Stone Cold Steve Austin pays tribute to Brodie Lee - "He was a sweetheart of a guy"
WWE legend Stone Cold Steve Austin paid tribute to the late AEW star Brodie Lee in a recent interview.
Brodie Lee was a two-time SmackDown Tag Team Champion and a former Intercontinental Champion during his WWE run. Lee won the TNT Championship from Cody after signing with AEW. Lee dropped the title back to Cody Rhodes in a Dog Collar Match, which ended up being the last match of his career. Lee passed away in December and the sudden news came as a shock to the pro wrestling community.
Steve Austin recently spoke to The Wrap. During the interview, Austin revealed his reaction to the heartbreaking news of Brodie Lee's passing in December. Austin said that he couldn't believe the news when he heard it and called it a "tragedy." He added that everyone in the pro wrestling business loved Brodie Lee:
I just absolutely couldn’t believe it because the guy was a tremendous hand in the business, but he was a sweetheart of a guy. When he was in WWE, we would talk every now and then on the phone just about his character and what he was doing. And then we stopped talking and he kept going and he finally ended up in AEW. And I didn’t know his real name from his WWE name. And I was like, ‘Holy cow, this guy is so young.’ And then I didn’t know what had happened. There’s just an absolute tragedy of a guy who everybody in the business absolutely loved and adored. That’s the kind of guy he was. So really, really shocking to me.
AEW's tribute to Brodie Lee
AEW paid tribute to Brodie Lee on Dynamite shortly after his death, on the last episode of 2020. Every match on the show had a member of Brodie Lee's faction — The Dark Order — involved.
Tony Khan also presented Brodie Lee Jr. with the TNT Championship belt. The belt was retired and the current champion, Darby Allin, now has a new version of the TNT Championship title belt.