Brodie Lee doubted himself in WWE, was miserable, comments on why Vince didn’t grant release

Recap by Chris Siggia

TALK IS JERICHO 3/27/20: BRODIE LEE

4:10-24:00 The show that would have been the debut of Brodie Lee was supposed to be in Rochester, NY, the city Brodie Lee was born, but that didn’t happen because of the Coronavirus. WWE released Lee 12/8/19 with a 90-day clause. Lee said his debut for AEW did not feel right all day because he was very stressed out about it, but then he went on and he was pumped up. He felt good about his debut. Tony Khan did text Lee that if he didn’t want to do it yet because of the Coronavirus, he didn’t have to, but Lee wanted to because he would not know when would be the next time to do it with so much uncertainty. Lee said toward the end of his WWE run, he had been sent home again after an angle with Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan and Vince McMahon called him to go to Saudi Arabia for a battle royal. Lee said because he talks intelligently in real life and comes from New York, Vince never saw Lee like that and only saw him as a backwoods hillbilly that should talk with a southern drawl based on his looks and Vince couldn’t get past that. Vince asked Lee to talk in a southern drawl and Lee said he is from New York and he doesn’t believe it will send credible. Lee tried it for Vince and Vince said no it doesn’t sound credible and never pushed him past a certain point because Vince only saw him this one way. Arn Anderson kept going to bat for Lee and then finally told Lee he is going to stop going to bat for him because he believes it is doing Lee more harm than good. No matter what Lee would pitch, it got shut down. When he was given the Intercontinental title, they never had him win a match and they gave up on him again. Lee offered ideas to change his character when he realized he was not going to be pushed. He offered to be a collector, in that he would take something from each person he beats like a serial killer, but they wouldn’t let him beat anybody. He offered to be a smart monster heel, where he would talk intelligently but wrestle like Bruiser Brody. When Randy Orton joined the Wyatt Family and Lee was going to be the one to sniff him out and realize he is a snake, Lee told the writers that this is going to get Lee over as a face because the audience will realize Lee was the smart one. The writers told him he is wrong. The crowd started reacting to Lee. AJ Styles then beat him, and Lee was off TV again for 8 months. Lee would talk to Vince, but Vince would say he doesn’t have anything for him. At some points Lee then started to doubt himself but he knew he was good.

26:00-33:00 At one point, Vince showed Lee and Eric Rowan a picture of Demolition and said try to look and wrestle like these guys. The people in charge of costumes made up some gear for them and they were to carry mallets which they couldn’t call sledgehammers. They put the costume on to show Vince and Vince looked at it, laughed, and said he loved it. They were called the Bludgeon Brothers.

36:00-46:00 Before asking for his release, he again asked Vince why they don’t have anything for him. Vince then yelled at the writers on why Lee was not in the upcoming Battle Royal. They penciled him in and told him it would come down to him and 2 others. The day of the Battle Royal, they told Lee there would be like 10 guys left in the ring when he gets eliminated. Vince then told him he would want him to be Sami Zayn’s heater. Lee said he doesn’t want to be somebody who walks behind somebody else again, but he will make it work. Two days later, that got cancelled and he asked Corano for his release. Vince talked to Lee twice afterwards and said Vince was nice to him. Vince asked him if he wanted more money or a push, and Lee said, no, at this point, he just wants his release. Lee went online and said he asked for his release so WWE couldn’t control his narrative as Sean Spears did earlier. On Vince’s second call to him, he told Lee for business reasons we can’t let you go as they added 6 months to his contract on his wrist surgery he had. They were going to have him sit home. HHH called and asked what he wanted, and Lee said he wanted to wrestle. HHH asked if he wanted to wrestle in New Japan or NXT and Lee said ok, and that never happened. HHH asked if it is ok if Daniel Bryan calls him and Lee said yes. Bryan asked Lee if he wanted to work with him and Lee said yes. Bryan said the storyline was who attacked Roman Reigns and it is going to be Eric Rowan and Lee was glad to advance Rowan. They go through the angle, Rowan and Lee were to be team to finish Lee up, but the finish got changed and then they did the draft for the FOX debut and Rowan was drafted to RAW and they sent Lee home again.

53:00-55:00 Lee had been offered contracts from the time he asked for his release until the day he was release. He said it was a lot of money to stay home. His agreed with him not to sign because she knew Lee was miserable there.

58:00-1:01:00 Lee said he now makes great money, can scratch the itch to wrestle, have days off, do movies that come up that he couldn’t do in the WWE, wrestle independents and New Japan if he wanted to.