Professional wrestler Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake stays sharp

Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake (Newshub.)
Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake (Newshub.)

"You know I love the blades, Gene! The blades are part of me!"

Nearly 40 years have passed since he first got in the ring, but professional wrestler Brutus Beefcake still has his blades at the ready.

The man they call 'The Barber' is a wrestling legend, whose star, at his peak, was as big as his blades.

"Meeting Hollywood people, having them more excited to meet us," he says.

"We were like the hottest show in town. And it was a special time."

If you don't know 'The Barber' - you're bound to know his best friend.

He grew up in Florida with Terry Bollea, known today to most by his ring name - Hulk Hogan.

"When he asked all his other friends, 'Hey you wanna be a wrestler and go on the road and all that?' everyone was like 'What?! Are you crazy? No way!' And then he asked me and I said 'Yeah, sure sounds like fun'," Beefcake says.

Hogan and Beefcake were wrestling's biggest ticket during its boom in the 1980s.

"What are you dudes gonna do when The Barber, the blade, and Hulkomania run wild on you?!" Hogan roared at the time.

It was a time when the thrills and the theatrics of professional wrestling outgrew the bounds of boxing arenas - and could fill whole football stadiums instead.

"The reaction of the crowd was so intense that I was shaking like this!” Beefcake says. “There was 100,000 people on their feet screaming, and it was something like you'd never experience,"

But the Beefcake's biggest bout was a fight for his life after a parasailing accident in 1990 that shattered his skull and rendered him blind.

"The doctors really didn't even give me a chance of surviving," he says.

"The operation that was performed on me by a doctor from Armenia, Dr Habal, was never done on a live person. They only rehearsed this surgery on cadavers."

He survived and returned to the ring in a mask - mere months after his face was rebuilt with 32 screws and 50 feet of wire.

And today at 59, it seems little has changed.

The Barber's got his blades, and he's open for business.

Newshub.