Alan Angels Reflects On AEW's Brodie Lee Tribute
AEW Star and leader of The Dark Order, Brodie Lee, passed away on December 26th, 2020 which left a hole in the heart of many wrestling fans. A few days later, on December 30th, AEW would put on an emotional tribute show for the late, great professional wrestler.
While on the "Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast", former Dark Order member and former AEW star Alan Angels reflected on Brodie Lee's tribute episode on AEW "Dynamite".
"That day, the Brodie show was so surreal," Angels said. "It was so surreal like, that whole day and seeing his tribute video at the end of the show was insane ... Brodie was one of the first ones, one of the first people that I actually knew that had passed away and it was just very, very surreal and very, very weird. The aura backstage, it was very sad, but at the same time, you know, what we were doing was so cool, I thought, to have that whole tribute show to him. It was very uplifting in that sense."
The episode began with all of the AEW wrestlers standing on the stage at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida as a ten-bell salute was rung to pay tribute to the Exalted One. Following this, there were five matches on the card for the night, all of which were tag team or trios matches featuring at least one member of The Dark Order.
In the first match of the night, the Young Bucks teamed up with Dark Order member Colt Cabana to defeat Matt Hardy and Private Party, followed by Lance Archer teaming with Evil Uno and Stu Grayson — both from the Dark Order – to take on Eddie Kingston, The Butcher, and The Blade. In that bout, Archer, Uno, and Grayson would come out on top. The third match of the night saw 'Hangman' Adam Page team with Dark Order members Alex Reynolds and John Silver, the latter of which was dressed how Lee typically dressed, to defeat MJF, Santana, and Ortiz.
In the fourth match of the night, Tay Conti teamed with Anna Jay of the Dark Order as they defeated the team of Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. and Penelope Ford. In the main event, Cody Rhodes, Orange Cassidy, and the Dark Order's Ten defeated Team Taz, and following the match, a tribute video was shown for Lee as AEW invited Brodie Lee's son, Negative One, and Brodie Lee's widow, Amanda Huber, to the ring with Ten, Rhodes, and CEO of AEW, Tony Khan.
Brodie Lee was in WWE prior to his run in AEW and had touched the hearts of many during his career as a professional wrestler. Angels talked about how the wrestling community and people around him felt about Lee.
"The longer you're around the business, the more people you know," Angels said. "[Brodie] was one of two or three people that I know in the wrestling business that absolutely nobody has anything had to say about him. Like, I don't know a single person that has anything bad to say about Brodie Lee and that was before he died."
Lee was a former Intercontinental and Tag Team Champion while in WWE under the name Luke Harper, and he was the second-ever TNT Champion during his brief time in AEW.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the "Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription