Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake (real name Edward Harrison Leslie) was a recent guest on the “Talk Is Jericho” podcast where he revealed how his ring name came into being.
Brutus got his wrestling name from Vince McMahon‘s wife, Linda McMahon who coined the name “Beefcake.” Hulk Hogan then suggested “Brutus Beefcake” and Leslie added “The Barber” part to make it unique. Leslie was initially doubtful about the name but eventually warmed up to it, as it was so unique that “nobody could forget.” Leslie also birthed the idea of putting opponents to sleep and then shaving their hair off as a way to add insult to injury. However, opponents weren’t at all happy about having their hair cut by him. He said,
“Vince’s wife thought up the name ‘Beefcake.’ So that’s how it went. Hulk and Vince sat in the office … [and] Hulk says, ‘What about Brutus? What about Brutus Beefcake?’ I had to get real creative. Nobody’s ever been a barber in our business, you know? So it’s like, okay, what can I do? Alright, well every time I wrestle a guy, I’ll put him to sleep. I’m going to cut his hair off. That’s definitely never happened in our business before, and hasn’t really happened since.”
