Kofi Kingston recalls watching Brodie Lee reach the pinnacle of singles success in AEW.
Shortly before his untimely passing, Brodie Lee was the AEW TNT Champion. He won the championship by defeating Cody Rhodes in 3 minutes and 10 seconds on a special Saturday night edition of AEW Dynamite. Although Brodie’s title reign was short and the Dog Collar Match he had with Cody would be his final match, Brodie’s dominant victory over Cody Rhodes less than 6 months after debuting with AEW was a moment of pride that Kofi Kingston shared with him has he watched Brodie’s crowning moment in a restaurant alongside his family.
Speaking on a special Jon Huber tribute episode of The New Day: Feel The Power podcast, Kofi Kingston, who would never call AEW or Cody Rhodes by name, described how happy he was to see Brodie Lee succeeding and how he was reminded in that moment of the importance of chasing your goals in life.
“We had just come off of a hike with my family. There's a restaurant around the way here, an outdoor restaurant and they are playing wrestling on TV and sure enough, it was Brodie in the main event, right? I'm just sitting there like, 'oh my God,' like this is why you have to believe in yourself and you can't fear -- you just can't be you can't be afraid to go out and get what you want. He knew exactly what he wanted, he knew what he was worth, and he knew that he could be a top star in our industry and he believed in himself to the max to the point where he was willing to risk everything financially, [risk] security, for the sake of going out and proving to the world and showing his family and specifically showing his kids that he could be a top dog in this industry.
“Now, here I am sitting at this restaurant. I'm watching it, you know, I'm seeing it, and he comes out and he's looking shredded, you know, you can see he's made like changes in his life. It's like 'God, everything is paying off,' and then to see the quality of the match. He comes out, he dominates and he becomes a world champion. I'm like, 'oh my God!' I can't believe that I am seeing this right now. The fruit of all the labor and the sacrifice was all for this moment. My kids, again, the connection that my family has with his family. My kids are there and I'm like, 'hey look out there. Brodie's dad’s up there' and they're all getting to watch it too. So it was really kind of like a full-circle moment. I remember just like texting him, even when the match was going on. I'm just like 'wow,' know that he wasn't going to get it until obviously after but I'm like, 'oh my God,' like a fan, you know? Just a big ass kid watching somebody who I've been cheering for and rooting for and wanted him to have exactly what he was looking for. He found it, man, and he did it, you know, and he climbed the mountain and he proved it! So I think like you guys were saying, you just got to go out and believe in yourself, you know, and you can't be afraid to take what you want because you don't know what tomorrow has."
Kofi concluded, “I was just so happy to see that moment unfold, man and gosh I was just so so happy for him because if anybody deserved a level of success, after the amount of time that he spent in this industry, the amount of talent that he had in this industry the quality of person he was in real life, the kind of father he was the kind of husband he was, it was him. He deserved it and I was just so, so, so happy to be able to witness that moment live as it happened.”
In tribute to Jon Huber, AEW recently retired the red-strapped version of the TNT Championship, giving it to Brodie Lee Jr. and declaring his father TNT Champion for life. Learn more about that at this link.
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