As noted, WWE announced today that Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake (Ed Leslie) will be inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame as part of the 2019 class during WrestleMania 35 Weekend.
Following the announcement, the folks at Sports Illustrated released an exclusive interview with Leslie, who spoke about receiving the honor of being inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On his reaction to the news that he is being inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame: “This is the culmination of a lifetime’s worth of work. I’m grateful to the WWE, and I cannot wait for the tremendous honor.
“I’m filled with amazing joy and happiness to have touched so many lives. My 41 years in the ring were an honor and a privilege, and I’m so happy to be joining the WWE Hall of Fame.”
On learning from veterans early on and coming up with Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea: “I never went to a wrestling school. So I learned the basics from the veterans, and that is how I learned my craft. It’s a tough way to learn, but there were people like Ivan Koloff and Mr. Wrestling who took a real interest in trying to help me.
“Terry and I were just a couple kids from Tampa living our dream. We had sat on the beach for endless days talking about wrestling, and then there we were, living it, working territories in Florida and Alabama with guys like Ox Baker, Bob Armstrong, and Professor Toru Tanaka. They took us under their wing and helped make us into what we became.”
On learning heel tactics helping prepare him to become ‘The Barber’ character later in his career: “Learning the craft as a heel changed my whole career. The heels are the ring generals and direct the matches, so I learned ring psychology and how to make a crowd respond. That run really prepared me to become ‘The Barber.'”
On Hulk Hogan helping him create ‘The Barber’ character and act for WWE: “It was a big pretty big challenge to create ‘The Barber,’ At first, I thought, ‘The Barber?’ I had no idea what to do. It was difficult, but I had help. Hogan was the guy who said I should put guys to sleep with the sleeper and then cut their hair. I thought, if that worked, it was going to be very exciting. And it worked big time.”
On reconnecting with Hulk Hogan in WCW at Starrcade 1994: “Terry is the best babyface of all time. Right from the beginning when we started as the Boulder Brothers, I had a good feeling that something special was going to happen to us in pro wrestling. Every hill we had to climb, we climbed. Reflecting back on my career, it’s been such an honor.”
Check out more from the interview with soon-to-be WWE Hall Of Famer Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake at SI.com.
(Follow us on Twitter @eWrestlingCOM or myself, Matt Boone, @MattBoone1984 for more exclusive backstage wrestling news and rumors!)
32 years after ‘The Barber’ was born at WrestleMania III, Brutus Beefcake is joining the WWE Hall of Fame https://t.co/SER0oFftV7
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 1, 2019
