Beefcake - these days Edward Leslie, 46, of Winchester - voluntarily checked into a treatment program Monday, according to a source, after cocaine he admitted was his created an anthrax scare at the MBTA's Downtown Crossing subway station.
Sources said the man who acquired his stage name for hacking off the hair of his enemies in the ring had been working there part time as a fare collector - a job that pays $25,000 a year.
``He was a big star for the World Wrestling (Federation),'' Buck Woodward, a columnist for the online magazine Pro Wrestling Insider, said yesterday of Leslie.
``During the '80s wrestling boom he became popular because he was very good friends with Hulk Hogan.''
But behind the colossal bronzed chest and TV set of his own wrestling talk show, ``The Barber Shop,'' Leslie's life was headed for the ropes. In 1990, his face was reconstructed with plates and bolts after a freak parasailing accident. Last April, the IRS slammed him with a lien for $57,425, according to records.
The MBTA confirmed yesterday they have an employee named Edward Leslie, but would not say if he was the one they suspended without pay after cocaine turned up Sunday afternoon on the counter of a Downtown Crossing fare booth, prompting an emergency hazmat response.
``Right now it's only an internal disciplinary matter,'' said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo. ``He has been cooperative with police.''
Although the subway station was evacuated, MBTA Deputy Police Chief Thomas McCarthy said the fare collector - who he also would not identify - spared commuters further inconvenience by coming clean and dispelling terrorism fears.
Leslie's wife, Barbara, did not return a call yesterday.
Leslie was easily earning ``six figures'' in his heyday, said Woodward, noting that such falls from fame in the world of wrestling ``have happened before. There are guys who wasted their money, just like a rock star.''