Brodie Lee Discusses Moment He Knew He Was Leaving WWE
"The Exalted One" reflects...
It didn't take long following the expiration of his WWE non-compete clause for the man once known as Luke Harper to return to his Brodie Lee name in AEW.
Lee was a guest on Talk is Jericho earlier this weekend and, like previous WWE exiters like Jon Moxley and Matt Hardy that appeared on the show, spoke about the circumstances that led to him leaving the company. In Lee's case, he remembers the moment that he knew he was done.
"The one that was like 'F**k this place,' I sat outside Vince's office," Lee recalls. "I sat outside his office for three hours. Everyone leaves and Michael Hayes walks out and is like, I'm the last one. I knock on the door and he goes, 'I don't want to see anybody right now.' I'm like, 'Mother....'. I'm going to leave, I threw my pitches in the garbage.
"Shawn Spears goes, 'He's in his other office.' Before I left, I gave him one final pitch, he's eating salad, and he's like 'I'll look at these on the plane.' I knew that was it."
Lee also revealed that WWE tried offering him new contracts up until the day of his release in December of 2019. He compared it to when Rhyno, whose WWE deal expired last July, received substantial contract offers from WWE last year, with the idea that WWE would simply pay Rhyno to sit at home, instead of working for another promotion. Rhyno instead left and joined Impact Wrestling.
(Credit to Fightful for the transcription)
Written by Justin Henry
In addition to writing lists and commentaries for Cultaholic, Justin is also a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine, and is co-author of the WWE-related book Titan Screwed: Lost Smiles, Stunners, and Screwjobs.
