The Young Bucks Recall Brodie Lee Asking Them About How Much They Were Making On The Indies

On a recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Chris Jericho paid tribute to Brodie Lee (Jon Huber) by bringing on many of Lee's friends and acquaintances to tell stories and memories of Lee. Matt and Nick Jackson of The Young Bucks came on, and they discussed knowing of Lee on the indies, but they noted that there paths never crossed but were close to meeting one another.

"Yeah, we actually met, I want to say, 2008 for Chikara," Nick recalled. "He teamed with Claudio (Cesaro) and someone else, but I was intimidated by him, obviously because he's so tall. So we didn't really get to know him because I think we were so intimidated by him at the time. He was the main guy. He was going up in stardom. You could tell, so you knew he was going to be something big.

"As soon as we left DGUSA, he came in, and he became their star," Matt added. "We were never in the same place at the same time. We were always missing out on each other. As soon as we left Japan, he went to Japan, Dragon Gate. It was almost like we kept eluding each other.

"Ring of Honor too actually," Nick said. "He was at Ring of Honor right before we went there full time.

"And then he ended going to WWE," Matt stated. "It was like, man, when are we ever going to see this guy?"

Lee publicly came out about requesting his release from WWE. Nick recalled Lee asking him about how much money he and Matt were making on the indies making ihm realize that Lee wanted out of WWE but was curious about how viable an indie career was.

"A few years before that, I could tell he was ready to leave because I would randomly get questions about how my financial state was on the indies," Nick recalled. "He was like, 'Can you make this? Can you do that? What are you making per show?' I was like, 'Huh, this is weird. I think he wants to leave.' And he was shocked by the amount of money that Matt and I were making. He was like, 'That is great news to know because who knows, maybe one day I will leave.'"

Marko Stunt was also on, and he called his match against Lee during the Atlanta tapings. He revealed it was Lee's idea to wrestle him, and he talked about how Lee was open to ideas and let Stunt get some ideas into the match.

"Tony [Khan] told me we were wrestling and come to find out Brodie had pitched that, to wrestle me," Stunt revealed. "So that was really cool. I never got the chance to thank him for that... He came by, and he gave me a death stare. And I waved at him because why wouldn't Marko Stunt wave at somebody? And he kind of looked me and up and down, and I got scared. Something set in my heart and I knew something was coming, and they set it up for the next week. And I wrestled Brodie for three and a half minutes. I got my ass handed to me. It was great.

"When we were wrestling, I had to go drive back six and a half hours because my grandma's funeral was the next day. We got done with the match, and we hadn't filmed the crowd bit yet. It was just going to be the match we were going to have. I went to tell Tony goodbye at Gorilla because I had to go, and he was like, 'Hey man, I hate to ask this, but would you mind setting up that match by sitting out in the crowd for his next match?' I was like, 'Yeah, absolutely. That's great. It builds it up.' It gives it an actual story instead of it being a one-off.

"You see me in my jacket, and it looks like I'm all ready to go. I was. I had my keys in my pocket. I'm very happy I was able to do that... Every time we pass each other, he would always say, 'Hey, you'll get me back one day. Don't worry.' I'm still planning on that. I'll get him back one day."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.