Insane Insights From Dark Side Of The Ring: Brutus Beefcake

Dark Side of the Ring Season 5 Episode 4 takes a look at pro wrestler Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake. Coming in this season, this was one of the episodes that I was looking forward to mainly because I heard about the parasailing accident but did not know the firm details of it.

The documentary even got to interview Brutus's surgeon Dr. Mutaz Habal which is quite the coup. Especially as he has the most knowledge on how he Saved Brutus's life and his face, that mainly was a big get for the documentary.

Also interviewed are Eric Bischoff, Greg the Hammar Valentine, Brian B. Blair, Missy Hyatt, Brian Knobbs, Missy Beefcake (Brutus Wife), and the man himself, Brutus Beefcake.

This episode enlightened me about that accident and other things regarding Brutus's life and pro wrestling career.

10. How Brutus Beefcake Met His Wife Missy

When the documentary starts to introduce talking names in this documentary, they introduce Missy Beefcake. Missy Beefcake came off a lot better in this episode compared to her involvement with the Marty Jannetty episode. She was so annoying in that episode and in this one, she was the complete opposite.

When it comes to how she and Brutus met, it was cool. it started in the 1980s as she somehow snuck backstage in the Boston Garden and got to meet Brutus and admitted that she loved him and had a huge crush on him.

Years later they reconnected, and this was when internet dating became a thing. Missy was talking to somebody online and they knew where Brutus was. So, after Missy tracks Brutus down and gets his number, they connect.

Missy originally wanted it to be a one-and-done type of relationship, but Brutus kept calling and they hit it off. Eventually, it blossomed into a full-blown relationship, and they got married. Now that was cute. Good for both of them and they are happy with each other.

9. Everybody Originally thought Beefcake and Hogan were Brothers, and Beefcake Ran with It

Hogan and Beefcake entered the business and in their first promotion, it was clear that they were super close together as ride-or-die friends. However, a lot of people in the locker room and promoters thought that they were actual Brothers.

So, Beefcake sees this as an opportunity, and both form the tag team called "The Boulder Brothers". He was called Eddie Boulder and Hulk Boulder. That is something that I did not know about the belief of them being real brothers was going on in the locker room and they ran with it.

Even Terry Funk believed it too and often gave Brutus the nickname Dizzy. The reason why was that he thought he was a male valley girl to Hulk Hogan and thus Dizzy Hogan became a thing.

8. Who came up with the Brutus Beefcake Name

With Horgan and Beefcake entering the WWF, of course, Vince wanted to change his name. I always knew that Hulk Hogan came up with the Brutus name as it was confirmed by a lot of other people, including himself. Hogan himself has said that too, but again Brutus'it's Hogan, the dude lies more than a politician.

What is something I did not know is who came up with the Beefcake name. That person is Linda McMahon, Vince's wife. Linda had that idea for a while and thought it would fit Brutus. Well, it did. What didn't work was that first WWF gimmick. Then again excluding his Brutus the Barber Beefcake gimmick the dude has had like 17 failed gimmicks.

His first gimmick was a version of a Chippendales. Brutus had to dye his hair black and cut it short. Vince saw this and thought there was no way this could not make money. Guess what, it didn't, and they had to pair him up with Greg Valentine.

7. Brian B Blair Was at the Scene

Again, I came in this episode with very few details of the parasailing accident. I knew it occurred and destroyed Brutus face, but I did not know the full details. One thing that I did not know was that pro wrestler Brian B. Blair was actually on the scene. Both he and Brutus were actually at a July 4th party on their one day off.

At this party, there was a ski boat, and it was set up for people to go parasailing. Brian originally wanted to go parasailing, but he did not feel like it was safe.

I wish Brutus had followed Brian's actions because he would not have gotten injured the way he did. However, it is important to note that the party had been parasailing for hours before the incident happened.

Speaking of which...

6. The Full Details of how Brutus got Injured

Let's get into the incident now. So, coming in I knew that this parasailing incident caused his face to be destroyed. What I did not know about was that Beefcake was not in the air parasailing but was the rope man.

What happened was that there was no real wind, which is kind of an important thing for parasailing to be safe. The person who was parasailing was coming in super-fast and came directly into Brutus's face. Beefcake did not see it coming and it's when he turned around that he had both knees of the person hit him and he fell over the boat.

When he got pulled out of the water, his lower jaw was sitting on top of his upper jaw. Holy Molasses that is scary! That is not all, Beefcake could not speak, and he was just gurgling to Brian B Blair who was trying to keep him awake. It is a miracle that he did not die instantly from this accident.

5. The Full Details of his Surgery

With how Brutus got injured, the documentary dived into his surgery. Thus, Dr Mutaz Habal was introduced. The first thing the doctor did was to clear his airway as Brutus was having difficulty breathing. That was immediately done, and thus Dr Habal went to work. He described trying to rebuild his face, like building a house.

The Surgery took a total of 16 Hours and they had to use titanium plates to rebuild his skull. Not only that, but they had to peel his face and scalp down to do it. I mean I am already creeped out just imagining how Brutus looked and how this surgery was done.

The biggest concern was his vision as his eye sockets were in rough shape. The eye sockets needed to be properly fixed and placed where they needed to be. Once that was done, the surgeon had to sew his eyes shut where Brutus couldn't see for 24 hours and was put in a medically induced coma.

My gosh, it's a miracle not only that Brutus survived, but that he still had his vision after this. Dr Habal is a miracle worker to fixes Brutus and successfully does the surgery on him.

4. How Sherri Martel Reacted to Brutus post-Accident

With Brutus now out of surgery, he got a lot of visits from people. One notable name who came to see Brutus was Sherri Martel. The doctors had to warn Sherri to prepare for what Brutus looked like because it was rough. Well, Sherri did not prepare.

Sherri took one look and just started screaming as soon as she got in the room. This got Brutus to laugh and choke on his spit with how Sherri lost his mind. If Sherri Martel has that type of reaction with the tough reputation that she has, then you know it had to be rough.

This incident was a real confidence booster for Brutus as this got him to stop feeling sorry for himself and to get better. Working with the cards that you dealt with was the mindset Brutus had. Honestly, that is a good one to have in general for dealing with life.

On a side note, Sherri Martel is getting her episode on Dark Side of the Ring and that is another episode I am looking forward to.

3. Hulk Hogan Left His Pregnant Wife to be with Brutus Beefcake

Hulk Hogan usually does not come across well in these Dark Side documentaries, but in this episode, it is the opposite. Hogan comes off well in this episode and despite their relationship being on non-speaking terms (Oh We Will Get to That) Hogan was always there for Beefcake when they were wrestling.

The best story was how he helped support Brutus in the Hospital. Especially as he needed someone at the hospital by his room, so Beefcake wouldn't panic after waking up. With Brutus parents not being alive during the accident, going through a nasty divorce, and not being close with his brothers and sisters, they had to call one man to help. His name is Hulk Hogan,

The thing that I did not know was that at the time, Hulk's wife Linda was pregnant, and Hulk decided to leave his wife to be with Brutus. That is how much Hulk loved Brutus and he would support and give courageous statements to Brutus. This is important because while healing if he panicked/moved, he would have lost one of his eyes.

2. The 2004 Drug Incident

Ahh Drug Arrests in the Pro Wrestling Industry. It should not be a surprise that this often happens with the abuse that pro wrestlers' bodies go through. Plus, in the era that Brutus wrestled, drug abuse was rampant.

Brutus wrestling career at this point is long over and Brutus was in a super bad state. He had a lot of economic issues and went from being a millionaire one day to selling his house the next. He had to move back to Boston with his ex-wife, which he hated.

At the time Brutus was working as a toll collector for a transit business to provide for his family. He had medication on him called BC Powder, which is an aspirin substitute. I looked up BC Powder and it is crazy how similar this looks to cocaine.

Of course, he brings this to work, which is such a great idea. Bringing any form of drug to your job is just asking for trouble. While at work BC Powder fell out of his pocket and another employee found it and thought it was Anthrax. With the fear of it being Anthrax, a panic occurred, and they had to shut down the train station.

When talking about the baggy, Greg Valentine says it was cocaine, but Missy Beefcake says that it was aspirin/BC powder backing up Brutus. I mean we will never know the type of drug that was in there, because I don't think the firm details of the police report was ever made public. However, I don't know if I buy Brutus's story.

Why you ask? Well in the newspaper story that was shown in the documentary, it stated that Brutus himself admitted that it was cocaine to the police. I have the screenshot of the story too, just read paragraph 3.

If he lied to the police here, then that is pretty shady. No, Brutus was not arrested for this incident, but he had to go into a drug rehab as a result of this incident. He also was fired from his job as a toll collector and Brutus admitted he was glad that he was fired.

1. Why Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake are not on speaking terms

With how close Brutus and Hogan were, it would surprise many that both are not even on speaking terms anymore. I kind of knew that their relationship was no more, but I never knew the full reason why. Well, we got a reason as to why and it has something to do with Beefcake's wife.

Missy (the wife) met Hogan for the first time in 2008 and was told by Knobbs, “You aren’t in the fold until Hogan says you are in the fold.” Yeah, that sounds like a thing Hulk Hogan would say.

The strange part is how in one moment Hulk liked her, but then immediately switched his opinion on her. Thus, Missy Beefcake is the reason why Brutus and Hulk's relationship became strange.

Heck Hulk even admitted that in an interview he recently did. I remembered hearing about that and again not believing a single word that he said. This is the same guy who said that he could have been the Next John Wayne in the movie business but "turned it down". Yeah, and Bob Ross wrote my letter of recommendation for art school. See how easy it is to tell stories.

Now, because Brutus and Missy say the same thing, I believe that is a true statement—a rarity for Hulk Hogan.

What sucks is that Brutus misses Hulk and is almost sad that their relationship ended. Even though Hulk inducted Brutus into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019, they have not spoken since. That was the last time they saw each other, which just sucks. I hope that they can both reconcile with each other in the future before either passes away, but that is up to Hulk Hogan

Many say that this documentary was missing Hulk Hogan, but I disagree. I am glad Hulk Hogan is not on these documentaries, because the man is a Bonafide liar. I don't believe the man one bit with the utter ridiculous BS that he says, and he would not add anything to this.

You have to take everything that man says with a gigantic fistful of salt and your goanna need the hand that was on those old Smackdown Entrance Ramps.

I liked this episode a lot. The MVP was Brutus Beefcake's doctor as he gave us insight on the surgery and Brutus's condition. All the talking heads were great as well and although I don't 100% buy Brutus Beefcake's story on the 2004 arrest, he came off pretty well in this episode.

The most important part is that Brutus is in a much better place today than he was previously. He is lucky to be alive with what he went through in this parasailing accident.

Next week's episode is going to focus on Harley Race. That one is going to be crazy as Harley Race has had such a crazy life with his car accidents.

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