If Brutus Beefcake had that facial injury today…

[fg]

…would he be allowed to wrestle considering what we know now about head injuries?

I would say no. Some person said that Brutus shouldn’t have never came back especially after his 1994 match with Hulk Hogan.

[SmashTV]

Beefcake was my favourite wrestler from 88-90, and while I was happy when he came back, wrestling had moved on and he wasn’t the same performer. When Hogan arrived on the scene soon after, it was clear he was being sidelined. Did he even have a singles match outside of his Raw return match?

[XIII]

I think the thing that saved the Barber is that he always wrestled a really basic style without much of any high impact moves. So he could always work around any head/concussion issues.

Today most wrestlers have a huge amount of impact moves to contend with

[Deleted]

Beefcake was more of a "character" than an in ring performer anyway.

I can't tell you a good Brutus match but having said that, he was way more memorable than some bland guy in plain trunks who's probably had 20 five star matches nobody has ever seen.

His work as The Zodiac and The Disciple was memorable aswell. Didn't care for The Booty Man personally but I thought the other two looks were great and very memorable.

[Magnus the Magnificent]

Has he had any concussion-related issues after the accident?

Also, major props the the team who repaired him, he does not look like someone who basically had his face destroyed.

[pinja]

I liked him as The Barber, although I must have been three years at best seeing him. I had trading cards and some board game featuring him, so he'd stay with me beyond his WWF tenure. Next time I saw him, he was The Disciple and totally unrecognizable to me. I thought it was a great look and he slimmed down considerably, but my god, was his ring work awful.

Has he ever commented on how the injury effected him long term? Did he have headaches or other symptoms?

[sungod2020]

Nov 10, 2022 12:22:35 GMT -5 @negan said:

Beefcake was more of a "character" than an in ring performer anyway.

I can't tell you a good Brutus match but having said that, he was way more memorable than some bland guy in plain trunks who's probably had 20 five star matches nobody has ever seen.

His work as The Zodiac and The Disciple was memorable aswell. Didn't care for The Booty Man personally but I thought the other two looks were great and very memorable.

Well his match against Mr. Perfect at Wrestlemania VI was kinda fun, though i'm sure you can chalk that up to Perfect's bumping. 

[fg]

Nov 10, 2022 12:22:35 GMT -5 @negan said:

Beefcake was more of a "character" than an in ring performer anyway.

I can't tell you a good Brutus match but having said that, he was way more memorable than some bland guy in plain trunks who's probably had 20 five star matches nobody has ever seen.

His work as The Zodiac and The Disciple was memorable aswell. Didn't care for The Booty Man personally but I thought the other two looks were great and very memorable.

Yes he was memorable than a boring bland person who can put in five star matches. His theme slapped too.

[Savage Gambino]

A face injury doesn't necessarily mean head injury, if that makes any sense (probably doesn't lol). Unless they explicitly reported some sort of brain trauma from the accident, I'm sure WWE would just be concerned with him healing from the facial reconstruction.

Did Joey Mercury suffer any head trauma from his accident at Armageddon? Far as I can tell, the longest lasting ramifications from that was his subsequent addiction to painkillers.

[fg]

Nov 13, 2022 12:26:37 GMT -5 Savage Gambino said:

A face injury doesn't necessarily mean head injury, if that makes any sense (probably doesn't lol). Unless they explicitly reported some sort of brain trauma from the accident, I'm sure WWE would just be concerned with him healing from the facial reconstruction.

Did Joey Mercury suffer any head trauma from his accident at Armageddon? Far as I can tell, the longest lasting ramifications from that was his subsequent addiction to painkillers.

Thing is Joey didn’t have his face crushed like Ed Leslie. He just suffered a major broken nose but I see your point

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Beefcake was probably the 2nd or 3rd most over guy on the roster behind Hogan and Warrior. They’d did and would do what they could to keep him getting a paycheque.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Nov 13, 2022 19:20:02 GMT -5 Cranjis McBasketball said:

Beefcake was probably the 2nd or 3rd most over guy on the roster behind Hogan and Warrior. They’d did and would do what they could to keep him getting a paycheque.

I can definitely understand them keeping him under contract in case he was able to make it back into the ring. Of course he did but unfortunately it was like three years later and he was a complete shell of his former self by that point. Also let's face even if he wasn't over being Hogan's bud was always going to get him taken care of.

It's insane how stacked the WWF face roster was in 1990. Of course you had Hogan and Warrior but then after them you had Beefcake, Jake, Piper, Boss Man, Dusty, and Duggan. All super in their own rights and all of whom you could make an argument for being the #3 face after the big two.

[sportatorium]

Probably not. There's a wide pool of talent that would just move into his spot today and the companies move so fast through stories, it would be hard to bring him back at the same level.