The Mega-Maniacs

The Mega-Maniacs was the World Wrestling Federation tag team of Hulk Hogan & Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake that had two distinct runs as a team, one in 1989 and another one in 1993.

History

Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake began their careers more or less at the same time, quickly becoming lifelong friends and would team up from time to time. Their most well known "Pre-WWF" teams were as “Terry & Ed Boulder” and as “Hulk & Dizzy Hogan”,^[1][2] billed as brothers.

1989

During the summer of 1989, Tom Lister, Jr. began appearing at WWF arena shows, playing his character, "The Human Wrecking Machine" Zeus, from the WWF-financed film No Holds Barred; Zeus began targeting Hogan, the movie's top-billed star. Zeus teamed up with “Macho Man” Randy Savage in hopes of destroying Hulk Hogan. Faced with overwhelming odds, Hulk Hogan turned to his best friend Brutus Beefcake to even the odds.

At SummerSlam 1989, Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake teamed up to take on Randy Savage and Zeus in the main event, a clash that saw Hulk Hogan pin Zeus after his trademark Leg drop.^[3] Hogan and Beefcake would once again team up after being attacked in the locker rooms during the closing moments of the 1989 Survivor Series by Savage and Zeus.^[4]

It was decided that the feud had to be settled in a steel cage match, which was featured on a “Mini-PPV” as a double feature with the movie “No Holds Barred.” (The match was taped December 13, 1989, and aired two weeks later on pay-per-view.) Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake were successful in the cage, after which Zeus was not seen in the WWF.^[5] After the steel cage match, Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake both went back to working singles matches.

1993

In 1990, Brutus Beefcake suffered a devastating face injury during a parasailing accident that forced him to retire from in-ring competition.^[6] After an aborted comeback attempt in late 1991/early 1992, Brutus Beefcake finally felt he was ready to get back inside the squared circle in 1993.

On February 1, 1993 (shown on Television February 15), Brutus Beefcake faced off against “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase with his Money Inc. partner I.R.S. and manager Jimmy Hart at ringside. I.R.S. would interfere in the match with Money, Inc. double teaming Beefcake, even going so far as to hitting him in his surgically reconstructed face with a metal briefcase. The actions of Money, Inc. were so horrible that lifetime heel (bad guy) Jimmy Hart took objection to it and tried to protect Beefcake from further harm.^[7]

At this point in time, Hulk Hogan was not active in the WWF, having gone into semi-retirement a year earlier, but the attack on his lifelong friend brought the Hulkster back to the WWF. With newly turned babyface manager Jimmy Hart at their side, Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake joined forces, swore vengeance on Money, Inc. and then officially named themselves “The Mega-Maniacs.”

Due to the attack by Money, Inc, Beefcake took to wearing a red and yellow protective facemask when competing in the ring and Brutus's entire outfit changed to red and yellow as a show of unity with Hulk Hogan.^[8]

Leading up to WrestleMania IX, the Mega-Maniacs took on the Beverly Brothers during house shows^[9] to get ready for their shot at the WWF World Tag-Team titles at WrestleMania. The Mega-Maniacs were not successful in their challenge as they lost to Money Inc. via disqualification when Hogan attacked the champions with Beefcake’s steel face plate.^[10] Later in the night, Hogan would win the WWF World Heavyweight Title in an impromptu match against Yokozuna, when Yokozuna challenged Hogan to a match immediately after winning the title from Bret Hart the same night.^[11]

The Mega-Maniacs would team up and take on Money, Inc. several times during the months of April and May on the house show circuit with the World Champion not defending his title once. Hogan would eventually lose the title to Yokozuna at June's King of the Ring pay-per-view, and both he and Beefcake would leave the WWF soon after.

References