Due to his passing in December of 2020, Brodie Lee’s time in AEW was brief - but legendary. Coming into the company in March 2020, the original plan was for him to debut in his hometown of Rochester, New York. He would get a big reaction and go on to lead the Dark Order faction to new heights. COVID-19 changed that direction to a show in an empty arena outside of Rochester, but retained him being “The Exalted One” of the group. On AEW TV, he played dominating force that took influences from mafia dons and may have had a few shared traits with Vince McMahon in terms of having things like sneezing in his presence and added a whole new dimension to the act on Being the Elite.
The Young Bucks' Youtube show has done more in a decade to build up pro wrestling than 21 years of TNA/Impact has and directly led to ALL IN, which showed a market was there for high-workrate international matches across companies - a spirit that AEW has kept alive. On BTE, Brodie became an even more intimidating figure who was more prone to anger and smack people with a giant wad of papers - or make others do it. May God help you if you angered him or didn’t like Trent’s Mom Sue’s cooking - that pissed him off more than anything because he loved him some good cooking!
In less than nine active months, he made the TNT Title his to dominate and had a short, convincing win over Cody Rhodes that was something to behold. In a single match, he trounced not only the highest-profile Rhodes at the time, but took out Arn Anderson and in one fell swoop, knocked out the legacy of 35+ years of pro wrestling on Turner channels. It was an impressive win and one that led to him being taken seriously and even main eventing the 2020 Double or Nothing against Jon Moxley for the AEW World Title.
His passing shocked the wrestling world, but led to it also coming together in beautiful ways with tributes from every company he worked for that was still active. WWE gave him a tribute with its major shows and a lot of web shows going into great detail, while AEW kept his memory alive with one of the greatest tribute shows ever and a touching video set to Tom Waits “‘Ol ‘55”. Now, for the first time since his passing, Brodie Lee will be playable in a video game as he joins the roster of AEW Fight Forever. His moveset is recreated nicely from what can be seen in the clips as is his ring movement. It will be interesting to play as him once again in a game when Fight Forever launches on all consoles and PC on June 29.
