On Boxing Day 2020, the death of Brodie Lee shocked the wrestling world. The career of the former Luke Harper was just beginning to blossom.
Cody Rhodes, the current champion and top star of WWE, was one of the few people who knew about the impending terrible news.
His good friend Jonathan Huber – known in WWE as Luke Harper and in AEW as Brodie Lee – was going to die. Ten days after his 41st birthday. Thirteen days after his ninth wedding anniversary with his wife Amanda, the mother of his two sons Brodie and Nolan, then eight and three years old.
The super heavyweight’s body was afflicted by a serious and mysterious lung disease that caused the 125-kilogram man to lose almost 50 kilograms and ultimately proved incurable.
Rhodes was one of the few people in the know – as was former WWE champion Big E, one of Huber’s closest friends. In the end, the two played a special role in the story that came to a sad end on Boxing Day five years ago.
When Luke Harper was world-famous in WWE
Until shortly before his untimely death, Huber was considered an underrated and unfulfilled phenomenon in the scene: a particularly athletic 2-meter giant, popular and highly respected among colleagues for his human and professional qualities – but whose career had been somewhat unlucky.
At WWE, Huber, who hailed from Rochester, New York, had the role of a lifetime as part of the Wyatt Family, which was presented as a sinister clan from the swamps of the southern states. Led by the then shooting star Bray Wyatt – who has since also died prematurely in circumstances as tragic as Huber’s – the group developed into one of the league’s greatest success stories.
Luke Harper, as he was then known, held the alliance, which rivaled stars such as John Cena, Roman Reigns, and the Undertaker, together more strongly than it appeared at first glance: with his years of experience in the independent leagues, Huber was the most accomplished ring craftsman in the group. His creative input and ability to create an unsettling presence were also integral to the group.
Frustrated departure from WWE
Huber had hoped to cross a certain invisible line at WWE as a solo wrestler, but this never came to fruition: as Luke Harper, he remained stuck in the sidekick role. He was allowed to hold secondary and tag team titles with partner Erick Rowan, but nothing more.
In April 2019, Huber lost patience with WWE: he asked to be released when he learned that then-boss Vince McMahon—with whom he had a tense relationship—had rejected a final attempt by creative staff to promote him more prominently.
After a lengthy back-and-forth, the then 39-year-old Huber was finally given the green light to leave the league – and make a late restart.
Brodie Lee at AEW also a parody of Vince McMahon
Huber took off in a new role at the young promotion AEW: as Mr. Brodie Lee, the shady leader of the evil cult The Dark Order. As the “intelligent monster” he was never allowed to be at WWE, he followed in the footsteps of the phenomenon Bruiser Brody, who was murdered in 1988—and also took a little revenge on his ex-boss McMahon in his new role.
He attributed various quirks to his alter ego that he had copied from McMahon – including his penchant for expensive steaks and his constant angry reaction to subordinates who sneezed in his presence.
Huber quickly gained a leading role at AEW with his creative reorientation: in 2020, he contested a major world title match against Jon Moxley and reigned as TNT Champion himself. The highlight of his feud with Rhodes, who was still active in AEW at the time and from whom he took the title, was a bloody and intense “dog collar match” that was showered with praise by fans and experts alike. For Huber, who had long led a rather precarious existence as a simple office worker, a late career blossoming had been achieved – when, out of nowhere, fate struck.
Cause of death: pulmonary fibrosis, not COVID-19
During his recovery training after the grueling fight, Huber noticed that something was wrong with him: he couldn’t finish a routine session on the treadmill, felt weak and exhausted, and eventually had to be taken to the emergency room.
The doctors noticed from his shockingly low oxygen levels that his lungs were no longer working properly. The obvious diagnosis of COVID-19 was ruled out by every conceivable test, but there was no reason to breathe a sigh of relief, literally.
Huber had suffered pulmonary fibrosis, damage and scarring of his respiratory organs. The exact cause could never be determined, but specialists suspected a tragically undiagnosed and delayed case of pneumonia: “He was in such good shape that his body probably worked through the warning signs,” his widow Amanda reported in a personal obituary she wrote for Player’s Tribune a year after her husband’s death.
AEW kept Huber’s fate under wraps
Until the end of November, Jon was still awake and responsive, still arguing at his bedside about whether Brodie Jr. should be allowed to walk the streets on Halloween dressed as his fellow wrestler Orange Cassidy (“Buy the boy the f***ing denim jacket”).
On November 22, 2020, Huber suffered a serious panic attack, his rapid, uncontrolled movements proving toxic for his severely weakened lungs. A month later, it became clear that a potentially life-saving transplant was no longer possible – a death sentence.
As Huber’s widow Amanda later revealed, she called his friends Rhodes and Big E to her house for moral support when she had to break the news to Brodie Jr. about his father’s impending death. The two spent the evening with the family, offering comfort and sharing the unbearable burden. The large community of show fighting fans assumed that Huber was taking a normal injury or recovery break after the brutal fight against Rhodes – and were all the more shocked when the news of his death on December 26, 2020, became public the following day.
A dignified farewell
Where Jon Huber, aka Brodie Lee’s career might have led is anyone’s guess. What is certain is that in an industry where similar tragedies have often been exploited in tasteless ways, AEW earned much praise and recognition for its exceptionally dignified handling of his death.
AEW boss Tony Khan put together an emotional tribute episode of the TV show Dynamite, which became a memorial service for Brodie – and was greatly appreciated by fans and within the scene alike.
At AEW, every show still begins with a subtle tribute to Huber: the phrase “It’s… – and you know what that means,” with which US commentators introduce all AEW broadcasts, alludes to a running gag of Huber’s. For years, he posted the mention of the respective day of the week and the cryptic addition on Twitter every day.
