On a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho, Arn Anderson shared a heart-warming story about former AEW TNT Champion Brodie Lee.
Following the sad passing of Brodie Lee, real name Jon Huber, on December 26th 2020, one of the things which has been highlighted above all else was Lee’s dedication to his family. Numerous AEW wrestlers and WWE Superstars past and present have paid tribute to Lee, and now Arn Anderson has given a further glimpse to the man behind the wrestling character.
Anderson who got to know Huber in both WWE and AEW, explains how the Exalted One was the total opposite of the character that he played on television.
“Chris Jericho is pretty close to who he really is,” Anderson stated. “The Rock, really close to who he really is. [Steve] Austin, [Ric] Flair, [Hulk] Hogan, all those guys that really got over, big time, are pretty close to that character, except for Brodie, and I’ll tell you who Brodie was.”
The WWE Hall Of Famer then went on to describe how after a show Lee would drive 500 miles in order to get home as quickly as possible to have breakfast with his family the next day.
“Many nights, I would come out of the building and after either having their dark match on the last day of a loop or whatever the case may be, but I would be walking across the parking lot.
Some nights, I would be heading to SmackDown, and if he was on RAW, he would be heading home. I go, ‘You got an early flight in the morning?’ He would go, ‘No, I’m driving.’ I go, ‘How far is that?’ [He’d go,] ‘Oh, it’s about 490.’ And I would go, ‘Brodie, Jesus Christ. The flight that you got in the morning would probably get you home about the same time.’ He said, ‘No, if I get the jump right now, I can have breakfast with the family.’ So he was going to drive 500 miles to get there two hours earlier to have breakfast.
That’s who he was. That’s what he’ll always be to me because he wasn’t being braggadocios about it, or he didn’t have his chest out. He just, ‘Hey, I’d rather sit in a car all night and be home two hours early to get to be with my family.”
Following the star’s death it was revealed that his son Brodie Lee Jr, had signed a contract with AEW, before being presented with the AEW TNT Championship that had been won by his father, making him champion for life in the process.
You can listen to the full Talk Is Jericho episode here, with a h/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.