Brodie Lee remembered by Jon Moxley

Jon Huber caught people’s attention. Whether he was acting as Brodie Lee or Luke Harper, he accomplished the most difficult feat of wrestling.

Huber made the fans believe.

The most skilled wrestling artists find a way to suspend disbelief and make people believe in the magic of their work. That’s the beauty of professional wrestling. Even more significant than crude athletic feats, making someone believe creates a lasting connection.

Huber spent his life enjoying and improving his craft, tirelessly seeking the right look, style and character. The end result was to forge a timeless piece in the realm of professional wrestling, although one that, painfully, will not feature a next chapter.

Late on Saturday night, when it was announced that Huber – the indestructible, thick-bearded and unstoppable wrestling force – had died of lung disease. At just 41 years old, when he was just reaching his peak as an artist and father, Huber’s life was cruelly ripped from him.

“It doesn’t look real,” said Jon Good, better known as AEW star Jon Moxley, on Sunday night. “It feels like I’m in a very vivid dream and I’m waiting to get out of it. My brain still hasn’t accepted it. At the moment, I’m completely f —— numb. “

Courtesy of WWE

As news of the death circulated on Saturday night, memories of Huber’s work as Brodie Lee at AEW and Luke Harper at WWE immediately came to the minds of those who liked to see him perform. In the midst of sadness, people also reflected on the resilience and perseverance that defined Huber’s body of work in professional wrestling, an industry in some ways as relentless as it is sublime.

If Huber had emerged in professional wrestling in the early 1980s, the mind wouldn’t have had to wander long before imagining a dominant and inspiring race through the territories as a gigantic monster before landing at the World Wrestling Federation to fight Hulk Hogan. But the professional wrestling style has evolved over the decades, presenting an even more difficult landscape for a bigger man than life. Still, Huber found a way to forge his own identity, developing a scary persona, complete with a pair of eyes that had the ability to stalk his soul. He built his reputation among the indies, working in a violent and credible style. His work with Moxley in CZW and EVOLVE, as well as with Eddie Kingston in Chikara, resonated particularly. It became evident to anyone who was seeing that this great man was a force, that he was willing to hit hard and ensure that the contact was nothing short of comfortable.

“The first night we fought, we shared a hotel room together later that night,” said Moxley. “That was more than a decade ago. He was an incredible person. Although many of us were enthusiastic about some angle of wrestling, he would find a way to turn the negatives into a positive or internal joke. He was the exact person you wanted in the locker room. I was so happy to be around him again on AEW.

“And we fight so many times. Whether in indies, in The Shield – Wyatt war, six-man house shows and European tours, it seemed like we were always together. When Tony Khan asked me about Brodie in AEW, I said, ‘Of course, I want that match.’ We could fight each other in our sleep. He was so f —— good. “

Moxley also fought Huber in his test fight for the WWE.

“We always joke that he would be a substitute teacher in Rochester if I didn’t make him look so good, but the truth is, he was an undeniable and unmissable talent,” says Moxley. “He was a great athletic man who was able to make circles around everyone.”

Huber needed a few words to capture a rare mixture of mystery and suspense as part of the Wyatt Family. Along with Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan, the trio created magic rarely exposed in professional wrestling. Although Wyatt was the star, it was the ensemble that completed the act. His confrontations with John Cena, The Shield, Daniel Bryan and The New Day still stand out as memorable scenes that captured realism, credibility and fear, which is extremely difficult to do in professional wrestling.

There were also glimpses of Huber’s in-ring brilliance as an individual artist in WWE. Despite his achievements as a duo with Rowan, Huber always longed for a chance to be a solo act. His only race for the singles title came six years ago, when he won just under a month with the Intercontinental Championship. He left the belt back to Dolph Ziggler in an extremely underrated ladder fight at the TLC in 2014, bumping and selling and making Ziggler look like a bona fide star by overcoming this 6’5 “force.

A few months later, Huber participated in a multi-man competition in WrestleMania 31, his first fight at a WrestleMania. He demonstrated once again how far he was willing to go to be seen as someone that the company could build.

“We wanted to make the reel of highlights,” says Moxley. “We found out that the only way to do that would be if I almost killed myself with a death-defying blow. So, we planned this place where he bombs me from the ring to the ground through a steel ladder, and that’s f —— outlined. It is an extremely dangerous collision, going backwards at a high angle.

“It was a knobby bump. Vince [McMahon] burst. He thought I was dead, which meant it was a good collision. And we made the reel of highlights. I still say today that I would not have trusted anyone else on the planet with that bump. I put my life in your hands and left. “

In the next four years, Huber never found the secret to the singles’ success in WWE. So he solved the problem with his own hands.

Although WWE offers outrageous compensation for its services, Huber chose the path less traveled in professional wrestling. He bet on himself by signing with AEW. The timing, after all, couldn’t have been worse. A pandemic removed fans from live events, exposing wrestling as a different entity, without the magical element of a crowded crowd inside the venue. Instead of debuting on a Dynamite in his hometown of Rochester, New York, Huber revealed himself as “The Exalted” of the Order of Darkness in a closed set Dynamite in March.

Introducing Huber as leader of the Order of Darkness seemed like a failed proposition, as the group had not been able to connect with the general public. However, a funny thing happened on the way to the obscurity of the Order of Darkness, as Lee’s presence proved to be the necessary piece to bring the group to life. His humor and daring were perfectly suited to a group that strongly claimed not to be a cult.

This scene was repeated after Huber lost a world title fight to Moxley in the Double or nothing pay-per-view in May. Naturally, after losing a world title fight, there were concerns that Huber would have a hard time finding his place on the AEW script in the future.

Once again, Huber rewrote the script.

Huber finally removed any doubts about his worth as an individual when he beat Cody Rhodes and claimed ownership of the TNT Championship in August. He finally had television segments to wreak havoc in the ring, as well as time to use the microphone as his pulpit. When summer turned to fall, Huber became a champion worth watching. The Order of Darkness instantly, it seemed, became a visualization of commitments, which still remains. This stretch with the TNT Championship served as an affirmation to all of Huber’s beliefs about himself as a professional fighter – despite years of doubts and executives telling him that his place was in the supporting cast, Huber showed he had the courage to be the leader.

“It was no secret to anyone in the business how good he was,” says Moxley. “But it has always been used in a utility role or part of a group. For him to be the centerpiece of a group as a solo act, he proved that he was a main event artist. “

Full of surprises, Huber had much more to give to professional wrestling. And, most importantly, for his two children and his wife, whom he loved deeply.

“He was not interested in being famous,” says Moxley. “This is a guy you wouldn’t see at an after-party. As soon as he finished work, he would go to his family’s home as soon as possible. He was very proud to be a father and husband. He loved to fight and he was great at it, but it was his job. He was fortunate to love his vocation, but his most important role in life was that of father and husband ”.

Multiple layers were a fundamental part of Huber’s charm. Yes, he had that scary intensity of Bruiser Brody in his work. He also had an endearing sense of humor, the ability to connect with people through seven succinct words on Twitter, and a skill and passion that few of his colleagues have. But as soon as he left the TNT championship back to Rhodes in the October 7 edition of Dynamite, Huber seemed to disappear from AEW programming.

At the moment, little information is available about the circumstances of his illness. His passing is a harrowing reminder of the fleeting nature of life. However, it is also a very high testimony to the power of professional wrestling. This industry is much deeper than just entertainment. It represents a chance to create work that will last. Huber made people believe in the magic of his work, capturing the sweetness of an industry that has its fair share of poison.

Eventually, there will be some comfort in the midst of tears knowing that Brodie Lee’s work will live, but for now, the pain and sadness continue to intensify at the loss of this giant of a man, friend and artist.

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