"You just feel so powerless" - Kenny Omega reveals how the tragedy of losing Brodie Lee affected AEW
In a tragic loss that has affected the wrestling community as a whole, AEW wrestler Jon Huber, aka, Brodie Lee passed away on December 26, 2020.
In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, AEW Executive Vice President Kenny Omega recently talked about the loss of Brodie Lee and how it affected wrestlers and officials at All Elite Wrestling.
Brodie Lee's tragic passing came in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, but his death was not related to the disease. He was treated for a lung issue but would pass away at the age of 41.
On the subject of Brodie Lee, Kenny Omega spoke about how the tragedy shook everyone in the company and made them feel completely powerless in front of the inevitable.
“A lot of times you look for ways to help someone when you’re in a position of power in a wrestling company. That would equate to giving someone a match, booking, segment. We thought real life had hit us hard with the COVID situation, but as a company I felt that we had made lemonade out of lemons."
"I don’t want to say that we felt untouchable or invincible, but I had felt that no matter what was thrown our way, we were able to deal with it. To just have a situation where we had someone who became very ill out of nowhere and they didn’t know how to fix it or what they could do, you just feel so powerless.”
Kenny Omega on AEW's tribute show to pay respect to Brodie Lee
After his passing, AEW rose up as a company to host a tribute show in his honor. The show surrounded his life and saw his son featured as a part of the product.
Kenny Omega went on to talk about the response AEW had to the tragedy as a company. Omega felt that Brodie Lee had managed to bring them together as a company.
“If there’s one positive thing to take out of it, it’s that everyone in the company really valued this man's life and who he was as a person. There was no person that ever once questioned our tribute show. We all wanted to celebrate his life. We all knew and preferred to put storylines, gimmicks, angles aside at least for a night and really celebrate a member of our family. I’m glad we took the time to open the floor for everyone to have that moment to perform for him and his family.”
Brodie Lee's passing is still something that's hard to grasp and the tragedy is one that the wrestling world will not be able to move past soon. Currently, AEW personnel still pay respect to Brodie Lee each week by starting every AEW Dynamite show with Lee's popular saying, "It's Wednesday. You know what that means."
Lee's memory continues to live on, as does his contribution to the world of wrestling.