All language subtitles for S05E04 Dark Side of the Ring

And listen to the ovation
for Brutus the Barber!

[narrator] Fan favourite,
Brutus the Barber Beefcake,

helped define the golden age
of the WWF

with his larger than
life persona.

The blades are part of me!

Brutus is known for
cuttin' and struttin'.

He was very popular,
very charismatic.

But backstage, Brutus had to
fight for respect due to a

lifelong friendship with
the industry's biggest star.

Wherever
Hulk Hogan goes,

Brutus the Barber
Beefcake goes.

It's the number one
Hulkamaniac ever.

Hulk took him under his
wing like a little brother.

They were best friends.

So why would you not want
to help somebody that

helped you so much?

Everything I was getting is
because I worked my ass off.

While at the top
of his career,

a devastating accident
leaves Brutus shattered...

This was one of the most
traumatizing moments

that I have
ever witnessed.

His face is totally smashed.

And I'm telling everybody,
"My face is falling off."

I never thought
he'd recover.

He almost died.

Hulkster says, "You're gonna
live, you son of a bitch.

You're gonna get better."

...Leading to a
reversal in fortunes.

He had everything
and then nothing.

And a falling out with the
friend who had

carried him to the top.

Hogan is a class act, and
if you are loyal to Terry,

Terry is loyal to you.

But don't ever betray him.

♪

♪

In 1984, Vince McMahon's
WWF was transforming

the wrestling business
into pure spectacle.

And Ed Leslie, a young
wrestler from Florida,

soon became one
of the era's

most memorable characters.

I love Brutus...
so do a whole lot of others.

The fans like to be
entertained

and let me tell
you something,

this Brutus character
was entertaining

the hell out of them.

♪

I'm Brutus the
Barber Beefcake,

WWE Hall of Famer.

The crazier I got, the
wilder the things I did,

the people loved it,
'cause it's about

connecting
with the people.

His wrestling wasn't
even that great.

Please.
[Laughing]

Hello. I'm Nasty Boy,
Brian Knobbs,

one half of
'The Nasty Boys',

and I knew Brutus Barber
Beefcake back in the 80s.

In our era, it was
like rock star,

like the Rolling Stones
or something.

That's one of the reasons
I got in the business.

[Laughing]

Beefcake was a rock star,
right along with

everybody on
the WWF roster.

People would recognize you
no matter where you went.

I'm B. Brian Blair and
many of you know me as

one half of
'The Killer Bees.'

And I had so many
matches with Brutus

the Barber Beefcake that
I can't count them all.

Beefcake is a muscular
guy, basically...

um...
with a nice butt.

Beefcake! Beefcake!

Beefcake!
Everybody, Beefcake!

That's why they call me
the Beefcake,

'cause I had
the beefcakes.

He's holding his beefcakes.

Definitely sizeable
glutemus maximus.

God gave me one
hell of a body,

I'm gonna show it off.
I gotta say it, brothers,

I was the best
looking thing

that ever walked
through their doors,

that they had on TV.

Look at you,
sex pistol over there.

Shut up.

Well, that's what
my wife says.

She goes, "You're the
best looking wrestler.

I don't care what
anybody says."

You know watching
all of this stuff,

like I full on bought it,
all this stuff.

Like I'm such a
wrestling fan.

Like this,
this is not fake.

I started watching wrestling
on Sunday mornings.

One morning,
out comes this guy

and I just...

My eyes spun,
like, "hubba hubba".

My name is Missy.

I'm the wife of Brutus
the Barber Beefcake.

It was like tunnel vision.

Like, I am in love
with this friggin' guy.

Who is he?

The first time
I met Missy

in 1986,
Boston Gardens.

She snuck in the
backstage area,

and she come running
over and yelling,

"I love you!
I love you!"

I was like, a little taken
back at that point going,

"Oh, my God, ----,
this girl's beautiful."

Huge wrestling fan,
internet dating.

You know, you meet
guys online and,

"Oh, what do you like?"
"Oh, I like wrestling."

So I was talking
to this one guy.

I'm telling him, you know,
my Brutus Beefcake story,

and he says, "Oh, Beefcake
lives in Winchester."

I said, "Where? What?
I'm in Quincy, hello!"

So I texted him and I said,
"I want you to know that

I'm a huge Brutus Beefcake
fan and it, it's been

a fantasy of mine
to sleep with you.

And I just wanted to know
if you thought that was

possible." The phone-
ring ring ring!

[Clicking]
Hello? Hello?

Yeah, yeah, you know,
can we meet?

It was pretty
----ing exciting.

But I wanted it just to be,
like a one and done.

Like, I didn't think,
you know,

anything was gonna
happen from that.

[Laughing]
He kept calling.

When we started dating,
he'd say, "I'm your friend.

I'm, I'm your best friend."
And I used to say,

"I don't want a best friend.

I just want somebody
to love me."

And then fast forward,
I realized...

a friend is the best thing
that you can have.

If Brutus called you a
friend, it's huge.

Huge.

The base of all of his
goodness comes from there.

It's a friendship from his
childhood in Tampa, Florida,

that leads Ed Leslie
into wrestling.

While Ed will become
Brutus Beefcake,

his childhood friend
Terry Bollea will

transform into the wrestling
icon, Hulk Hogan.

Me and Huckster, we grew up
eight blocks apart.

We were all in the same
circles, same high schools.

He was in a rock
and roll band,

playing bass guitar.
You know,

I'd see him and
his buddies all at the beach.

They called it 'Mad Beach.'

I was just a young punk kid
hanging around.

I'm the kid that wouldn't quit,
and I always came back,

I always showed up.
They couldn't get rid of me.

One day, Hogan says,
"Guys, I'm gonna try to

break in the
wrestling business."

That was his deal.

He was a rock and roller
and wanted to be a wrestler.

So the phone rings,
"Hey kid.

Wanna be a wrestler?"

So we start working
out twice a day,

six days a week in our
little homemade gym.

And after like 12,
14 months,

we were both
monsters.

Terry gets the opportunity
to train professionally

with the legendary
Hiro Matsuda,

and then shares what
he learns with Ed.

Terry was getting stretched
in the dungeon and

it was very,
very difficult.

You'd fight for
your life and survive,

or you'd run out
without your clothes.

Whereas beefcake was
just basically tossed

straight from the
street to the ring.

He was very fortunate that
he had a great friend

like Hulk Hogan,
who nurtured him and

did everything he could
to put him in the ring

with the right talent to
get him to first base.

Well, a lot of people
don't know me because

I'm relatively new
to the business.

I've just come into the
scene, you know, recently.

Terry helps Ed break into
the industry by making him

his tag team partner.

Living together out of a
van in Pensacola,

the two are inseparable.

Whatever Hulk was doing,
Brutus was right there,

and Brutus was always
just his ride or die.

We were friends.

We were a bonded,
friends to the end.

People would always say,
"You must be brothers."

And we finally said, "I
think it's time just to say,

'Okay, yeah,
we're brothers'."

And go with it.
Our gimmick was,

we were bigger
and stronger and

better looking
than everybody.

The Hulk and his
brother, Eddie Boulder.

That's what we did,
'The Boulder Brothers' and

a bunch of different names
where we were brothers.

Dizzy Hogan, the
brother of Hulk Hogan.

And Terry Funk.

He named me Dizzy,

he's just like,
"You're Dizzy."

Making a lot of money
and everything, you know?

[Chuckles]
Kinda like a...

a male valley girl,
if you will.

Play with it a
little bit, you know...

count it once in a while.

-Lot of fun.
-Dizzy. Dizzy Hogan.

While Terry was
going off to stardom

he always had Brutus
right behind him.

The incredible...

After lighting up
the territories,

Hulk makes the jump to the
WWF and soon becomes

the face of Vince
McMahon's empire.

Hogan was over in WWF

from the minute
he got there.

I mean... the
immortal Hulk Hogan.

I mean, he goes down in
history probably having

the biggest career in
wrestling, ever.

Struggling to gain
traction as Dizzy Hogan,

Ed gets the opportunity of a
lifetime to step into a new

gimmick conceived by
Vince's wife, Linda.

Linda has this Beefcake
name in her head.

Hulk, he says,
"What about Brutus?

Like Brutus in Popeye?

What about Brutus Beefcake?"
And I'm sitting there

thinking to myself,
"Oh my God.

Here's my chance to wrestle
in Madison Square Gardens,

and my name is gonna be
Brutus Beefcake."

I couldn't even say it
without giggling and

laughing, and...

I was gonna be
Brutus Beefcake,

the Chippendale.

So I came out with spandex,
I had a bow tie with

rhinestones, I dropped
about 25 pounds,

dyed my hair black
and cut it real short,

and walked in to Vince's
office in this outfit,

and Vince nearly fell out
of his chair and said,

"Oh my God, how can
this not make money?"

Brutus Beefcake.

Beefcake was a
very colourful guy,

but he was an
average worker.

What's he gonna do?
Off the rope. Oh!

When they put Brutus
with Greg Valentine,

who's one of the premier
technical wrestlers

ever in this business-

solid, believable, hardcore-

it just really helped
Beefcake learn how to work.

Oh, look at that
move by Beefcake.

Beefer, to his credit,
adapted very, very well.

He was really finally
understanding

the art of the business.

He was green,
but he was good.

I could see the potential.

I'm Greg "The Hammer"
Valentine,

WWE Hall of Famer.

I was Brutus
"The Barber" Beefcake's

tag team partner.

Not only did we draw money,
but we had a lot of fans

that cheered the bad
guys, the heels.

And they,
they loved us.

Brutus was a chick magnet.

I mean, I could get
girls too,

but we're talking
about Brutus.

Boston is our town,
Hammer.

He talks too
much sometimes.

-The Fabulous Moolah.
-Look at that face.

Look at the face on her!

He gets on a whim,
and I go, "Shut up, man."

[Laughing] No but,
we were a

perfect combination
back then.

Match made in
dream team heaven.

Our matches were,
were incredible.

The people went
nuts over them.

That was the point where
we knew like...

we made it, brother.

Tag Team Champions.

After almost 3 years of
success as the Dream Team,

the decision is made to split
the pair and for Brutus to

become a colourful
new character.

They hand me this white
cosmetology jacket,

and they give me a pair
of scissors and say,

"Now you're The Barber!"

What, what,
what do you mean...

I'm The Barber?

Don't you think you
maybe should 'a

give me a little warning?

First thing I do is go in
the dressing room and

just start breaking
everything I could find.

Finally they, somebody
went and got,

found Hulk, said,
"You better go get,

find Beefcake,
'cause he lost it.

He's s tearing
the place up."

So he comes in,
"What's going on?"

And I said,
"What's going on?

This is what's
going on. I quit!

This is bullshit!"

What does a barber
do in wrestling?

He says to me, "What if you
use the sleeper hold

and put your
opponents asleep?

You get the
scissors and you

cut off some of their hair."

Look it, he's got
a pair of scissors.

The guy thinks
he's a barber now.

Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake
he wants to be known as.

[Laughing]

I was struttin'
all over the ring.

We're gonna talk about
struttin' and cuttin' here.

And then cut.

Remember, it's not
whether you win or lose,

but how you cut the hair.

You could see that
Eddie had matured,

and he was taking strides
that made Brutus Beefcake

into one of the
premiere WWF characters.

What are you gonna do
when The Barber and

Hulkamania run
wild on you?

Definitely didn't hurt
to be Hulk's friend,

and definitely Hulkster
helped Brutus out big time.

Any time they mention
Brutus Beefcake

they always mention,
"Oh, well,

he's Hulk Hogan's
best friend."

It can help and it can
hurt you because

jealousy of the friendship.

That's all,
that's all it is...

Jealousy.

I'm Missy Hyatt the
First Lady of wrestling.

Or, I like to be called
the Walking Riot,

and I'm really
good friends with

Brutus
"The Barber" Beefcake.

Whether he was
Hogan's best friend,

he wouldn't have been in
WWE for as long as he was.

Unless you draw
money for Vince,

you're not
gonna be there.

People could think
whatever they want,

it didn't matter,
I didn't care.

-And a Slingshot!
-Oh!

I was good at what I did.
I was at the top of my game.

It's all over!

We had WrestleMania
in March,

beat Mr. Perfect,
and then the next step

was SummerSlam,
take the belt, boom,

and get to where
I was supposed to be.

But then Brutus was in

a catastrophic accident.

I can picture this like
it was yesterday...

It was living
a nightmare.

Nobody knew whether
Brutus was gonna live

or whether Brutus
was gonna die.

Here we are.

Holy cow, we're in
Lutz, Florida,

at the lake house,

scene of the crime
where Brutus- ha-

nearly lost his life, man.

This was a heck of
a party house, guys.

There was no other docks,
there was not as

many houses and stuff
as there is.

[Cheering]

By 1990, Brutus "The
Barber" Beefcake is

one of the most popular
stars of the WWF.

July 4th, and I
had one day off.

[Chuckling] So,
I'm gonna party

like it's the
end of the world.

We're in the boat,
we're gonna have a band

set up later on the outside
in the back, and,

and we're gonna
party all night.

Mike Hannis, who's a
friend of Beefcake's,

he had a really fast ski
boat and he liked to

take people parasailing
around the lake.

Everybody was
having a great time.

We had just been
parasailing for hours.

Several people had
had near catastrophes.

So, we're actually thanking
our lucky stars that nobody's

hurt doing the
parasailing today,

and we're done.

And then Brian Blair,
The Killer Bee,

and his friends,
a couple of people,

came roaring in and they
wanted to parasail.

I wasn't about to go up
there because it didn't

look like the safest thing
in the world to me.

But a friend
of mine, Tracy,

wanted to go up
in the parasail.

Mike, he's like, "No, no,
we're, we're done."

And they wouldn't relent.
Mike finally just,

he's pissed, he told us,
"Alright, alright."

But at that time,
there's no wind to

fluff the parachute up.

Beefcake stood in the water
above his waist.

Myself and another guy
named Paul was

holding up the parasail.

Eddie's responsibility as a
rope man is to communicate

with the person about to
take off in the parasail,

and he also has to
communicate

with the boat driver.

So I'm out in the
shallows here

trying to get the
people set up,

up there on the grass.

We got everybody
ready to go.

Mike just said,
"---- it, I'm going."

And just took off.

Eddie drops his hand

and as he does,
he turns in,

and so he's right in
Tracy's line of fire.

Right in her flight path.

She's coming right to
the back of my head.

It's happening so fast,
nobody can even yell,

"Look out! Move!"

Anything.

As she sees that she's
not getting lift,

she buckles her knees up to
try to clear Eddie's face.

And I turn around just in
time to get her knees

right in the face.
Boom.

It hits me so hard that it
pulls me out of the water,

and I do a, what's
called a 'gainer',

where your feet
go over your head first

and then come
back down.

And by the grace of God,
I wasn't knocked out.

And I'm down, like,

trying to get my
shit together.

Can't see a thing,
can't breathe...

and nobody has
any clue that

I've been mortally injured.

I ran as quick as I could,
grabbed him from the water.

Everything was shattered
from the nose,

the cheekbones,
his whole upper jaw

was sitting on top
of his bottom jaw.

I force my hand
in my mouth.

I lift my palate up, saying,
"My face is falling off!"

[Mumbling]

He couldn't speak.
He tried to speak,

but it was only gurgles
coming up from his throat.

While we were waiting for
the ambulance to drive,

I just kept Eddie
up and conscious.

Trying to keep him
from falling asleep.

I didn't know anybody
could be hurt that bad

and still, and
still be alive.

They rolled me into
the emergency room,

and they take my blood
pressure, realized it's like,

200 over 100
or something.

Next thing you know,
they're yelling,

"Code blue! Code red!
Code purple!"

And finally x-ray my head
and realize

that my face is gone,

and they have no
idea what to do.

It's the 4th of July,
and the phone rang.

So the guy on the phone
said, "It's Brutus Beefcake.

He is severely injured,
and they need your help

immediately." I said,
"Brutus, Beefcake?

Never heard this name."
And then my son yelled,

"Dad, this is Hulk
Hogan's partner!"

My name is
Mutaz Habal,

and I am a
plastic surgeon.

By the time I arrived,

I remember I asked
because he was so big,

"How can somebody
smash him like this?"

I said, "Well, Doc, please
just ----ing kill me,

'cause I'm done.

I can't take it
another minute.

The pain is unbearable."

He was totally fractured.

Of course, the first thing
we want to determine

is that he had
a good airway.

Because if a person
cannot breathe well,

or there is something
obstructing the airway,

of course
they can pass.

But I was more worried about
that he may lose vision.

Working over the
course of 16 hours,

Dr. Habal and his
team of specialists

reconstruct Brutus'
entire face.

It was like
building a house.

And I really always like
to build the house

from the stable area
to the unstable.

A lot of his
skull was stable,

so I started
from the top.

They cut me
from ear to ear,

across the top
of my head,

peel my face down

and my scalp back,

and then using
strips of titanium

he's gonna
rebuild my skull.

The most important thing
in the face is

where the eyes go,
how far they are.

Put the eyes in
position,

put the nose where he is,
and put the upper teeth,

the lower teeth, and then we
sew the eyelid together so

the person would not be able
to see for 24 hours at least.

After the surgery,
they took me to ICU to,

in a drug induced
coma, basically,

for me to wait for a
couple of days to see

what happened if I
kept on living.

[Laughing]

I can't see,
I can't speak.

Everything I had
worked 20 years

for was gone,

and wasn't coming back.

Following surgery to repair
Brutus Beefcake's

shattered face,
he is put into

a medically
induced coma.

With no guarantees
for his survival,

doctors contact the
one person Brutus

can depend on.

They said, "We need somebody
there to talk to him.

Because if he, if he
wakes up and he panics,

we need to have a
familiar voice."

Both of my parents had
died within two years.

I was going through
a horrible divorce.

I had brothers and
sisters and family, but...

I mean, I've been gone
for 15, 20 years

on the road, so...

the only person that
I was really close to...

was Hulk.

Concerned about
his best friend,

Hulk Hogan leaves his
pregnant wife in California

to be at Brutus' bedside
when he wakes up.

They said, "Look,
we bring him out of this

drug induced coma,
we have no idea

what's gonna happen.
Is he gonna freak out?"

Hulk, he says,

"Don't worry
about it, Brutus.

I'm gonna take you
home to California.

We're gonna
get you better.

I don't care what the
doctors say,

you're gonna live."

The only luck thing
about for him,

is the impact was right
in the middle of his face

between the eyes.

If it was on the
right or on the left,

he would have lost vision
in one of those eyes.

Surviving is a miracle.

To regain his vision is,
is also a miracle.

Terry was there, you know,
talking to him.

They're walking down
the hallway and

Brutus' eyeball fell out.

Like, boop!
Popped out of the socket.

And Hulk's looking at my
eyeball popped out, he says,

"Oh, my God, Doc,
we gotta get him back."

Eddie's recovery had to be
extremely difficult

because he had to
learn to speak again.

He ate liquid for
so long because,

think about it,
you can't chew food.

This is a gruelling,
gruelling comeback.

I know he had a lot of
prayer warriors out there.

He had a lot of people
pulling for him.

Sherri!

Look at the way
she's dressed.

Sherri Martel. Sherri Martel
and I were friends.

♪

So Sherri comes
to see me,

and the guys are like,
"You can't react."

They were trying to
prepare her- [Laughing]

"When you see him you can't
react, because if you do,

you might, you might
totally freak him out."

The door opens.

Sherri has like this big
stuffed animal and cards

and stuff, takes one look
at me and goes-

[Screaming] "Ah!"
[Laughing]

Like she just saw a
----ing ghost or something,

like screams. First thing
they do is like, grab her,

throw her back out of
the room like, "You...

you tryin' to kill
the poor guy."

And she's out in the hallway
screaming and crying,

going, "Oh my God!
Oh my God"!

[Laughing]

I was almost laughing,
I was like,

"That was the
funniest shit ever.

That was real ----in'
funny shit."

It set the tempo kind of
for me, you know?

It's like I can't
feel sorry for myself.

Sometimes you don't
get the cards you want,

but you gotta
play 'em anyway.

The only thing I had hoped
for was to at least be

able to recover so I
could do something.

You know, and nobody
expected me to

ever really come
back to wrestling.

[Exhaling sharply]
I remember he,

he pulled up at
my house and

I looked at him and I go,
"Oh my God."

I just felt so bad for him.

As soon as I was able to
get back in the gym

and start
working out,

my body responded instantly.

It was like magic.

I'm with Hulk, we're in
California, training,

and getting better
and getting better.

The doc says, "You just,
you can't wrestle."

And I had no intention
of wanting to get in,

into the ring and die.

With recovery
costs mounting,

Hulk ensures that Brutus
doesn't go broke.

Doing the movies...

you know, I was looking
for a new career.

Hoping for something
to come out of this.

I wouldn't look behind
me for a million bucks.

I hate to say he was
carrying Hogan's bag,

that's not right.

You know, first of all,

you have a lot
of jealousy here.

A lot of, probably a lot of
people glad he got his

head knocked off,
and that's bullshit.

People look at him like,
"Oh, Beefcake,

all he does is carry
Hogan's bag." Or,

"He carries Hogan's drugs
so if he gets caught

it, you know, it'll go
on to Brutus."

He had his gimmicks

in his bag and,
you know, money.

He trusted me with his
money and everything else.

Ladies and gentlemen!

Eager to get back
into wrestling,

Vince gives Brutus his own
regular interview segment

called 'The Barbershop.'

It's Barbershop
time, Brian.

This is what you've
been waiting for.

[Cheering]

He doesn't look different.

You are the ones who's
responsible for bringing

Brutus "The Barber"
back to the WWF!

The Barbershop
was fantastic.

Welcome to The Barbershop,
ladies and gentlemen.

The thing you
can't buy is heart!

But the Snake is
still standing.

No! Oh my God!

It could 'a went on
and on and on...

but The Barbershop was
destroyed by Sid

for WrestleMania eight.

That's the way they do things.

At WWE, they created it,
they destroy it.

Come on, Hogan!
You're a coward!

With The Barbershop
having run its course,

Brutus is taken off
WWF television

as Hulk takes a
hiatus from wrestling

due to the steroid
scandal that

engulfs the business.

They were counting on me

to deliver Hulk to them too,

to be prosecuted,
and Vince, too.

They thought I was gonna
be their golden goose.

Didn't happen.

I said, "No, no, no, none
of this shit ever happened.

I don't know what
anybody's talking about."

To help save his ass and

Vince McMahon's ass too.

Returning to the
WWF in 1993,

Hulk Hogan is reunited
with Brutus Beefcake

as his new tag team
partner.

Beefcake headed a match at
WrestleMania tagging with

Hogan against Ted DiBiase
and IRS Mike Rotundo.

It was another
gift from Hogan.

Big kick, Irish Whip.
Far side.

With the knee
right to the face.

The idea was, let me see
how I feel in the ring.

Do I feel like I can
do this every day?

'Cause it felt good.

Brutus' comeback
is short lived as

he's soon dropped
by the WWF and

returns to the
independent circuit.

It's not until Hulk signs a
massive contract and

joined WCW that Brutus
gets another opportunity

to revive his
struggling career.

He came with Hulk Hogan.

He was what I refer to
as the 'Hulk Hogan tax'.

Hulk didn't demand anything.

But we had an understanding.

[Laughing]

That if he wanted
something bad enough,

I had to pay for it.
[Laughing]

I'm Eric Bischoff, and even
though I'm here to talk about

Brutus the ----ing
Barber Beefcake,

I'm happy to be here.

Everybody in that locker room
knew that the only reason

Ed Leslie was in
that locker room

was because of Hulk Hogan.

In 1994, Ed Leslie
once again follows

his friend Hulk Hogan,
this time to WCW.

With the Brutus Beefcake
name owned by the WWF,

Ed cycles through a number of
different characters in WCW.

Butcher! The man
with no name!

Zodiac!

The Booty Man
coming out here.

I was able to
become a character.

I was able to do it with 4
or 5 different gimmicks.

In my mind,
that's an amazing feat.

It's like being a, a good actor,
like Mel Gibson.

Brutus thinks he's as good
as Mel Gibson as an actor?

[Laughing]

That made me laugh there.

That's a good one.

It's the Booty Man!

I mean, all them
other gimmicks

didn't get over at all.

Brutus pretty much conducted
himself professionally

while he was in WCW,
for the most part.

I think Brutus was there
for the party.

I'll be honest with you.

Yeah, he was a partier.
He was a drinker.

And I've been on the
back of his motorcycle

when we've had more than
a couple too many,

but I trust him
with my life.

The day I got fired from
WCW, I called him.

He actually saved
my life because

I was getting ready
to jump out the window

and he talked me
off the ledge.

Brutus was a saviour.
Brutus was a saviour.

Why do you have to
humiliate somebody and

give them all these
stupid gimmicks?

Brutus was treated
like shit at WCW.

After the Booty Man and
the Butcher and the

Man with No Name, Eric
Bischoff, basically saying,

"We can't repackage
Beefcake anymore."

Oh, okay, here's what
I'm gonna do.

I went home,
I went to Florida.

I spent 2, 3 months

growing my hair really long,

dropping my body
fat content to 5%.

45 years old and
shredded to the bone.

He looked like...

a god, he looked
like something

from Grecian times.

He was just sexy,
sexy, sexy... sexy.

I'm shvitzing over here.

Flew to Atlanta,
went to CNN Towers,

home of WCW.
Hulk says,

"I gotta introduce
you to my new disciple."

And oohs and ahs.

Who's this in the ring?

And then he says, "Oh,
did I mention that

that's Brutus Beefcake?"

So I stuck it right up all
their asses, boom!

Big hard bam right up the
ass with that one.

How about that?

Despite his radical
transformation,

Brutus fizzles
out of WCW,

but bigger problems await.

He had a money manager that
stole all the money and

went to, like,
Barbados or something.

Stole a lot of Hulk's too.

You're a millionaire one
day and the next day

you're selling your house.

I poured everything I had

into this home

where I planned on living
my life out, and now...

had to sell it.
So now my,

now ex-wife
takes my daughter,

moves back to Boston
where her parents live.

Brutus makes the

To provide for his family,

difficult choice
to move to Boston,

taking a job as
a toll collector

for the Metro Boston
Transit Authority.

And it was brutal to have to
live in Boston for

12 years in that cold,
miserable place.

He was in a bad marriage
living in an attic,

worked nights with rats
running across his feet.

That was the hardest thing
I've ever had to do in

my life, but I was doing
it for my daughter.

This particular time,
instead of Aspirin

I used to have these...

called BC Powder.

I don't know if you've
evernheard of it.

You just dumped the
powder in your mouth,

and you absorb it real fast.
One of my BC Powder

little packets,
fell out on the floor.

I did my shift,
packed up, left.

Lady came in,

saw this little, tiny thing on,
down on the floor,

picked it up...

when she tried to open it,
the powder just went poof.

And she started
screaming,

"Anthrax!
Anthrax"!

And there was that
big anthrax thing.

It was like, you know, it was
like COVID, you know?

And they shut the
train station down.

You want the truth or
do you want me to lie?

It wasn't anthrax.

It was cocaine.
[Chuckling]

If anybody falls
on hard times,

anybody who's got a problem
with drugs and addiction,

they make those kind
of stupid mistakes.

Unfortunately, this one
scared the hell

out of a lot of people.

It's Aspirin in a little,
like, a little packet.

Yeah. Oh, 100%.

But why wasn't
he arrested?

He wasn't arrested.

It was a big
embarrassment.

They made him
go to rehab.

Eventually, when I went
back for my review,

they fired me.
They let me go.

Which I was extremely
happy about.

Out of a job and with
his marriage ending,

Brutus is forced to reckon
with the toll wrestling

has taken on his body
and his life.

When you're a wrestler on
the road 350 days

out of the year,
your body is beat to shit.

Just to get in the ring,

nine out of ten guys

had to take something
for the pain.

You take a pill,
you have a little drink...

it's very habit forming.

I can't...
do these pills

and I can't do
this anymore 'cause it's,

it's, it's
gonna take my life.

And Missy took me in
and gave me a home

and a place to live.

And she was
there at a time

that could've
went either way.

His friends,
or, "friends",

would give him pills
and drag him around

to bars and say, "We got
Brutus Beefcake!"

Brutus is not a
loser like that,

but he had a habit.

He had a ----ed up life,

and he was
numbing himself.

We have weeded out

all of the assholes.

All of that is gone.

Use the force!

I had never played with it
though 'cause

I'm too afraid I'm
gonna break it.

Watch... shoop!

Missy Beefcake. Okay.

I don't even know how
he proposed to me.

He would always say,
"I want to marry you.

You're the love of my life.

Nobody's ever done the things
for me that you've done."

-Wow!
-How exciting.

Go ahead, Daddy.
Floor it.

Floor it, Daddy! Woo!

[Fireworks popping & crackling]

Happy 4th of July.

[Fireworks popping & crackling]

Cutie pie. Look how
happy you are!

[Fireworks popping & crackling]

She's an amazing woman.

She's beautiful, she's smart,
she's intelligent,

she knows what she wants.

And I love that about her.

I'm so happy that
he found someone,

that just tickles me to death.

Brutus returns to the
wrestling business in 2008,

this time with
Missy by his side.

We did the 'Hogan
and Friends' thing.

That was the first time
that I met Hogan.

But Brian Knobbs was
right there to tell me,

"You're not in the fold
until Hogan

says you're in the fold."

I was working hard and
wanting to get back to

Florida all those, you know,
those years I was there,

I want to go back to Florida.

We visited with Terry,

and everything was great.

We had a good time,
we went out one night.

Terry was singing my praises,
telling Brutus how wonderful

I was and how he was
so happy for Brutus.

And then we said goodnight,
and then the next day

we went over to
Terry's house,

and it was like
someone flipped a switch,

and he was really cold.

And I remember thinking...

something happened,
something's changed.

I don't know what set
him off, what happened.

Brutus Beefcake...

him and I had
a falling out.

It's got a lot to do with
the lady he's married to.

Um... no comment.

Hulk is a very great guy
and a very good friend,

and, you know, I can't
see him, you know,

being mad at ya unless
you did something.

I don't pry into people's
business too much, but,

you know, Terry said, I mean,
"I had to write him off."

His exact words.

"I had to write
Beefer off, and he's...

too much." I think Beefcake
took advantage of Terry.

And, you know, you can
only have that

happen so many times.

You can forgive so much, and
then you've got to move on.

No. No, not, not
in the beginning.

Not until they realized
that I was a take no shit,

Brutus isn't going out
working for $300,

not happening.

Then I became,
like, the threat.

"Oh, she's difficult."

I feel bad for Missy
'cause she's been

so misunderstood by
so many people.

I have witnessed
the monster,

that jealousy
is so horrible,

because she's so
beautiful, she's so loving,

she's so nice that
people hate her guts.

It's hard to have a
relationship with someone

year after year, 365,

you're partying,
you're hanging...

every day the phone rang.

Two, three, four times.
They, they were close.

And I know that
he misses him.

They are...

not talking.

Alright, so we're
doing a poster,

you gotta put a fist up and
make a mean look on

your face, 'cause you take
a couple of pictures.

Alright? Okay?
Come on.

-Awesome!
-Alright cool.

-There you go.
-Hey, thanks so much.

-You're welcome.
-Appreciate ya.

He is doing wonderful.

People are always
happy to see him.

The fans,
they come out,

they love
Brutus so much and

Brutus makes everybody feel
like he's known them

for so long when
he's telling his story,

like he's known you forever.

Yes?

They want to
shoot us together.

-Hey.
-[Laughing]

He went through a
horrible accident,

and today he's
back 100%.

That's just a lesson to you
in how strong Brutus is.

So, God bless him.

Valentine, Beefcake.

He was elevated because of
the company that he kept.

But wrestling's all politics.

You gotta have
talent to stay there.

And there's a lot
of jealous people

in the wrestling industry.
I'm happy for every dime,

every match that
Brutus ever had.

Despite years of
strained relations,

Hulk Hogan comes through for
his friend one more time

when he inducts
Brutus into the

WWE Hall of Fame
in 2019.

Please welcome
the immortal,

Hulk Hogan!

[Cheering]

Brutus went through
some really tough times.

I was there when
he had a terrible

parasailing accident,
but he came back,

and he made Brutus Beefcake
larger than life.

[Applauding]

-What you gonna do?
-"What you gonna do?"

...when Brutus
"The Barber" Beefcake

has a haircut just for you?

So please welcome Brutus
"The Barber" Beefcake

to the 2019 Hall of Fame,
brother!

[Cheering]

They did you really good.

That's the last time
you ever saw Hulk Hogan.

That's it.

This is the last time
you guys saw each other.

♪

Hulk and I were
best friends and

have been friends...
for years.

We could be friends again

at the snap of a finger.

How would I know
that, a, the guy

in the front row
heckling all the

wrestlers at The
Armory in Tampa

would become
my best friend?

You all know him
as Hulk Hogan.

-[Applauding]
-I love you, brother.

Thanks for all the
good times and

the good times to come.

[Exhaling sharply]
Yeah.

That's what my
ambition is, to,

to hopefully be able
to shake hands and,

and look him in the eye
and say, you know,

"Thanks buddy, for being
my friend, and...

and all that we've gone
through in our lives and,

you know, I, I love ya."
Boom.

But like I said before,
you get dealt your cards

you gotta play 'em.

And I'm perfectly,

super duper happy

the way it turned out.

That I got my Missy,

my soulmate,

to be able to spend my,
you know, my life with.