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WWE Hall of Famer known as Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake expressed some regret that he had been unable to see Hulk Hogan before he passed away at the age of 71.
Beefcake, whose real name is Ed Leslie, spoke to TMZ Sports on Saturday about his longtime friendship with Hogan. He said he had heard whispers that “The Hulkster” had not been doing so well, and he had thought about going to Hogan’s Clearwater, Florida, home to visit him.
“I was going to try to go to his house a couple of days ago. My wife said, ‘You should just go over there.’ And I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God,’ but if I go to the house and they say, ‘No, you can’t come in,’ it would have crushed me. So I didn’t, and now I wish maybe that I had tried to get in and tried to get to see him before he passed,” he said.
Beefcake was asked what he would have told Hogan if he had had one more chance to talk to him.
“I love you brother, and we were truly friends to the end,” he said.
Beefcake said Hogan’s friendship meant everything to him and that he had helped him break into the pro wrestling business.
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He recalled the great lengths that Hogan had gone to, to be there for him in his own time of need. Beefcake had been in a parasailing accident in July 1990, and Hogan had made the trip to see him.
“I was in a horrible accident and not expected to live. And he left his family in California. His wife was about to have a baby, his son Nick, to fly to Florida to be there, because the doctor said they didn’t think I was going to make it. And he flew there to be there for me.
“And when they brought me out of a drug-induced coma, and he said to me, ‘Don’t even think about it. Brutus, you’re going to live.’ And I did. And he was there for me at the moment I needed the most.”
Beefcake and Hogan teamed together at the very early stages of their careers. They were known as The Boulder Brothers at the time. He was known as Brutus Beefcake when he first got started in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The two also were in the main event match for World Championship Wrestling’s (WCW) Starrcade in 1994.
He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019.
Hogan died at a hospital on Thursday, an hour after he had had a cardiac event at his home.
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