Jon Moxley, like the rest of the wrestling world, is in utter shock about the passing of Brodie Lee.
Brodie Lee passed away on Saturday, December 26, 2020, at the age of 41. The final months of his career were spent in All Elite Wrestling where he competed against new foes such as Orange Cassidy and old rivals like Cody Rhodes and Jon Moxley.
Moxley and Brodie Lee have a relationship that sends back to their time on the independents, but they first cross paths on a major stage and WWE as part of The Wyatt Family and The Shield. Even though those respective groups were very popular, each member of those groups had desires to go solo and the first time Jon Moxley, then known as Dean Ambrose, and Brodie Lee, then known as Luke Harper, crossed paths as singles competitors on a major stage was in 2015 at WrestleMania when they were both in the ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship.
Speaking with Sports Illustrated, Jon Moxley recalled planning on a powerbomb spot with Brodie. Moxley would recall wanting to make it on the highlight reel and Vince McMahon's reaction to the crazy spot that Moxley would end up taking on that day in the spring of 2015.
“We wanted to make the highlight reel,” says Moxley. “We figured the only way we could do that was if I nearly killed myself with a death-defying bump. So we devised this spot where he powerbombs me from the ring to the floor through a steel ladder, and that’s f------ sketchy. It’s an extremely dangerous bump, going backward at a high angle.
“It was a gnarly bump. Vince [McMahon] bugged out. He thought I was dead, which meant it was a good f------ bump. We made the highlight reel. I maintain to this day that I would not have trusted anybody else on the planet with that bump. I put my life in his hands, and I walked away.”
Eventually, Jon and Brodie would find themselves in AEW together and they wrestled for the World Heavyweight Championship at AEW Double or Nothing this past May. It's a match that Jon Moxley says he wanted and one where he felt Brodie really came into his own.
“When Tony Khan asked me about Brodie in AEW, I said, ‘Hell yeah, I want that match.’ We could wrestle each other in our sleep. He was so f------ good.”
He added, “It wasn’t a secret to anyone in the business how good he was,” says Moxley. “But he was always 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 he was a main-event performer.”
Now that Brodie Lee has passed away, Jon Moxley says he still cannot comprehend it but he's grateful for the time that he got to spend with Jon Huber.
"I’m grateful I got to spend so much time with him, from the time we first met on the indies,” says Moxley. “I’ll always picture him with that smile on his face. I still can’t wrap my brain around this. I don’t understand why the best people are the ones taken away so early.”
You can read more touching tributes to Brodie Lee at this link.
