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First off, I want to make clear that I am writing this article purely from memory and not doing any fact checking. In this case I think it would take away from the sentimental aspects contained within. This article goes back quite a ways to the late 1980's when I was just a young boy absolutely in love with pro-wrestling. I was not your ordinary kid who loved "Hulkamania." No, I was more the type that absolutely loved a good heel character. I can remember rooting for Piper and Orndorf during the first Wrestlemania and thought that Hulk and Mr. T were lame. I can even vividly remember the episode of "Piper's Pit" that occurred right before Wrestlemania I where Piper and Orndorf smashed food all over a poster of Hogan and Mr. T. I remember eggs, milk and bananas if my memory serves me right. Needless to say, I thought this was one of the funniest things I had ever seen at that time.

That having been said, I have to say that one of the things I despise most in the world of pro-wrestling is a bad face-turn. It makes me so upset when the WWF/E turns a good heel into a face only to have them be super cheesy. It just seems corny to me to have someone that cheats, lies and steal all the time all of the sudden have this major change of heart.

However, it was just this type of heel-to-face turn that caused me to become obsessed with one particular wrestler of the late 1980's: Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake. Now I enjoyed Beefcake when he was teamed up with Greg Valentine as half of The Dream Team. My friend Rick and I as kids used to call ourselves by this same name and once we found out there was a tag team named this, well they became one of our favorites. But once Brutus broke out on his own as "The Barber" I was completely entranced by him as a wrestler.

Brutus was by no means a great "technical" wrestler and his finishing move was simply a sleeper, but boy when you're 10 years old he sure was entertaining. Beefcake had some great feuds, the best of which was with "The Outlaw" Ron Bass. Bass fit everything I liked in a wrestler; he was cocky, arrogant, vicious and underhanded. However, when he took on Brutus, I couldn't stand him one bit. Then, finally, Brutus defeated Ron Bass and shaved his entire head for all to see. To me this is what added to the entertainment aspect of Beefcake, he actually shaved people's heads when he defeated them, to me this was simply awesome.

I also have to say that I feel that Brutus Beefcake was under-appreciated as a singles competitor. I feel that the WWF could have given him more of a push because as I remember he generated a great deal of fan response when he entered the ring. However, the WWF didn't see Brutus as a singles title holder and I even wonder if he would have gotten to beat The Honky Tonk Man for the IC title had he been healthy. But we all know how that went: Warrior crushed HTM in like 10 seconds and once again Beefcake was left dangling.

I think now as a 28 year old man with a job and bills that still tunes into wrestling when it's convenient, "I wonder if some little kid is sitting at home write now getting the same excitement I once did"" When we analyze move sets and decide how well a wrestler "puts over" shouldn't we consider the entertainment factor" As I mentioned before, Brutus Beefcake was by no means a great technical wrestler, but man was he ever entertaining. The next time you feel like ripping apart a WWE, TNA or whatever wrestler, remember that the entertainment has to be there because a great deal of the audience are kids. I have to take time to remember this and when I need to do so I think of Brutus "The Barber Beefcake."

by Ian Gustafson..