Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake appeared on Prime Time with Sean Mooney this week to promote his upcoming autobiography, Cuttin’ & Struttin’. Toward the close of the show, Mooney asked him about recent tweets that revealed a falling out between Beefcake and his longtime friend, Hulk Hogan:
“Things change. He changed a little after he split up with his wife, Linda. He became a little different. He was on his own and I was still married, but mine was going bad too. I had then met a new person in my life, Missy, and we were hanging out together and things were going good. Then we all got together. I was thinking about trying to get back into Florida and get reestablished here and then all of the sudden, bam, there was an incident. Some words were exchanged between Terry and Missy and that conversation kind of caused a huge rift and things started going bad at that point.
“He didn’t know her. They had spoken on the phone a million times, it wasn’t like he wasn’t familiar with her. When she got here, maybe he had some perceptions or some ideas about her, thought maybe she was wilder than she was, I don’t know. He said some things to her, maybe about getting together, but Missy wasn’t into that kind of stuff. So Missy shut him down big time, and he didn’t take it well.
“It’s like, ever since that, the lord says forgive and forget, you know, whatever. But I guess he hasn’t been able to move on past it. If he’s got a problem with her, he’s got a problem with me.
“I talked to him on the phone one Christmas a couple years ago for an hour. He says he’s into god, he’s all this and that and I said ‘Well, brother, there’s got to be some way that we can work this out so that we can all get along on a social level. Can’t we just bury the hatchet?’ Basically, he said ‘No, we can’t.’ And I go ‘That makes no sense whatsoever. What do you mean? Let’s just move on, grow up, whatever,’ and he just said he couldn’t do it, he wouldn’t do it, and basically, that was the last time I talked to him.”
Rush’s Analysis: It seems odd that this all went down a few years ago and yet only recently has it spilled over onto Twitter. In the end, it’s rare that anyone comes out of a social media battle over a personal dispute looking very good, so here’s hoping the whole thing dies a quick death.
As for the interview, Beefcake came across as a pretty likable guy with lots of interesting stories to tell. He was concerned with giving away too much from the book, which limited this interview’s potential, but it’s hard to blame him.
Wrestling fans who value work rate have always been quick to dismiss or ridicule Beefcake, but there’s no denying he’s been a part of some iconic wrestling moments and eras, from joining the WWF just as the burgeoning Rock ‘N Wrestling relationship with MTV was giving way to the first WrestleMania, to hosting The Barber Shop during the legendary Rockers breakup, to riding shotgun throughout the second half of the NWO’s run in WCW.
Conrad Thompson coined the phrase “Brutus the F**king Barber Beefcake” as an ongoing bit on his podcast over the course of the past year, and it appears to have provided Beefcake with something of a resurgence in popularity with listeners of the show and Twitter followers. Beefcake himself has even adapted the hashtag BTFBB. It seems like the best possible time for him to release a book and, following this interview, I’m looking forward to reading it.
To listen to the entire interview, which covers earlier parts of Beefcake’s career, the introduction of the Barber gimmick, and details of his parasailing accident, check out Prime Time with Sean Mooney.
Please credit PWPodcasts when using any part of this transcription.
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