WWE puts the sleeper on Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake

Photo courtesy of wwe.com


Earlier today, I read an interesting article over at tmz.com [that you can read by clicking here] that stated World Wrestling Entertainment [WWE] has sent legal documents to Ed Leslie [pictured above], better known to professional wrestling fans as Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, in an attempt to prevent him from using the Beefcake name while serving as a coach on Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling reality show that airs on the Country Music Television [CMT] channel.

In the cease-and-desist letter sent to Leslie, WWE claims they own the trademark to the Beefcake name and that Leslie stopped using the Beefcake name when he went to work for World Championship Wrestling [WCW] in 1995. Leslie stated in the article that the cease-and-desist letter is rubbish and has been using the Beefcake name since 2000 and hasn't heard a word or peep from WWE until now.

I can see why Leslie is upset with the letter sent by WWE and a lot of people will jump on WWE and make them out to be the bad guy because its cool and "in thing" now-a-days to hate on whatever is successful but I honestly don't have a problem with WWE doing this because they are simply protecting their intellectual property that they own and are the only ones who should be legally making money off of the Beefcake name.

Leslie does not own the Beefcake name and it is highly unlikely he was going to send WWE any percentage of the paychecks he gets from working on the reality show. As a result, WWE is well within their legal rights to disallow the use of the Beefcake name on Hogan's reality show as its their decision on how, when and where the name is used.

When Leslie had to change his name when he went to WCW, he should have realized then that WWE owned the Beefcake name and shouldn't be surprised nearly a decade-and-a-half later this is coming up.

Of course, some people won't see it this way and will continue to say that WWE is only doing this because Leslie is using the name on Hogan's show, which isn't affiliated with WWE, and that WWE is mad they aren't getting any plugs on the show by Hogan, Leslie, Jimmy Hart, Brian Knobs and Eric Bischoff.

To those people, I would like them to think about and answer this question....If you had your own company and owned certain trademarks, would you want someone using your trademarks elsewhere to make a profit without you getting anything in return? I thought not.