Brodie Lee

###

Rochester, New York, United States

###

Jacksonville, Florida, United States

**Jonathan Huber** (December 16, 1979 – December 26, 2020) was an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure in WWE, where he performed under the ring name **Luke Harper** (later simply **Harper**) from 2012 to 2019, and in All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performed under the ring name **Mr. Brodie Lee** in 2020.

From 2003 to 2012, Huber worked under the Brodie Lee name on the U.S. independent circuit for promotions such as Chikara, Ring of Honor (ROH), Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA). He also worked for Dragon Gate in Japan as well, where he was part of the Blood Warriors stable.

He is also notable for his multi-year turnure with WWE, where for most of his WWE career, he was closely associated with Wyatt Family members Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan. The Wyatt Family won the NXT Tag Team Championship and the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship. The team of Harper and Rowan, also known as The Bludgeon Brothers in one of their later tag team runs, went on to hold the SmackDown Tag Team Championship once more. During a brief run as a singles competitor, Harper became a one-time WWE Intercontinental Champion.

He departed WWE in December 2019 and subsequently made his AEW debut in March 2020 as Mr. Brodie Lee, revealing himself to be the "Exalted One" and winning the AEW TNT Championship in August of that year.

Huber was hospitalized in October 2020 for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, from which he died on December 26 at the age of 41.

## Early life

Jonathan Huber was born in Rochester, New York, on December 16, 1979. He attended McQuaid Jesuit High School and played lacrosse for four years. He also played hockey in independent youth leagues.

## Professional wrestling career

### Early career (2002–2006)

Huber first got into professional wrestling as a backyard wrestler, performing under the ring name **Huberboy #2** with the likes of Colin Delaney and his real-life brother, who worked as Huberboy #1. Huber was eventually formally trained by Kirby Marcos and Rik Matrix in Rochester, New York, and Tony Mamaluke in Schenectady, New York, and made his debut for Roc City Wrestling (RCW) in late 2002, working under a mask as Huberboy #2. He eventually unmasked while still using the Huberboy #2 name. During 2003, Huber began working as **Brodie Lee** for Rochester Pro Wrestling (RPW). He came up with the name Brodie Lee from the movie *Mallrats* by combining the names of actor Jason Lee and his character Brodie Bruce. Huber cites Rick Rude, Jake Roberts, and Big Show as his influences. Throughout his time in RPW, which was later renamed to NWA Upstate and then again to NWA New York, Lee went on to win multiple championships including the heavyweight championship on three separate occasions, the tag team championship once and the television championship once, which he also proceeded to unify with the Kayfabe Dojo Championship. Huber has described his original "The Right Stuff" gimmick as him "just having fun" and "being a cruiserweight".

### Dragon Gate USA (2010–2011)

On May 8, 2010, Lee made his debut for Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA), defeating Cheech, Cloudy, Kyle O'Reilly, Phil Atlas, Xtremo, Brent B. and Anthony Fiasco in a dark eight-way fray elimination match, prior to the tapings of the Uprising pay-per-view. Later, on the pay-per-view section of the evening, Lee interrupted a match between Rip Impact and Johnny Wave and beat down both of the competitors, before announcing that next time he would be coming after a Japanese wrestler. At the following event on September 25, Lee defeated Da Soul Touchaz (Acid Jaz, Marshe Rockett and Willie Richardson) in a three-on-one handicap match, before repeating his threat of going after a Japanese competitor. Later in the night, Lee set his sights on YAMATO and chased him away from ringside, when he tried to interfere in a match between his ally Jon Moxley and Jimmy Jacobs. The following day, Lee defeated Jimmy Jacobs, Kyle O'Reilly, Mike Quackenbush, Rich Swann and Silas Young in a six-way match. On October 29 at Dragon Gate USA's first live pay-per-view, Bushido: Code of the Warrior, Lee teamed with sumo legend Akebono in a tag team match, where they defeated The Osirian Portal. After the match, Lee and Akebono had to be separated from one another by the rest of Dragon Gate USA's locker room. Later in the night, CIMA used his draft pick to name Lee the newest member of his Warriors International stable. At the following day's tapings of Freedom Fight 2010, Lee defeated Akebono in a singles match. On January 28, 2011, at *United: NYC*, Lee, now representing the heel group Blood Warriors, defeated Jimmy Jacobs in a singles match. The following day at *United: Philly*, Lee suffered his first loss in Dragon Gate USA, when he was defeated by Open The Freedom Gate Champion YAMATO in a non-title match.

### Dragon Gate (2010–2011)

On December 21, 2010, Lee made his debut for Japanese promotion Dragon Gate (DG) in Tokyo, where he, representing The Warriors stable, defeated Kzy. The Warriors stable turned heel on January 14, 2011, when they attacked Masato Yoshino and World-1, aligning themselves with Naruki Doi's group, though Lee himself was not present, as he was snowed in and could not make the show. The following day, Lee made his return to DG as a member of the new top heel group, in a match, where he, Gamma and Genki Horiguchi defeated YAMATO, KAGETORA and Diablo. On January 18, the new group was named Blood Warriors.

## Professional wrestling style and persona

Huber's wrestling style has been described as mix of "blending power moves with deceptive agility" and "pioneering a new wave of athletic giants". He cited Jake Roberts, Rick Rude, and Big Show as his primary influences.

Huber has described his original "The Right Stuff" gimmick as him "just having fun" and, despite being a heavyweight, claimed he was a "cruiserweight". Upon his debut in WWE as Luke Harper, he became part of The Wyatt Family, a cult-like faction with Bray Wyatt as their leader. According to Huber, WWE chairman Vince McMahon envisioned Harper as a hillbilly and asked him to speak with a Southern-like drawl. The faction split in early 2017, but Harper later reunited with former Wyatt Family teammate Erick Rowan to form a tag team dubbed The Bludgeon Brothers. The duo carried wooden mallets to the ring and had a look apparently modeled after Demolition, a tag team who wrestled for WWE in the 1980s. Desiring a run as a singles competitor, Huber pitched several gimmick ideas to McMahon, such as a "collector" who took trophies from his defeated opponents and an "intelligent monster" who would eloquently tell his rivals how he was going to hurt them, but his ideas were rejected by McMahon and WWE creative.

After joining AEW in March 2020, Huber reverted to his pre-WWE name of Brodie Lee and was unveiled as "The Exalted One", the previously anonymous leader of The Dark Order stable. Adding the prefix "Mr." to his name, he assumed the gimmick of a suit-wearing corporate executive who denied allegations that The Dark Order was a cult, and often harshly punished his disciples for petty transgressions. The character drew comparisons to McMahon due to displaying traits similar to ones often attributed to McMahon, such as disliking people sneezing in his presence, but Huber denied this and instead stated that it was inspired by mafia films.

## Other media

In 2017, Huber appeared as Pitchfork Perry in an episode of the period drama series *Damnation*. In 2018, he played Lachlan Allsopp in the action-horror film *Mohawk*. Under the Luke Harper name, he is a playable character in the video games *WWE 2K15*, *WWE 2K16*, *WWE 2K17*, *WWE 2K18*, *WWE 2K19*, and *WWE 2K20*.

## Personal life

Huber married Amanda, a fellow professional wrestler who previously performed under the name Synndy Synn, in 2011. They had two sons named Brodie and Nolan. Following Huber's death, Brodie was signed to All Elite Wrestling and became a member of his father's faction The Dark Order at the age of eight, with AEW stating that he can immediately start to perform for the company when he comes of age if he so wishes.

Huber was a fan of the then Washington Football Team and Toronto Maple Leafs.

## Death

Huber died at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, on December 26, 2020, 10 days after his 41st birthday. His widow, Amanda, said that he had been receiving treatment for a lung issue at the clinic since late October. Despite what some fans believed at the time, the issue was unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic as Huber had tested negative multiple times. He had been moved to the intensive care unit in late October. On the *AEW Unrestricted* podcast in January 2021, Amanda revealed that Huber had died from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a rare condition which causes lung tissue to become irreversibly thickened until the lungs can no longer function.

## Legacy

The original red strap version of the AEW TNT Championship belt; in honor of Jon Huber, who was the championship's second title holder, this red strap version of the title belt was retired on December 30, 2020 and given to his son Brodie Huber, who was named honorary "TNT Champion for life"
A multitude of wrestlers and wrestling personalities paid tribute to Huber with stories on social media, most of which shared a running theme of him being devoted to his wife and children while going out of his way to guide and support other wrestlers. Some wrestlers included some of his former co-workers in Dragon Gate such as YAMATO, Naruki Doi, Dragon Kid, Susumu Yokosuka, Naoki Tanizaki, Kzy, BxB Hulk, Shingo Takagi, Ricochet, Matt Sydal, Rich Swann, Akira Tozawa, Apollo Crews and CIMA. Dragon Gate later in a post on *Twitter* sent their condolences to Huber and his family.

His former Wyatt Family teammates also paid tribute: Bray Wyatt called Huber his "best friend, brother, [and] partner", Erick Rowan said that Huber "meant more to [him] than he will ever know", and Braun Strowman referred to Huber as "one of the most unselfish men [he has] ever met and an amazing husband and father". Cody Rhodes, against whom Huber wrestled his final match, called the match "an honor and a privilege and an experience so ferociously humbling". Big E, who was particularly close with Huber and his son Brodie and was requested to be present alongside Rhodes with Amanda when informing Brodie of his father's death, spoke of how the professional wrestling industry as a whole came together to mourn the loss of a performer deemed to have made a personal impact on the careers and lives of many of his colleagues, stating, "I feel a real brotherhood. In that I have so many guys that I've worked with, who hit me up, who cried with me, who reached out to me, and that's beautiful. It really made me think, 'Man, we have something special in our industry.'" After many of the stories about Huber had been widely shared, Randy Orton stated, "You all have heard about how much we all respected [Huber], about how much we all enjoyed his presence. It is a fact."

The December 28, 2020 episode of *WWE Raw* opened with an "In Memory of Jon Huber ('Luke Harper')" graphic, as did the December 30 episode of *WWE NXT* and the January 1, 2021 episode of *WWE SmackDown*. Performers and commentators on *Raw* paid tribute by using some of Huber's catchphrases, such as commentator Tom Phillips welcoming the viewers to the show by exclaiming "it's Monday, you know what that means" and WWE Champion Drew McIntyre beginning his promo by stating "it's Monday and you know what that means [...] yeah, yeah, yeah". Xavier Woods, who wore an armband with "Brodie" written on it, performed Huber's signature taunt and finishing move during an eight-man tag team match. Over the next week, the promotion uploaded videos with various WWE wrestlers honoring and speaking of their memories with Huber. On January 11, The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) dedicated their *Feel the Power* podcast to Huber, which also featured Cesaro, Tyler Breeze, and Erick Rowan speaking about Huber; a video version of the podcast was put on the WWE Network. The next day on the WWE Network, the promotion added a new entry into their *Best of WWE* series entitled "Best of Luke Harper", an anthology showcasing several of Huber's matches in WWE, which also included comments by various wrestlers involved in those matches speaking of their time working with Huber. At the 2021 Royal Rumble, The New Day wore custom ring gear honoring Huber, later auctioning off the gear with all the proceeds going to Foodlink, a nonprofit foodbank based in Huber's hometown Rochester. At WrestleMania 37 in April 2021, Bray Wyatt, who had been largely off television since before Huber's death, performed as his "Fiend" character and honored Huber by shouting Huber's "yeah, yeah, yeah" catchphrase.

The 236th episode of The Young Bucks' YouTube series *Being The Elite* (*BTE*) was titled "Brodie", featuring a compilation of Lee's *BTE* appearances. The following episode was titled "Tribute", featuring behind the scenes clips from his Celebration of Life memorial show. Since then, a painting of Huber has been present in The Dark Order's usual meeting room for their segments on *BTE*. The Dark Order members also continue to often wear Brodie Lee shirts and "RIP Brodie" armbands.

The December 30 episode of *AEW Dynamite*, known as the "Brodie Lee Celebration of Life", featured matches and segments with fellow wrestlers honoring and paying tribute to Huber and his family. Every match on the card featured members of Huber's faction, The Dark Order. The memorial show began with the entire AEW roster onstage and commentator Jim Ross saying, "It's Wednesday and you know what that means", followed by a ten-bell salute. In the middle of the show, Huber's former long-time WWE tag team partner Erick Rowan, now under the name Erick Redbeard, made his AEW debut and held up a sign which said, "Goodbye for now, my brother. See you down the road." At the end of the show, Huber’s widow and son left his wrestling boots and a purple bandana in the middle of the ring. As Huber was a former TNT Champion, AEW retired the red strap version of the title belt that had been used up to that point in honor of Huber, and presented the belt to Huber's son Brodie, with AEW President and CEO Tony Khan stating that Lee's son was "TNT Champion for life". Khan also regarded Huber as the greatest TNT Champion. A tribute video with "Ol' '55" by Tom Waits closed the show. Khan purchased the rights to the song in perpetuity, which he did "so the tribute will last forever". AEW has since adopted "it's Wednesday night, (and) you know what that means" as the standard introduction for episodes of *AEW Dynamite*, as further tribute to Huber.

During the show, Pro Wrestling Tees' Shop AEW store released a T-shirt in memory of Lee with all proceeds benefiting The Huber Family. In less than two hours, it set a new record for most shirts sold within 24 hours, breaking Sting's previous record. In just under four hours, it became the highest selling T-shirt of 2020, breaking Orange Cassidy's previous record.

Night 1 of New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom 15 started with commentator Kevin Kelly saying "it's January 4th, you know what that means" and dedicating the broadcast to Lee. In March 2021, wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer presented the Shad Gaspard/Jon Huber Memorial Award, named after Huber and fellow wrestler Shad Gaspard, who died in May 2020 while saving his young son from drowning, which is dedicated to people involved in professional wrestling who make positive contributions to society.

In August 2021, CM Punk revealed that Huber's death and how well his illness was kept secret amongst the AEW locker room out of respect inspired him to end his seven-year hiatus from wrestling, which began when he became disillusioned with WWE. Bryan Danielson also spoke about how the Brodie Lee Tribute Show inspired him to sign for AEW.

In September 2021, one week after winning the WWE Championship, Big E celebrated with the New Day and thanked the fans for their support and from "one incredible friend above" as the fans began to chant Huber's ring name.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ *Brodie Bomb* (Running sitout powerbomb)
	+ Gutwrench powerbomb
	+ Package piledriver
	+ *Truck Stop* (Spinning side slam)
	+ Discus Clothesline
* **Signature moves**
	+ Big boot, sometimes to a cornered opponent
	+ Falcon arrow
	+ Michinoku driver
	+ Multiple suplex variations
		- Double underhook super
		- Half nelson
		- Overhead choke
		- Snap
	+ Suicide dive
	+ Superkick

## Championships and accomplishments

* ***Pro Wrestling Illustrated***
	+ Ranked No. 24 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the *PWI 500* in 2015
* ***Wrestling Observer Newsletter***
	+ Best Gimmick (2013) – as part of The Wyatt Family