Since joining All Elite Wrestling, "The Exalted One" Brodie Lee (formerly WWE's Luke Harper) has shown a number of interesting character quirks and promo lines that have fans thinking he's less "scary cult leader" and more "caricature of Brodie's former boss," Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
The March 25 episode of All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite featured a backstage vignette of Lee eating a steak dinner with two of the lesser members of The Dark Order, John Silver and Alex Reynolds. Lee is clad in a blue suit as he attacks his steak, disseminating "sage advice" to the younger Silver and Reynolds as they sit uncomfortably in their chairs, staring at their dinner. As Silver reaches for his silverware to join his leader, Lee berates him, saying that the others "don't eat until [Lee is] done" and kicks him out of the room. While this seems fitting for the leader of a "dark order," it's the next set of events that have wrestling fans buzzing. Lee then continues to impart his wisdom to Reynolds until the young man unfortunately sneezes. Lee becomes incensed and kicks Reynolds out, too. The entire vignette can be seen on AEW on TNT's Twitter.
The blue suit, the penchant for red meat, and the hatred of sneezing are all obvious jabs at Vince McMahon, as many longtime wrestling fans can discern. McMahon is known to favor colored suits over the traditional black suit when making appearances, has an affinity for steak (and ketchup), and detests sneezing, as he sees one not being able to control their body as a weakness in personal character.
This isn't the first time Lee's taken a shot at his former employer. In his introductory promo on the March 18 episode of Dynamite, Lee made the claim that Dark Order foe Christopher Daniels, "isn't the first out-of-touch old man not to believe in [him.]" Obviously, Lee's still got some thoughts on his time in the WWE, where many thought he was underutilized for being such a talented performer. He'll have his chance to shine in AEW.
Lee's shot at WWE's creative department isn't the only time an AEW wrestler has made their point known, either. During the early days of Dynamite, former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho made a definitive statement about a certain phrase one of his stablemates is known for. When fans chanted "We The People" at Jake Hager (formerly Jack Swagger in WWE), Jericho lambasted them, saying, “Hey, calm down for one second. We The People sucked and it’s dead and buried. It was a stupid idea from bad creative and all that’s gone." Current AEW Chapion Jon Moxley (formerly WWE's Dean Ambrose) has also taken some parting shots at his former employer. Upon winning the AEW World Championship at AEW: Revolution, Moxley took to the mic and said his goal was to bring "pro wrestling" back. "Pro wrestling that you grew up on," Moxley said. "Not crap, not sports entertainment, not scripted canned horse crap. Pro wrestling!" Other AEW wrestlers often mention the creative freedom they have in the new company, but the triumvirate of former WWE talent are the only ones to make outward declarations like these - with good reason.
A History of Mockery
Making fun of rival promotions is nothing new in professional wrestling - if anything, it's a longstanding tradition. Possibly the most infamous example of cross-promotional warfare took place during a series of 1996 vignettes produced by WWF showing a bumbling Southern man named "Billionaire Ted" (a parody of then-WCW owner Ted Turner) trying to steal WWF's ideas and use them in WCW. Alongside "The Huckster" (Hulk Hogan,) "Nacho Man" ("Macho Man" Randy Savage,) and Scheme Gene ("Mean" Gene Okerlund,), Billionaire Ted would try to imitate his competition, only to realize his top talent was "too old" to perform the way WWF's younger wrestlers could. The vignettes eventually stopped when they crossed the line of parody and went into outright criticism, but were obviously created out of resentment for Hogan and Savage leaving WWF for the "greener pastures" of WCW.
Years later, WCW would attack WWF's popular play-by-play legend Jim Ross by unveiling its "Oklahoma" character, a clear parody of Jim Ross which mocked his Bell's Palsy. To no one's surprise, the character was very poorly received and was never seen again, though the on-screen talent who played the character, Ed Ferrara, would continue to work for the company and even win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. WCW would eventually go out of business and be acquired by WWE, giving the "E" the last laugh.