Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake Going Into WWE Hall of Fame

Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake is WWE‘s newest Hall of Famer. Ed Leslie, Beefcake’s real name, will join the likes of D-Generation X, Harlem Heat, The Hart Foundation, The Honky Tonk Man and Torrie Wilson as an inductee during WrestleMania weekend. Sports Illustrated broke the news on Monday and shared an interview with the 61-year old.

“This is the culmination of a lifetime’s worth of work,” said Leslie. “I’m grateful to the WWE, and I cannot wait for the tremendous honor.”

It hard to imagine Brutus The Barber being anything other than a WWE Superstar, but according to Leslie, his original dream was to play Major League Baseball.

“I always thought I’d be a baseball player,” said Leslie. “I used to watch wrestling at the armory in Tampa as a kid, and I always enjoyed it, but never in my wildest imagination did I think I could do it. As a kid, I idolized Pete Rose and Mickey Mantle, and I actually played ball with Wade Boggs. Now we’re all Hall of Famers.”

Leslie started his career in 1977 in Tampa alongside with Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) and the duo actually broke into the wrestling business together as the Boulder Brothers.

“I never went to a wrestling school,” said Leslie. “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.”

In 1984, Leslie signed with WWE and was given the heel persona, “Lucious” Johnny Valiant. To Leslie, learning t be a heel taught hin the intricacies of professional wrestling. In that lesson, Leslie was well-equipped to bring “The Barber” into it’s now Hall of Fame existence.

“It was a big pretty big challenge to create ‘The Barber,’” Leslie said. “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.”

Beefcake would go on to participate in seven of the first nine WrestleMania’s and would eventually start another wrestling journey in WCW.

“I looked at everything as an opportunity,” said Leslie. “I thank my mom and dad for that. Somehow, the little kid from Tampa had this incredible personality deep in him, and, for me, it was just a matter of pulling it out.”

“I’m filled with amazing joy and happiness to have touched so many lives,” said Leslie. “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.”