10 Things You Didn't Know About Brodie Lee
This one is going to hurt for a long, long time. Brodie Lee will be seriously missed.
Where to begin? The pro wrestling world is no stranger to tragedy, but this one is different. Brodie Lee wasn't a relic of a different era, he wasn't a past his prime star of yesteryear who had survived heady days gone by. Brodie Lee was a man in his prime right now. He didn't die because of excess. He was cruelly taken from the world by something that was out of anyone's hands.
It stings, but the wrestling world must move forward. Brodie Lee was one of the best big men of this or any generation, a freakishly-athletic hoss with charisma for days. He leaves behind a treasure trove of memories, evocations of a big hairy dude knocking people's heads off. That big boot will live on forever.
What of the man behind the discus clothesline? Brodie Lee did better than most at keeping his private life private, but the few interviews he did give gave a little bit of an insight into the man that was The Exalted One, the Arn Anderson to Bray Wyatt's Ric Flair. He was a man of honour and love, of commitment and curiosity.
RIP Brodie. You will be missed.
10. The Jake Roberts To His Brother's Rick Rude
While the two were never aligned in AEW, it must have been some thrill for Brodie Lee to be able to rub shoulders with Jake 'The Snake' Roberts. The influence of Jake was clear in The Exalted One, a willingness to fill all of the space provided by an evil persona. They were both sinister, violent, manipulative and downright sleazy, from time to time.
The link between Brodie and Jake goes way back, all the way back to the former's formative years in Rochester. A big WWF fan from a young age, Brodie used to wrestle with his older brother, although there was a predictability to it all. Brodie was Jake while his older brother was 'Ravishing' Rick Rude. The winner? Rude, more often than not.
But then Brodie began to grow, and grow, and grow. All of a sudden, his brother wasn't so interested in wrestling anymore. Short of opportunities to wrestle, the young Jon Huber made the decision to take it a little more seriously, stepping inside a training school ring and falling head over heels in love with the industry that would be a cruel mistress for the rest of his life.