There’s a funny thing that happens to a lot of wrestlers when they write their memoirs. Their memory gets fuzzy. They see the past with rose colored glasses. They let bygones be bygones. They downplay their own misdeeds and bad behavior, and they put on their best face for the sake of securing a gilded place in wrestling history.
Someone didn’t give Brutus Beefcake the memo. Beefcake’s autobiography is a no holds barred tell-all in which no topic is taboo or off limits. Co-author Kenny Casanova told me when I was about a hundred pages in, “I got Beefcake to talk,” and he wasn’t kidding. Brutus isn’t shy about sharing anything, from the fan he went home with who turned out to be married; to the (very few) men who have heat with him; to the brutal parasailing accident that nearly cost him his life. It’s a page turning autobiography that WWF and Beefcake fans in particular will relish.
It all begins with baseball for Brutus, who was a stellar athlete as a young man. It was in those early days he met two future world-class athletes: Wade Boggs, who wrote the foreword for the book, and the immortal Hulk Hogan. Beefcake and Hogan were a few years apart as ball players, and it wasn’t until after high school, when both men began body building and then wrestling, that their friendship really took flight. As the Proverb says, “iron sharpens iron,” and Hogan and Beefcake pushed one another to the pinnacle of professional wrestling.
The saga of Beefcake and Hogan alone is worth the journey in the book, but it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Brutus takes you through his early days in the business to the evolution of the Beefcake persona to his time in Hollywood to his post WWF/WCW days. He goes into great detail chronicling the harrowing parasailing accident, a gnarly and gruesome tale best read away from the dining table. I happened to be read it on a lunch break at a Chinese buffet; not an easy task!
Throughout the book, Beefer and Casanova offer additional stories and quotes from many friends and in-ring rivals that enhance and support Beefcake’s tale. Hulk Hogan is never far away, of course, and the “bromance” between the Barber and the Hulkster is really a highlight of the book.
Struttin’ and Cuttin’ is a great wrestler’s story, a larger than life tale from a larger than life persona. It’s raw, honest, and often very funny. Having read the book, I can understand why Beefcake thanked Kenny Casanova so many times in his WWF Hall of Fame speech.
Order your signed copy of Brutus Beefcake’s memoirs at the WOHW Publishing website.