Brodie Lee remembered by Jon Moxley

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

Huber made the fans believe.

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

Huber spent his life taking advantage of and perfecting his craft, constantly looking for the right look, style and character. The end result was to forge a timeless piece in the realm of professional wrestling, although, discouragingly, it will not include any subsequent chapters.

Saturday night, when it was announced that Huber, the indestructible thick-bearded, unstoppable force of wrestling, had died from a lung-related illness. At just 41 years old, when he had just reached his peak as a performer and father, Huber’s life was cruelly torn from him.

“It doesn’t feel real,” says Jon Good, better known as AEW star Jon Moxley, on Sunday evening. “I feel like I’m in a very vivid dream and I’m waiting to get out. My brain has not yet accepted it. Right now, I’m completely insensitive. “

Courtesy of WWE

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

If Huber had appeared in professional wrestling in the early 1980s, the mind would not have to wander too far before imagining a dominant and impressive race through the territories like a huge monster before landing in the World Wrestling Federation to fight the Hulk. Hogan. But the style of professional wrestling has evolved over the decades, presenting an even more difficult landscape for an older man of life. Still, Huber found a way to forge his own identity, developing a terrifying person, with a set of eyes that had the ability to observe your soul. He built his reputation all over India, working an incredibly violent style. His work with Moxley at CZW and EVOLVE, as well as with Eddie Kingston at Chikara, had a particular echo. It became apparent to those who saw that this old man was a force that was willing to strike hard and make sure contact was nothing more than comfortable.

“The first night we fought, we shared a hotel room together later that night,” Moxley says. “It simply came to our notice then. He was an amazing person. While so many of us would love some angle of struggle, I would find a way to turn the negatives into a positive joke or an inside joke. He was the exact person you wanted in the locker room. I was so glad to be around him again at AEW.

“It simply came to our notice then. Whether it was Indians, in The Shield-Wyatt War, or shows at the home of six men and European tours, it seemed to us that we were always together. When Tony Khan asked me about Brodie on AEW, I said, “Wow, I want this match.” We could fight each other sleeping. It was so good —— good “.

Moxley also fought Huber in his WWE test.

“We always joked that I would be a substitute teacher in Rochester if I hadn’t made him look so good, but the truth is, it was this undeniable talent that can’t be missed,” Moxley says. “He was a big, athletic man who could work in circles with everyone.”

Huber needed 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 on display in professional wrestling. Although Wyatt was the star, it was the ensemble that completed the act. His clashes 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 the professional struggle.

Huber’s brilliance as a bachelor performer in the WWE was also glimpsed. Despite his team conquests with Rowan, Huber was always eager for the opportunity to be a solo act. His individual title career took place six years ago, when he received just under a month with the Intercontinental Championship. He dropped the belt on Dolph Ziggler in an extremely underestimated scale match on TLC in 2014, crashing and selling and making Ziggler look like a good faith star surpassing that 6’5 ”force.

A few months later, Huber participated in a match of scale of several men in WrestleMania 31, his first match at a WrestleMania. He re-demonstrated the periods he was willing to take to be seen as someone the company could build.

“We wanted to make the highlight roll,” Moxley says. “We thought the only way to do that was if he almost killed me with a blow that defied death. So we devised this place where he bombards me from the ring to the ground through a ladder d steel, and this is f —— incomplete.It is an extremely dangerous bump, going backwards with a high angle.

“It simply came to our notice then. Vince [McMahon] Removed. He thought he was dead, which meant it was a good blow. And we did the highlight roll. I maintain to this day that I would not have entrusted anyone else on the planet with this bulge. I put my life in his hands and I walked away.

For the next four years, Huber never found the secret to the singles’ success in the WWE. So he took matters into his own hands.

Although the WWE offered outrageous compensation for his services, Huber took the less traveled path in professional wrestling. He played himself, signing with AEW. The timing, it turned out, couldn’t have been worse. A pandemic wiped out fans of live events, and exposed wrestling as a different entity without the magical element of a full crowd on the venue. Instead of debuting in Dynamite in his hometown of Rochester, New York, Huber revealed himself in his place as “The Exalted” by The Dark Order on a closed set Dynamite In March.

Introducing Huber as the leader of The Dark Order seemed like a failed proposal, as at the time the group had failed to connect with the general public. Still, something fun happened on the way to the darkness of The Dark Order, as Lee’s presence proved to be the piece needed to bring the group to life. His humor and advantage suited perfectly a group that firmly stated that he was not a cult.

This scene was repeated after Huber lost a world title match against Moxley in Double or nothing pay per view in May. Naturally, after losing a game for the world title, there was concern that Huber would struggle to find his place in the AEW script to advance.

Once again, Huber rewrote the script.

Huber finally removed any doubts about his value as an individual entity when he attacked Cody Rhodes and claimed possession of the TNT championship in August. He eventually had television segments to wreak havoc in the ring, as well as time to use the microphone as a pulpit. When summer fell, Huber became a champion worth seeing. The Dark Order instantly, it seems, became a visiting appointment, which still remains. That stretch with the TNT championship served to affirm all the beliefs Huber had about himself as a professional wrestler, despite years of hesitation and executives telling him his place was in the secondary cast, Huber proved he had the ribs to be the leader.

“It wasn’t a secret to anyone in the business how good it was,” Moxley says. “But it was always used in a useful role or in a part of a group. To be the centerpiece of a group as a solo act, he proved to be a leading performer.

Full of surprises, Huber had much more to give to the professional struggle. And, most importantly, his two children and his wife, whom he loved dearly.

“He wasn’t interested in being famous,” Moxley says. “This is a guy you wouldn’t see at a party later. As soon as he finished work, he went home with his family as soon as possible. She was so proud to be a father and husband. He loved wrestling and did very well, but it was his job. She was lucky enough to love her vocation, but her most important role in life was that of father and husband ”.

Multiple layers were a key part of Huber’s charm. Yes, he had such a frightening and Bruiser Brody-like intensity in his work. He also had an endearing sense of humor, an ability to connect with people through a brief seven words on Twitter, and a skill and passion that few of his peers possess. But once he left the TNT championship back in Rhodes, the October 7 edition Dynamite, Huber seemed to disappear from AEW programming.

At present, little information is available on the circumstances surrounding his illness. His passing is a heartbreaking reminder of the transience of life. However, it is also a very strong testimony to the power of professional struggle. This industry is much deeper than entertainment. It represents an opportunity to create a work that lasts. Huber made people believe in the magic of his work, capturing the sweetness of an industry that has a good deal of poison.

Eventually there will be some consolation in tears knowing that Brodie Lee’s work will continue to live on, but for now, the pain and grief continue to intensify over the loss of this giant of a man, friend and performer.

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