AEW Pays Emotional Tribute To Brodie Lee

"That’s the kind of guy he was. He brought joy to the people around him."

by Andrew Pollard
Brodie Lee
AEW.com

As had been announced earlier in the week, last night’s episode of AEW Dynamite was a tribute to the life of Brodie Lee – and boy, did AEW do a hell of a job in honouring the Exalted One.

Beginning with a ten-bell salute that saw his wife Amanda and sons Brodie and Nolan joining the AEW roster on stage, this was a celebration of Brodie Lee the wrestler and Jon Huber the man.

Throughout the show, we saw plenty of in-ring tributes to Brodie, with several pre-recorded and live comments from members of the AEW family. Former AEW World Champion Jon Moxley – who had battled Brodie Lee from the independents, to WWE, to AEW – was the first to offer up his heartfelt thoughts on Lee’s tragic passing, and we also saw Darby Allin, Eddie Kingston, Dax Harwood, Colt Cabana, Bryce Remsburg, Chris Jericho, and various others offering similarly poignant words of love and respect for Brodie, while others paid homage to Brodie with their in-ring work.

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Elsewhere, this week’s Dynamite also saw Brodie’s former partner Erick Redbeard, aka Erick Rowan, make a surprise appearance as Alex Reynolds, John Silver and Hangman Page took on MJF, Santana and Ortiz. Following that match, Erick held up a sign to pay his own tribute to a man he spent so many years fighting alongside in the Wyatt Family and as the Bludgeon Brothers.

To close out the show, the family of Jon Huber joined Cody Rhodes in the ring, as Jon’s son Brodie, aka -1 of the Dark Order, placed his father’s wrestling boots in the centre of the squared circle. From there, Tony Khan came out and presented -1 with the now-retired version of the TNT Championship before a beautiful video package played further tribute to Brodie Lee.

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Undoubtedly, last night's Dynamite was a tough, tough watch, but it was an episode handled exceptionally well by all at AEW as they paid tribute to a man who clearly meant so much to so many.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.