Kofi Kingston has spoken of his enjoyment in watching Brodie Lee, the former Luke Harper, lift AEW’s TNT Championship.
Brodie, who routinely clashed with Kingston’s New Day trio as part of both The Wyatt Family and The Bludgeon Brothers, won the title in emphatic fashion, defeating then champion Cody Rhodes in a shockingly brief match.
The former WWE Champion has since revealed on The New Day’s Feel The Power podcast that he had unexpectedly watched the match with his family:
We had just come off of a hike with my family. There’s a restaurant around the way here, an outdoor restaurant and they are playing wrestling on TV and sure enough, it was Brodie in the main event, right? I’m just sitting there like, ‘oh my God,’ like this is why you have to believe in yourself and you can’t fear — you just can’t be you can’t be afraid to go out and get what you want. He knew exactly what he wanted, he knew what he was worth, and he knew that he could be a top star in our industry and he believed in himself to the max to the point where he was willing to risk everything financially, [risk] security, for the sake of going out and proving to the world and showing his family and specifically showing his kids that he could be a top dog in this industry.
Kingston continued:
Now, here I am sitting at this restaurant. I’m watching it, you know, I’m seeing it, and he comes out and he’s looking shredded, you know, you can see he’s made like changes in his life. It’s like ‘God, everything is paying off,’ and then to see the quality of the match. He comes out, he dominates and he becomes a world champion. I’m like, ‘oh my God!’ I can’t believe that I am seeing this right now. The fruit of all the labor and the sacrifice was all for this moment. My kids, again, the connection that my family has with his family. My kids are there and I’m like, ‘hey look out there. Brodie’s dad’s up there’ and they’re all getting to watch it too. So it was really kind of like a full-circle moment. I remember just like texting him, even when the match was going on. I’m just like ‘wow,’ knowing that he wasn’t going to get it until obviously after but I’m like, ‘oh my God,’ like a fan, you know? Just a big ass kid watching somebody who I’ve been cheering for and rooting for and wanted him to have exactly what he was looking for. He found it, man, and he did it, you know, and he climbed the mountain and he proved it! So I think like you guys were saying, you just got to go out and believe in yourself, you know, and you can’t be afraid to take what you want because you don’t know what tomorrow has.
Brodie Lee’s TNT Championship win was so memorable that the original belt design has now been retired to the Huber family.
The New Day member concluded by sharing his happiness over Lee’s successes:
I was just so happy to see that moment unfold, man and gosh I was just so so happy for him because if anybody deserved a level of success, after the amount of time that he spent in this industry, the amount of talent that he had in this industry the quality of person he was in real life, the kind of father he was the kind of husband he was, it was him. He deserved it and I was just so, so, so happy to be able to witness that moment live as it happened.
The podcast episode, which is currently available to download, is entitled ‘Our Time with Jon Huber‘ and sees The New Day, along with Tyler Breeze, Cesaro and Erick Rowan remember the time they shared with the late, great Brodie Lee.