Brodie Lee Reveals Why He's Cut Back On The Vince McMahon-Inspired Aspects Of His Character

Since popping up on the scene in this past March, Brodie Lee has emerged as on of AEW's hottest wrestlers. The former Luke Harper has become a champion, a stable-leader, and a main event talent since he started competing on Wednesday nights, and has even resurrected matches of old. Speaking on AEW Unrestricted, Lee revealed how the chain selection process went in his now-infamous dog collar match with Cody.

"We were presented a couple of different chains and options, and we went with what you saw on TV mainly because it looked good on TV," Lee said. "That was not beneficial to my neck, to have that strapped around me and then carry it around for 20 minutes while another man is trying to kill me."

Cameras cut to the crowd during the match, revealing Greg 'The Hammer' Valentine sitting in the stands to watch it go down. Valentine competed against Roddy Piper in what many call the greatest dog-collar match in history at 1983's WCW Starrcade. Lee says hearing Valentine praise the match afterwards was surreal.

"It was unreal!" Lee said. "Then after the match he pulled us aside, put the match over, said how impressed, how much he loved it! It was crazy, and then they had that great shot of him at the end of him just applauding!"

Lee first debuted on AEW Dynamite as The Exalted One, a mysterious leader of the cult stable The Dark Order. While Lee donned a long hooded coat for his debut, he has since traded the entrance garb for a suit. Many saw the suits and the additional "Mr." on his name as a spoof of Vince McMahon, a comparison that Mr. Brodie definitely took note of. The former TNT Champion says he did not want to be regarded as solely a Vince McMahon parody, and has since ditched the aspects that feel overly similar to the WWE Chairman.

"The Vince McMahon comparisons flew! That's all people talked about the first 3 to 4 weeks of my AEW career, and that became I think detrimental to me, and I didn't like it," lee said. "I didn't want it. So I tried to get away from the stuff that they were saying, so as opposed to a multi-colored suit, I now went with a full tailored, to me that I don't think looks like a Vince McMahon or anybody else. This is my bi-monthly routine now is to go get a suit made, and I love it."