The Professional 3 7.14.13 Top Brutus Beefcake WCW Gimmicks

Welcome everyone to another edition of the Professional 3 on 411wrestling.com! I’m Jon Harder and just another solid week of wrestling throughout the landscape of the USA and beyond. Of course, my unique stylings will come through strong with another edition of the P3 and trust me, when it’s all said and done, I’ll be struttin’ and cuttin’ on through.

Before we go any further, check out this week’s Hardway Podcast with Beyond Wrestling‘s Darius Carter. Darius had made quite the impression on independent wrestling over the past couple of months, and after this week’s interview, he surely made MORE enemies. An eloquent talent with a brash mouth, you can find his words of wisdom on Twitter at @MrDariusCarter.

You can also follow me on Twitter at @TheJonHarder. Follow me and tell me what you think of the P3 OR #thehardwaypodcast. I love all feedback.
Speaking of feedback and Twitter (great segue there), I try to stay active promoting and writing angry Mets tweets to my followers. However, every now and again, I want to get the people’s perspective on different topics I should write about. So I sent out a tweet at noon Friday asking for an idea, and the guy who APPARENTLY runs things around here sent me a response. Here is the tweet in question.

@TheJonHarder Top 3 Brutus Beefcake Gimmicks #brotherbruti #zodiac #disciple

— Larry T. Csonka (@LarryCsonka411) July 12, 2013

Obviously, you’d think I’d listen to this ludicrous idea.

And you thought right. Larry made a great suggestion for a column. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of writing about Brutus “the Barber” Beefcake before. In a way, he’s perfect Professional 3 column fodder. He has been around the wrestling game for over 4 decades. He survived through both the Rock-N-Wrestling Connection and the Monday Night Wars. Most of all, Brutus made his name the old fashioned way by doing whatever was asked of him. And what was asked of him, you ask? Whatever gimmick that came his way.

There are SO MANY different gimmicks Brutus has portrayed over the years. Anyone else could have taken “the Barber” moniker and flushed it down the toilet; yet Brutus maximized his minutes and made it into a very bankable and marketable character. He made a very successful tag team with Greg “the Hammer” Valentine and won the WWF Tag Team championships in 1985 as the Dream Team. He was even in the main event scene in 1989 and 1993 as a partner of Hulk Hogan. Somehow, the majority of those successes get left in the dust when compared to his career in WCW.

In World Championship Wrestling, Brutus was the brunt of a lot of laughs due to the characters he portrayed. Granted, they weren’t the greatest gimmicks in the world, but Beefcake made the most of them, just like he did with “the Barber”. With the exception of the Zodiac in the Dungeon of Doom, which I completely HATED as a kid, I enjoyed them all. And thanks to Larry Csonka (BLAME HIM FOR THIS ONE KIDS), you’ll get a look back at them.

Without further hesitation…

THE PROFESSIONAL 3: The Top 3 Brutus Beefcake WCW Gimmicks

1) THE BUTCHER

After starting off his WCW career in 1994 as Brother Bruti, the Hulkster’s right hand man, Bruti became the Butcher after Halloween Havoc 1994. For months, a masked man had been taking out the major WCW names in active competition with a lead pipe. After Hogan’s successful title vs. career Steel Cage match against Ric Flair, the masked man made another appearance. As soon as he was about to level the WCW champion with the pipe, Hogan stopped him. He took off the man’s mask…AND IT WAS BROTHER BRUTI! Suddenly, Kevin Sullivan and Avalanche (Earthquake) hit the ring and completely dominated the spent and exhausted Hulkster. With Bobby Heenan and Tony Schiavone repeatedly screaming, “The man butchered his long friendship with Hogan!”, the Butcher was born.

The Butcher actually main-evented Starrcade 1994 in a losing effort to Hogan. However, this Brutus Beefcake moniker was short lived. After SuperBrawl V in February 1995, Kevin Sullivan attacked Butcher and caused him to gain amnesia. This caused the Butcher to become “the Man with No Name”. Yes folks, that is a true story. After taking time to recover and gain back his memory after his persona the Zodiac, Brutus returned to form as…

The Booty Man vs The Gambler by TSteck160

2) THE BOOTY MAN

Originally, Johnny B. Badd was a part of a big feud with Diamond Dallas Page for the WCW Television championship in 1996. Once Badd left WCW to become Marc Mero in the WWF, DDP was without a feud, especially since Kimberly, Page’s Diamond Doll, was a big focal point in the rivalry. On an edition of WCW Saturday Night, the Booty Man made his WCW debut and solidified his affection for Kimberly. This all culminated at Uncensored, where the Booty Man and his high-knee finisher, took DDP out of WCW for a few months. Kimberly then became the Booty Babe and seconded the Booty Man out to ringside for the remainder of the character’s existence.

BONUS: The Booty Man’s theme

No words, folks.

The Booty Man was Mr. Ass three years too early. In fact, it was very strange seeing a gimmick like this in a very PG element that was Ted Turner’s WCW. It was a strange character, but Brutus made it work, Strange to see that the Booty Man is a well-remembered character. This character ended at Hog Wild 1996, as the Booty Man was thoroughly destroyed by the New World Order in August. The Booty Man was trying to join the group, and due to the non-hip factor that was with the Booty Man, Hogan, Hall, and Nash beat his booty. Nice play on words, eh? Regardless, the Booty Man left the WCW scene for 18 months and finally learned his true role. Hulk Hogan finally got a hip Beefcake in his nWo fold, as his one and only true…

3) DISCIPLE

In 1998, Hollywood Hogan got some well-needed muscle in his nWo Hollywood camp, as the Disciple became his bodyguard. Unbelievably, it was years later when I found out it was Brutus Beefcake. Completely altering his look and growing out a big beard, the Disciple became Hogan’s right hand man. In fact, the Disciple played a major role in Bash at the Beach 1998, where if it wasn’t for the Disciple’s “Apocalypse” finisher on DDP, Hogan and Dennis Rodman would not have beaten DDP and Karl Malone!

Sadly, the Disciple came to a screeching halt when the Warrior got his hands on him in September 1998. After serious mind games between the Warrior and Hogan en route towards Halloween Havoc 1998, the Disciple became a member of the One Warrior Nation and left Hogan’s side. I HATED that as a kid, since I felt the Disciple worked perfectly with the Hulkster in that form. My personal favorite of the Beefcake WCW personas, the Disciple made the most of another opportunity.