Brodie Lee spoke with SEScoops.com last week ahead of his title match with Jon Moxley at Double or Nothing. Amongst other topics, Brodie spoke about going from being unfertilized in WWE to headlining a PPV with a new company.
“It’s very gratifying, it’s awesome, it’s exactly what I wanted, it’s exactly what I craved, it’s exactly what I desired,” Brodie said. “It’s everything I ever wanted it to be.”
Brodie would continue to say, however, that now the pressure on him is to deliver in his new role.
“So, now the pressure becomes on me because this is what I asked for, this is what I told people I could do,” he continued. “So now the pressure is on me to either put up or shut up. There’s an added pressure but also I believe that pressure will help make me better and I’m not afraid of the pressure.”
The “Empty Arena Era”
Brodie Lee made his AEW debut on the March 18th episode of Dynamite. That episode was originally supposed to take place from Rochester, NY, his hometown.
Lee revealed that AEW President Tony Khan gave him the option of delaying his debut until things got back to normal, since his big homecoming was not meant to be. He decided to debut on March 18th as planned and make the best of it.
“That’s kind of one of the things I was most looking forward to,” he said about AEW’s live crowds. “I was supposed to make my debut in Rochester, New York on March 18th. They had a really good presale crowd there and then the next week would be in New Jersey, which I think they had 12,000 tickets sold there. So, I was looking to jump right in into the huge aspect of AEW and the fans and the passion. Unfortunately, of course, that turned out to be too good to be true because everything happened on March 11th right before my debut.”
He then mentioned that AEW told him his debut could be pushed back.
“I was told ‘you don’t have to debut, you can wait, we can push it back.’ but at the same time, nobody knew how long that would be and I had been caged up and a stray cat for so long and just kind of left out that I was ready to be a professional wrestler again, I was ready to be a performer again, I was ready to work on my craft and there was no hesitation in me at all to jump right into it.”
“Tony, like I said, Tony gave me the option to hold it off but I think me and Matt Hardy we’re on the same page, we’re ready to hit the ground running.”
AEW Behind The Scenes
AEW stars such as Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley have said that AEW is less scripted and more open to input from performers than previous companies they have worked for. Brodie also commented on this aspect of his new company.
“That’s exactly it. There’s a lot of collaboration but it’s a lot of, I guess friendly collaboration. It’s not like ‘hey do this’ it’s ‘hey, what do you think of this idea?’ and then if I don’t like it, I tell them and it’s a conversation and we go from there.”
“Same thing with promos, it’s like there’s no written script. It’s like here’s the kind of point we need to get across. You say it how you want to say it. It’s your character, you’re fleshing out the character the way you want to which is incredibly refreshing because I was never able to flesh out a character for the past…I was a very one-dimensional character. I said my promo I think it was 2 weeks ago was the first time I’d spoken on a live mic at a professional wrestling show in the past 8 years, almost combined. Again, there’s a certain pressure to it because it’s on you now, there’s nobody left to blame.”
“Again, it’s a different element but it’s a very cool, creative element that helps you sleep at night.”
AEW Changing Course Due To Pandemic
Brodie Lee came to AEW at a time when some on the roster was unable to attend tapings due to travel restrictions. We asked what he knows about AEW changing course creatively as a result of the current climate.
“I think certain things with people not being able to be there maybe got put on hold,” he said. “I’m not privy to that information. I know that Jon Moxley presented us a situation for me to jump at and that’s what I did. So, I can’t worry about hurt feelings about people that didn’t show up to the show and didn’t get the opportunity, I can’t worry about that, I can only worry about myself. But, that said, hopefully, the way I handled things and the way that I performed changed some people’s minds as well if I wasn’t supposed to be in this position.”
Talent He Wants to Work With in AEW
Finally, we wanted to know about which young talent Brodie Lee wants to work with in AEW.
“Every person on the roster is a fresh match-up for me. At the top of that list would be Kenny and the Young Bucks. Watched them work, been friends with the Young Bucks for a long time. I’ve always told them that they had these unbelievable matches in Japan.”
“It’d be a thrill to get in there and test myself against guys like that.
“Darby Allin, a guy like that, a guy like Jungle Boy. Even people like the Proud and Powerful, they are fun for me to watch, I think they are wonderful workers. Jericho, Cody, so these people even who I have history with, Shawn Spears even, these guys that I have history with to now do it in a different environment is very appealing to me.”
Brodie then went back on a previous comment. He joked, “I take that back, anybody but Shawn Spears, if you could put that quote in.”
Order AEW Double or Nothing at BR Live (US) and FITE.TV (Internationally).
