Burton in another squash, but was in-turn,
attacked.  It was pure revenge.  Bass whipped him and left him injured.  Beefcake was
unable to make the SummerSlam pay-per-view in August, where he was scheduled for
another Intercontinental Title shot.  In his place, the Ultimate Warrior dethroned Honky
Tonk Man and ended his long reign as champ.  The Warrior was a fan favorite and so was
he.  The chances of getting back in line for a title shot meant he would have to jump back
to his old ways.  Maybe bring back Valiant.  But Beefcake didn’t change his ways and
remained one of the top figureheads in the WWF.  He beat Ron Bass in a hair vs. hair
match on January 7, 1989 in Tampa, Florida.  After the match, he cut Bass’ hair and ended
the long war.  

Beefcake feuded with Ted DiBiase for several months before joining Hulk Hogan’s side in
his fight against Randy Savage and Zeus during the summer of 1989.  He became Hogan’s
number one ally in the power struggle.  On August 28, 1989, Beefcake and Hogan
defeated Savage and Zeus at SummerSlam.  Hogan got the pin on Zeus.  The two teams
would pair off again in December for a special pay-per-view two days after Christmas.  
Beefcake and Hogan again won, but this time in a cage match.  The battle was finally over.  
1990 began as it normally would and the Royal Rumble was the first major scheduled
event.  Beefcake wrestled the Genius, a Hogan adversary and a Mr. Perfect advisor, on the
January 21st pay-per-view in Orlando.  The bout ended in a double-disqualification.

During an edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, the Genius and Perfect conspired to beat
Hogan in a WWF Title Match by countout.  The duo also smashed up the World Title Belt.  
It was all fuel on the fire.  Beefcake wrestled Perfect on April 1, 1990 in Toronto at
WrestleMania VI.  He pinned his opponent and seemingly became the number one
contender to the Intercontinental Title.  Later in the night, Hogan was defeated by the
Ultimate Warrior and lost the World Title.  The Warrior held both the WWF World and I-C
Titles simultaneously.  The latter belt was soon declared vacant and a tournament
scheduled.  Beefcake did participate in that tournament, but was eliminated.  Mr. Perfect
went on to win the title.

It seemed that another Beefcake-Perfect match was on the horizon, but with gold on the
line.  The summer of 1990 changed everything for Ed Leslie and professional wrestling.  
On July 4th, Independence Day, he suffered severe facial injuries in a parasailing accident
on the beach.  Leslie was knocked into the water, and nearly drowned before being pulled
to safety.  He was rushed to Tampa’s Shriners Hospital where he underwent reconstructive
surgery for more than nine hours.  Leslie’s career was apparently over.  He went into
rehabilitation and eventually planned for a return.

His fans waited.  He performed the stunts in Hogan’s film “Suburban Commando” in 1991
and also made a brief return to the WWF under a mask.  He often ran out from the back
and attacked a rulebreaking wrestler unsuspectedly after they had finished a match during
television tapings.  Not many people were able to recognize the figure and he was really
gone before anyone could really question his motives.

In early 1993, Brutus Beefcake made his official return to professional wrestling.  He
appeared at a TV Taping on February 1st and was brutally attacked by Money Inc., Ted
DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster, the WWF World Tag Team Champions.  Fans were
outraged.  Hulk Hogan backed him publicly and officials quickly signed a tag match against
the champions for WrestleMania in Las Vegas in early April.  Beefcake and Hogan
surprisingly lost that title bout by disqualification.  Later in the evening, Hogan beat
Yokozuna in an impromptu bout and regained the WWF World Title.  Both Beefcake and
the new champ traveled to Japan for a tour.  He appeared at the Fukuoka Dome on May
3rd and beat former AWA World Champion, Masa Saito.  His big win came by pinfall and
the large audience was impressed.

Later in the year, Beefcake and Hogan both left the World Wrestling Federation.  The
WWF had been his home for nearly ten years.  Beefcake appeared in the film “Mr. Nanny.”
He returned to the Orient for the January 4, 1994 Tokyo Dome show and beat the Black
Cat before nearly 60,000 fans.  Hogan was also on the card and beat Tatsumi Fujinami.  
During the early part of the summer, Hulk signed a contract with World Championship
Wrestling.  A celebration in Orlando ensued.  Beefcake also signed with WCW.  Upon his
arrival, he took Jimmy Hart as his manager and was known as The Butcher, a heel wrestler
aligned also with Kevin Sullivan’s Dungeon of Doom.  The Butcher made a challenge
towards Hogan for the WCW World Title.

Promoters scheduled the match for the biggest show of the year, Starrcade, which was
held on December 27, 1994 in Nashville.  Hogan pinned the Butcher to retain his title.  In
1995, he faced a name change and became known as the Zodiac.  In September 1995,
Zodiac teamed with Sullivan’s crew for War Games.  Hogan forced him to submit.  Zodiac
competed against Randy Savage in a short match at Halloween Havoc and was defeated.  
He was also a participant in World War III in November.  Where he had been headlining the
show a year earlier, Leslie was not signed to wrestle at the 1995 edition of Starrcade.

A transitional period ensued and for a short period of time he was known as the “Man with
No Name.” He jumped sides and regained the support of the fans.  In 1996, he altered his
name again to the Booty Man.  After getting into a feud with Dallas Page, Booty Man
gained the managerial assistance of the Diamond Doll, who was renamed the Booty Girl.  
During the Uncensored PPV on March 10th in Tupelo, Booty beat Page in 16:01 of
wrestling.  He was on a very hot streak and it seemed that he was heading towards a major
singles title.  He beat Arn Anderson by pinfall during the March 18th edition of Nitro.  Booty
Man lucked into teaming with Rick Steiner on May 19th during the Lethal Lottery Tag
Tournament and beat Scott Steiner and Craig Pittman.  The duo lost in the second round
to Page and the Barbarian.

In July 1996, Hogan turned against the fans and joined the New World Order, a rebellious
faction of wrestlers.  The NWO was taking over the organization and there was nothing
anyone could do about it.  The Booty Man wrestled Ric Flair on August 5th and was forced
to submit to the figure four.  Afterwards, he was attacked by the Four Horsemen.  He
appeared to congratulate his longtime friend, Hogan after his August 10th World Title
victory in Sturgis.  Booty Man was attacked for his efforts.  He appeared in the film “Santa
with Muscles” with Hogan despite their wrestling feud.  In 1998, he changed his name to the
Disciple and later joined The Warrior’s OWN, a new group within WCW prepared to combat
the NWO.  Where it seemed that The Warrior and the Disciple could possibly do some
damage to Hogan’s faction, the idea was abandoned really before it could even get going.  
The Warrior left the organization.

The Disciple dropped out of sight and did not return.  Leslie also appeared in the 1998 film
“McCinsey’s Island” although billed under the name Leslie Edwards.  In 2000, he joined the
Superstars of Wrestling as Brute Force.  The group made a successful tour of Australia
during the summer and drew large crowds.  An estimated 10,000 fans witnessed the July
30, 2000 event in Sydney.  Force was beaten by the Barbarian.  

During 2001, rumors circulated about a possible Hulk Hogan-run independent promotion
out of the Orlando area.  Many thought Leslie would be one to join the new group.  In
August, reports were that he was in the northeast and reformed a tag team with his former
partner, Greg Valentine.  One gracious fan ran into him at an airport and had a good talk
with the down-to-earth grappler.  Most of wrestling knows that when he re-enters the
national spotlight, it will be a trip down memory lane.

TITLE HISTORY:
-A two-time co-holder of the NWA Southeastern Tag Team Title
      w/ Ken Lucas (1983) defeated The Midnight Express
      w/ Ken Lucas (1983) defeated The Midnight Express
-Co-holder of the WWF World Tag Team Title (1985-’86) w/ Greg Valentine


Research by Tim Hornbaker
Ed Leslie Wrestling History
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