Exclusive: The Dark Order's Brodie Lee on being an immediate AEW main-eventer, wearing suits and his indie-wrestling roots
An active wrestler since 2003, Brodie Lee was long active on the independent wrestling scene before signing with WWE in 2012. After parting ways with WWE -- where he was an Intercontinental Champion and a multi-time Tag Team Champion -- Lee quickly signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW), immediately making a splash as the announced leader of The Dark Order.
AEW's Double Or Nothing 2 pay-per-view will be taking place on May 23, 2020, coming to pay-per-view outlets around the world. As part of Double Or Nothing 2, Brodie Lee will be challenging AEW World Champion Jon Moxley for his title. However, regular viewers of Dynamite will know that Brodie Lee is already the holder of said belt, as the self-proclaimed AEW champion.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Brodie Lee via Zoom on May 18, 2020. While we spoke on a video call, out of respect for The Exalted One -- who proudly had the AEW World Championship belt on display during the interview -- I have opted to post just the audio of our conversation. Audio from the conversation and exclusive transcribed excerpts are exclusively posted below for Sportskeeda.
Mr. Brodie Lee can be followed online via www.twitter.com/ThisBrodieLee.
On whether AEW is as great as he thought it would before debuting:
Brodie Lee: It is. Just the creativity that I'm allowed to have, it's wonderful. 'Yes' is the short answer. Just being able to talk, just being able to flesh out a character, being able to wrestle matches without being told that you can't do certain things. It's eye-opening.
Everyone is super-positive, which threw me off at first because I wasn't used to that. I had to ask someone, 'Is everyone always this positive? It doesn't feel right.' Then it just rubs off on you and it's more of a team, in it together, trying to make a difference in the industry, giving everyone a better product.
On what he still has to accomplish within his career:
Brodie Lee: I'd like to still be the recognized [AEW] World Champion. That is probably the main goal I've had for as many years as I'd like to remember. Holding this is nice and it's a nice taste to feel it and understand what it is. But to go down in the record as a World Champion is the top goal of my life.
On whether he has always worn custom suits:
Brodie Lee: I was never a big suit guy until I got into wrestling and then kinda understood that you dress for the job you want. That's how I started 'maybe I should have a few suits made'. Then you get that first paycheck and go 'I can go to Adrian Jules now and try it out'. That was a cool bucket list check of mine.
On when he realized that the people he was wrestling on the indies would be a generation of main-eventers:
Brodie Lee: That's a really great question, I don't know. When we used to wrestle back in the day, we knew we were good, but at the time WWE had a different look and a different vibe to it. I didn't get hired in WWE until I was 32. Through my 20s, I never thought that anybody in WWE would be interested. I had applied to WWE and had done extra work probably 15, 20 times. It just didn't happen.
The same thing with Claudio [Cesaro]... The same thing with the rest of the Chikara roster and the rest of the kids from upstate [New York]. We knew we were really entertaining crowds, but there was just something where we couldn't get to that next level. All of a sudden the whole business changed.