The wrestling world was rocked on Saturday, December 26, 2020, when Jon Huber, otherwise known as Brodie Lee in AEW and Luke Harper in WWE, passed away at the age of 41.
During his WWE run, Luke Harper was best known as a heavy hitter of The Wyatt Family. Debuting in 2013, The Wyatt Family quickly Rose through the ranks becoming a top-level faction in WWE at the time. While they were on the rise, The Shield, Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley), Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins were going through their first full year on the main roster of WWE and had been on a tear since their debut.
The two factions would collide in February of 2014 at the WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view and on that night, The Wyatts would pick up the victory in a modern-day classic.
Before their time in WWE, Seth Rollins and Brody Lee were also members of the Age of the Fall faction in Ring of Honor which was headed up by Jimmy Jacobs.
Seth Rollins recently took to Instagram to pay tribute to his squared circle brother. Like many tributes that have preceded this one, Seth Rollins had nothing but glowing things to say about the personality of Jon Huber outside of the ring while sharing touching moments of their rise to prominence.
I was hoping at some point that the perfect words would come to me, but the truth is I still can’t even come to terms with reality on this one. My heart is so broken. I loved Brodie. He was truly all the great things everyone has already said he is and if you ever met him you’d have known it in an instant.
He was a loving husband. A devoted father. He was a kind soul. A loyal friend. He was a grinder too, man. Passionate and thoughtful. Smart and funny. Dude had an infectious laugh and was such a shit stirrer. He was a person I looked forward to…and it god damn kills me to know I’ll never be able to do that again…
Back in FCW, I vouched HARD for Brodie to get hired at WWE based on knowing and working with him briefly in ROH. We spent a little time in Tampa together, but The Shield debut took me on the road pretty soon after he moved down. Luckily, the Wyatt Family followed us out of developmental shortly thereafter and let me tell you he was a real treat to have on the road. That’s where we really got to know each other.
I’ll always love him for prodding Bray and Braun to see how far they’d take their ridiculous oneupsmanship. He was often a monitor sellout because we’d all be waiting to see how many of Dana’s poses he’d sneak in during his match. He even came to me to try CrossFit when he wanted to lean up. I think he hated burpees more than I do. Funnily enough, he and I almost came to blows backstage during the Shield/Wyatt series. We were both so fired up trying to do right by our respective squads that we tended to get a little snippy towards each other. It was the best. He was the best.
I’m smiling so big as I’m remembering all this good stuff, fighting back tears. I thought writing this would just be all crying and sadness, but it’s impossible to remember Brodie without laughing. He was just a light of good energy.
I looked up to Brodie. Not just because he was a physical mountain of a man, but because of how he was as a father and husband. As I venture into those realms myself now, I really hope I can carry a bit of him with me. I hope I can be to my family even a little of what he was to his.
Love you, big man. Miss you already
You can see more touching tributes to Brodie Lee at this link.
